Though I've been skipping the Wednesday retellings for this class, I've been doing a lot of other creative writing for other classes and outside projects, and I decided to use that opportunity to try a new growth mindset option: the "grow-your-writing-process" challenge.
This semester, I'm working on a YA novel for a final project in a course, and a YA novel that I started last November, which I'm hoping to finish up and submit to literary agents this summer. Usually, I work on my homework-novel during breaks between other classes and in the afternoons when I get home, and I try to squeeze in time to work on my personal project during free time in the evenings or right before I go to bed, even if it's just 100 words or so.
After reading about this particular growth mindset challenge, though—which suggests mixing up your normal writing process, like switching from typing to longhand or writing at night to writing in the mornings—I decided to go for it. Specifically, getting up early to write as opposed to staying up late for it. I've always been kind of a night owl, and I come from a long, proud line of them, so I wasn't sure how well it would work out for me.
As it turned out, though, I actually ended up with pretty positive results. I'd expected to be too tired early in the morning to muster up some decent focus or even really write coherently, but after trying it for a couple of mornings, it looks like that scatterbrained tiredness is more of a factor when I try to sneak in writing late at night, after a long day. Ten minutes or so after waking up, I tend to be warmed up too—and since I'm writing first thing in the morning, before other responsibilities or concerns crowd in and distract me, I'm actually able to focus better; the fact that everyone else in my house is still asleep probably helps. I'd also read online once that it's better to work on creative projects first thing in the day, before you give away your creativity and willpower in little slivers to other issues and projects that crop up, and it looks like there might be some truth to that. In any case, this is definitely something I'd like to keep trying—on good days, it would even allow me to write early in the morning and right before bed, which would make the juggling-projects thing easier too.
Image Credit: Pocket Watch, by mortiz320. Source: Pixabay.
Jenna, just a quick note to say that I think it is great how you have reorganized your approach to this class so that it is allowing you to focus on your other classes while also having a chance here to experiment, reflect, etc. I think that's great, and the writing process really is such a mystery (where does it all come from really: the words, the inspiration, the imagination?), which means it is always good to keep on experimenting. I am excited for you finishing up your novels and for the adventures you will have moving forward!
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this, because I've felt a little guilty about rearranging my approach to avoid the writing assignments. The flexibility in the way this class is set up has honestly been a life-saver this semester, and I love that I'm still getting to learn things from the extra-credit options. I completely agree about the writing process, too. Thank you so much!
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