This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

Wish I had an intense urge to write something. For a guy who considers himself to be, among other things, A Writer, I sure haven't been doing very much of it lately.

Mind you, I know better than to wait for the urge. If you want it to be done, you have to set aside time and pay your forehead-blood-on-keyboard dues. No exceptions.

I'm pretty sure writing is either a sudden extreme burst of muse in which you come up with the entire plotline of a book and write ten pages in one sitting, or you stare at a blank page for two hours before mashing the keyboard in frustration just to have something typed out.

Exactly. That's exactly it. I don't know how Fogel does it.

Drawing, incidentally, is the same. But instead of keyboard mashing you have scribbling aimlessly.

Animation is even worse. My scene is going slowly and I'm usually fast at this. ugh

However, right now I could draw my own stuff for hours with this bizarre anxious muse I have going on. Watch me lose it by the time I get home.

Exactly. That's exactly it. I don't know how Fogel does it.

A few years back I decided I was going to write every day.

I'd try to write as best I could, but if I was having a rough day or a lack of ideas, I'd settle for a paragraph. Keeping the bar low made it easier to avoid failing, which made it easier to buoy myself with my own successes.

I missed a few days that first year, but it was less than ten. Overall, I was keeping it up enough that I got used to it.

Once I was comfortable there, I started pushing myself a little harder in what I was asking myself to do. Now I try to write two things a day, and fill a whole screen in my text editor with at least one of them.

I give myself a little leeway on the length if I'm updating two adventures, since this year I'm aiming for daily updates in Swamped. Continuing a coherent narrative every day for a year is a pretty big challenge, but it's one I feel up to.

And I think that's the key - think of something you're confident you can do, and just focus on doing that. If that's "type a coherent sentence every day", go for it. When you're doing that consistently, you can start looking at other ways to challenge yourself. Don't get hung up on the quality - if you do find yourself disappointed in the quality of your output, keep going anyways. You'll get better.

This would probably be helpful for drawing, too. I don't have firsthand experience with that, but the basic idea can certainly apply there. If I were to seriously attempt to improve my art, that's where I'd begin, myself.

I hope people found that helpful in some way.

I misread this line:

I missed a few days that first year, but it was less than ten. Overall, I was keeping it up enough that I got used to it.

As this:

I missed a few days that first year, but I was less than ten. Overall, I was keeping it up enough that I got used to it.

And was momentarily freaked out.

I haven't been keeping it up that long.

I started in 2010, so this is my seventh year of it. Still going strong.

Excuse me, I need to go and update Swamped now.

Drawing even day is something I like to keep up. Even if it's small. I should really do that for writing too but perfectionism gets in the way of progress sometimes.

Right, that's why one of the big tricks is making sure quality isn't your yardstick.

A while back I was in something of a rut where I felt like nothing I was writing was any good.

I still kept it up. Of course, I was well into the habit by then; but the only way I was going to get past that point was to write more and hopefully I'd improve in the process. There are tons of little ways you can get better without even noticing, and the more you write, the more of those you'll come across.

I wouldn't say I was necessarily thinking in those terms at the time; the main realization I had was that it was a side effect of my standards for myself getting higher.

I'm not even entirely past it; I'm still disappointed in a lot of what I write. I think the difference is that right now, I'm challenging myself in a new way with Swamped, so I'm more willing to accept the times when it falls short. And having something that I'm generally pretty satisfied with makes it easier to handle writing something else and thinking it's not very good.

Also I seriously need to stop starting so many sentences with "and" and "but".

Like buddy. Pal. Seriously. Sentence fragment, much?

Though I completely understand the need to get away from needing every line to be perfect. It's just a difficult habit to stop

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yeah nah

nah, yeah

yeah nah yeah

I remember one time in editing class we were putting up people's writing on the board to go over and we got to this one girl who had a semi-colon in her sentence. When we got to it everyone just turned and stared at her disappointingly, to which she gave a dismissive look and raised her hands like "I... have no defense".

What's wrong with semicolons? Dragon Fogel used one just four posts ago.

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The best answer I got from our editors was that you generally don't need them. Not that you should never, ever use one, just that they can throw people off.

It's more or less that you have to be careful with using them too often. It was just funny to me because I knew my editor and most of my writing class had this severe hatred of semi-colons.

Like, an unnecessary semi-colon can read as pretentious I think is what they're getting at. But anything goes when you need a specific flow. I just thought the severe hatred among our editors was funny

it; is; the audience; who are wrong;

it; is; the audience; who are wrong;

Smooth as silk

do not step; to the prescriptivist; linguistic; hobgoblin;

;;;

There is such a thing as too many semicolons; however, it is very difficult to get there.

semi-colons are tempting little goblins.

all; hail; the; hivemind;

..;;;;;;;;..
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..;;;;;;;;..

....;;;;;;;;.
....;;;;;;;;;
...;;;;;;;;..
..;;;;;;;;...
.;;;;;;;.....
;;;;;;.......
;;;...........

my 10th grade english teacher would hate this.

Then again I did like to annoy her. She didn't specify fonts for our essays, so to push my luck, since I couldn't lose marks if she didn't specify.... I submitted my essay entirely in papyrus font.

Hey if Samurai Jack can use it in the opening credits then why not.

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sometimes I worry I use too many run-on sentences and that it's distracting or maybe too stream-of-consciousness-y or something like that i don't know so then I think I have to break them up and then

I just.

Use a lot.

Of fragments.