Snowflake Challenge 2019 | Day 11 - Creative Process

[g_uava]

Prompt: In your own space, talk about your creative process(es) — anything from the initial inspiration to how you feel after something’s done.

The end and beginning of my creative process for writing fic is updating my fic tracker. At the start of each month, I set aside a page in my Moleskine to tracking my growth as a fic writer.

I've started making a fic tracker each month in December 2017 and kept up the practice since then. Putting the completed tracker of December 2017 and December 2018 side by side, I can see how I've developed as a writer in how I've developed my system.



I've decided to only track the factors in my writing that lead to more inspiration, motivation and happiness. At the start, my goal was to hit 10k words/month and so I tracked the total number of words written at the bottom of the page.

The first time I hit my 10k words/month goal in March 2018, I was happy. Every month, I would reset the number of words written to 0 and write my way to 10k. I started getting stressed on whether I'd meet my monthly goal each month, though I always did for a while.

So I stopped tracking my overall progress in terms of word count. I experimented with mood trackers for a while to track whether my mood was up/down on a certain day in which I've written.

I've took this further by starting a mood tracking journal. It's a small notebook for my private thoughts and grievances about writing and publishing in fandom, also including my interpretations of characters and OTPs that I'm still developing for a fic project. I colour code my entries to correspond with my mood for the day - hot pink for pleased and emerald green for troubled. Each entry is numbered and I'll record the number of the entry in my Moleskine fic tracker at the end of the day.

Lately, here's what I'm tracking to make myself happier through writing:

• Meeting my 500words/day daily quota


• My mood tracking entries


• When I've published a fic on AO3/DW


• No. of days taken to complete a fic


• How far I'm along in a fic


• Fics posted/worked on each month (on the right page)

I've found that posting entries on DW makes me more mindful about my processes and my mood when engaging with fandom. Once Snowflake Challenge is over, I may start tracking my DW activities to stay on track with this new journaling habit.

Comments

[mf_luder_xf]

Wow! This is very impressive.

[g_uava]

Thanks! :D

[evilinsanemonkey]

this is super cool! I like the idea of tracking your mood, I might have to start doing that. I know my own mood is a huge factor in what writing I get done, so I might have to try that.

[g_uava]

It is a good idea. Plus for me it's motivational to look back on days when I don't feel that great yet get some writing done anyway :')

[coyoteclaw11]

Ooh how nice and organized! That's such a cool idea!

[g_uava]

Thank you! :) It really does pleases me to get organized.

[dragonyphoenix]

I love this idea. Actually, stealing this idea. It's such a concrete way to see progress. ;-)

[g_uava]

Awesome! Hope you'll enjoy tracking your progress :)

Btw the text in your icon is so cute. Squee!!

[dragonyphoenix]

It paraphrases a story title by Harlan Ellison: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. When I saw it, I had to have it.

Just started tracking my progress this evening! ;-)