okay, so here’s a thing i do that i never see talked about in writing circles: prewriting.
prewriting, for me, serves two functions: one, to stave off writer’s block and get me hyped up to write, and two, to make sure the tone of my writing stays consistent. i know we’ve all encountered that problem where we’re writing glorious purple prose, take a five minute break, and come back unable to write sentences more complex than those in a picture book.
prewriting is, in essence, any refresher of your wip that you look at before you start writing. my prewriting agenda takes about 15 minutes, and it goes like this:
For ~10 min i read a published book that has the prose i want to emulate (in this case, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo)
For ~5 min I look at the WIP: moodboards or graphics i’ve made, my outlines, and most importantly, the chapter (or several chapters) that precede what i’m about to write. this is the most important step for me, as it reminds me of what’s going on and the flow of the story.
cons of prewriting: it’s very, very easy to get distracted by all the cool inspiration you have and not actually write. to prevent this, i set a timer. a loud one.
even though this might seem like obvious advice, consciously establishing a writing routine, including a proper setup, boosted my word count like mad, and i hope it benefits some of you as well. peace.
This is good advice! In various discussions of writing and word count and how long it takes to write a thing, I don’t very often see mention of all the prepwork that goes into writing, including planning, brainstorming, research, and reviewing what you previously wrote. I really love the idea of starting a writing session with a quick style refresher. I often have inspiration images open in tabs for this purpose, but don’t do it in this kind of organized way; I should try this.