Alex does not have Covid + belated Snowflake 7

[mistressofmuses]

Alex's Covid test came back negative! So that's good at least! He still feels sick, but at least it's (almost certainly) not that.

-

I feel like I very frequently say I'm going to go to bed early, and I almost never do... but I swear I mean it tonight.

I very seriously almost dozed off at work - not quite, but very close, which is... not great!

Unfortunately, I'm kind of at the "well crap, nothing to say!" point, lol. (Which I know I said I just... wouldn't post if that was the case, but... I'm a little afraid that if I get out of the habit I might quit for longer than intended.

So...



Challenge #7: 3 fandom resources or communities you use or enjoy.

I don't have a lot of connection to the fandom I write for, which is something I... might try to remedy. Or maybe I'll be happier playing in my own corner of the sandbox away from potential drama, lol.

But there are a few communities here that I really enjoy:

fancake: monthly themes for fic recs.

writethisfanfic: fanfic specific, geared toward encouraging progress! There are low-pressure monthly posts where you can declare goals, which is sometimes enough accountability all on its own to help me push through, ha.

whatif_au: bi-monthly themed AU prompts, which can be written/posted/shared any time.

Honorable mention to two more writing/other art comms, which are mixed between fandom and original work:

ushobwri: You Should Be Writing - a supportive writing community for any type of writing. Posts generally twice a week to check in and see how writing is going.

justcreate: supportive community for any kind of artistic/creative work, whether that's fan or original, writing or art or textile craft or anything else!

Comments

[goddess47]

Hurrah for negative Covid test results!

Those really are some great communities. They are well run and have lots of positive energy to encourage whatever one is doing. FanCake is cool since it allows non-creators to share in the love also.

Thanks for joining in Snowflake!

[mistressofmuses]

Definitely a relief!

They are some really excellent communities. The positivity in a lot of them has definitely been helpful to me in the last year or so!

[olivermoss]

Glad it's there is no Covid at least!

I'll check out some of those comms. I've only recently joined Ushobwri and I like it.

[mistressofmuses]

Definitely a relief!

The communities are definitely ones I enjoy. Ushobwri is one of my favorites - it's positive and supportive but not in a cloying way that doesn't allow for frustration or snark. It's got a good vibe, imo.

[olivermoss]

I like Usho so far. I used to do GYWO, but focusing too much on word count just derails me. I almost always wind up deleting my initial first section of a story. I tend to write out a lot of things I wind up later just implying. It's hard to even keep track of what my word counts are I delete so much.

[mistressofmuses]

Usho is nice because it is so flexible!

This is the first year I've tried GYWO, and we'll see how it goes. I write my daily wordcounts down, so even if I later delete chunks, I have the running total.
The main problem for me with wordcounts is that when that's my primary goal, I feel temptation to pad my writing to at least some extent. It's more tempting to write more words than it is to really make sure they're the *best* or most efficient words, y'know? I'm giving myself rein with that on my first drafts, but I have a feeling the second drafts will wind up shorter as I trim things down.

(And same! There are multiple times I've deleted the whole first chapter, or at least first scene! Apparently that's not super uncommon. I've heard it described as the initial opening being the chance for you to set the story up for yourself as the writer. Then once you know where the story goes, you can start it in the place that's better for the reader.)

[olivermoss]

Maybe I over complicated things, by treating my deletions as a negative word count. GYWO is a good group and I've recced it in the past, but overall it's not for me.

Yeah, it sounds like some writers consider deleting their whole initial intro as a standard part of their process. Writing out a lot of set up that way helps me get into things.

[mistressofmuses]

I think the words count whether you keep them or not - you still wrote them! But the challenge seems fairly flexible on how you choose to count, so your goal could be to only count the words that you wind up using. I've liked the group so far, but it's only been a couple weeks, so we'll see!

I think it does help to start with something that helps to ground you in the story, to get into it. It definitely helps me get a grasp of character and setting and such, even if sometimes that first bit winds up being too much "tell" for a final version.

[bewize]

Thanks for the community recs!