Any other binge writers out there? I can't do the "write for a certain length of time every day" thing. Sometimes I just don't have it in me to put anything worth reading on paper. Today though, I've written three stories, two of which hadn't been started before today. I think they're all quality, too. (Hopefully I'll still think that when I read them in a week). That's how I do it, though. I'll go for a while where I write a bit here and a bit there, but nothing much, and then one day just sit down and crank out thirty or forty pages of manuscript in a day. I guess it's just when the ideas get ripe and ready to write in my head, and it coincides with a day when I have no responsibilities. I'm kind of curious to know how it works with everybody else. Set aside a specific time for writing everyday? Literary bulemia like me? Other ways?
Anyone who can tell me what the title of this post is a reference to wins a nice prize.
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
Sorry, I'm clueless on the post title.
But as far as writing, I tend to binge too--some days I struggle to write a single line, others I can crank out ten pages in an hour or two. But, I've also found it valuable to set at least some time every day (except Sundays--I promised the kids) to writing something, anything. If I can't bring myself to pull anything out about a current project I do an exercise of some sort just to keep the creative juices flowing. When I do this I tend to have more highly productive days than when I just sit around and wait for the muse to smile upon me.
Posted by TheoPhileo (Member # 1914) on :
I tend to be the same way. I try to do something every day, but sometime have a hard time getting just a few hundred words. I've also had days where I've spewed out 40 pages in a just a matter of hours. It's on those 40-page days that I seem to produce the best quality writing, as well.
Reading minds? Is that a connection to what Stephen King says in On Writing, that writing is telepathy?
Posted by Gen (Member # 1868) on :
On books I have to put aside time every day and make myself sit down, or it'll never get through the rough bits. On short stories, because I (to be honest, and I shouldn't admit this) take them a bit less seriously, I generally wait for inspiration to strike. (Scratch that, actually. It's not that I take shorts less seriously, it's that I don't always have one to work with. I do usually have a bunch of unfinished shorts where I'm working through what happens, and I'll put those into the morning writing time too. Or, like now, I have two shorts sitting around where I *know* the ending, and I like them, but I'm too busy to finish them, which bugs me.)
Posted by Christine (Member # 1646) on :
Yes, the binge! But they don't work if I don't set time aide every day to write. If I just wait for the binge, my most productive times, I'll never write. The truth is, most days are average. (Gee...that was profound.) But really, I usually write my goal of 2000 words on my novel. Then some days I scrape and claw nto write a sentence...can't get to that next word or sentence. Then other days my fingers start flying and down't stop for two or three hours, at which point I've got several thousand words and maybe a short story too.
Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :
I try to write a bit everyday, but I do have binges too. (But not of the 40 page variety! I wish!) My problem is that there are periods where I end up working long hours, and when I come home, I am brain-toast. Then writing sometimes gets put on the back burner. Then I have to find some way to get back on the production train, usually by working on something unrelated to what I was working on before just to get back in the grove without pressure. The fallow periods are good rejuvenators in a way, but they also harm the flow of whatever I was trying to work on.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I'm a total Binger, when I write it is something. Of course my biggest was ten pages, (but it was a ledgendary ten pages.) I'm trying to put some time to write aside each day but when it's heavy at work I'm the toasty tostada, like was said earlier. What hurt me severly was this monday was feeling like that kinda day but we had this little picknick that turned into an all-day sit in someone's backyard all day with nothing useful happening. That frustated me so severly I'm stumped.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
See, that's the wrong attitude. Picnics are good for you.
I binge in my head. Actual writing takes actual time.
For some reason, that scene from The Sixth Sense was the only thing that came to my mind when you suggested that your title is a reference to something. "I see dead people."
Posted by Phanto (Member # 1619) on :
I'm a miserably slow writer. I make tiny amounts of progress a day. My biggest binge would be something like 20 pages--but that was partially rewritting and editting.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Picnics are good, twelve-hour-sit-in-the-sun-with-nobody-talking-to-you-a-thons arent. (especcialy when your palm pilot is dangerously low on battery so you can't risk turning it on.) But alas all is passe, we must move on.
and the title references the discussion in another thread about how writers can sometimes tell what is going to happen on tv.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Man, you guys are all way off. None of those are even close to getting the reference. I'll give you a clue: It's from the best movie ever.
Posted by teddyrux (Member # 1595) on :
I try to write everyday. Sometimes I only get half a page done, but it's momentum for the next day. It also keeps the story fresh in my mind.
I don't recognize "I can read minds" from Star Wars.
Rux :}
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Dumb and Dumber.
Posted by Doc Brown (Member # 1118) on :
Then I'll go way out on a limb and say Neon Genesis: Evangelion, even though I've never seen it and don't think it qualifies as a movie. Isn't Eva a TV series?
Posted by TheoPhileo (Member # 1914) on :
quote:Man, you guys are all way off. None of those are even close to getting the reference. I'll give you a clue: It's from the best movie ever.
No it's not. I can't find that line anywhere in Princess Bride...
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Wrong, wrong, and wrong, although those movies are all pretty freaking good. (By the way, Neon Genesis: Evangelion is a TV series AND a movie).
Posted by Eric Sherman (Member # 2007) on :
Im sure "I can read minds." is in alot of movies....none of which I can name.
Mabye...Mystery Men? Its not the greatest movie ever, but it could be it. Mabye im just thinking of the guy said 'I can turn invisible".
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Yeah, but this particular "I can read minds" reference is related to what I said in my post, specifically the bulimia thing.
From movie: "It was awful what those magazines did to me. I had bulimia."
"You can read minds?!"
Posted by cvgurau (Member # 1345) on :
Dude! Zoolander!
I'd have mentioned it earlier (they've been running commercials for days on TBS), but you said I can read minds, not "you".
Pshh. Cheater.
CVG
PS--So...what did I win?
[This message has been edited by cvgurau (edited June 06, 2004).]
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Okay, so it wasn't a direct reference. I'm SO glad someone finally got it. I was starting to think everyone here was uncultured or something.
Your prize is going to be a surprise. I just dropped it in the mailbox, so you should be getting it soon.
Posted by Eric Sherman (Member # 2007) on :
I wasn't far off. Both are really realy ridiculously funny movies. ;-)
Well, mabye Mystery Men wasn't ALL that great.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
Eric, there's more to life than just being really, really ridiculously funny.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
