Day 5: Motivation
Find the Fun!
If I can find the element that excites me or draws me in & demands to be written, motivation isn't a problem.
If I can't find it, then it's the story itself that's the problem.
After that, it's butt-in-chair determination.
Day 6: Process
Have good idea, sketch an outline, dive in and puke out a first draft. Fix the obviously broken bits, then force it upon kind-hearted critique group. Convince myself that their notes were my idea, edit like the wind. Repeat this with beta readers, then agent and editor.
Day 7: Beverage of Choice
The faux-jito
Monster Zero Ultra served over crushed ice and muddled mint leaves.
(Preferably with a skull glass, because I am Metal that way.)
Day 8: Ideal Writing Space
Day 9: Actual Writing Space
I mostly write at the Columbus Idea Foundry, a co-working & maker-space. It's filled with writers and realtors and blacksmiths and game designers. It's huge, so I can work in a crowd or alone, whatever is best for that day. Also: free coffee.
Day 10: Improvements?
This is the one I struggle with. I'm sure I have improved as a writer, but I don't know for sure how. I'm usually to busy dealing with the problems of any given story that I don't really notice the parts that are going right.
Additionally, I (like a lot of people) generally dwell on the leading edge of my talent. Which is to say, as I've become a better writer I attempt more challenging topics or forms or structures. I guess it's the same as a weight lifter working with gradually higher weights, but without the clarity of labeled plates.
Day 11: Finding the Time
I'm a scheduler. I put writing time on my calendar in bright, impossible-to-miss letters, so that if I miss it I'm filled with (more than my usual amount of) self-loathing.
Day 12: Out of Context Line from Your Debut
"Warm air streamed up, tinged with the strong rotten-egg smell of sulfur."
Day 13: Describe your World
I thought a traditional fantasy world's industrial revolution would be magic-based. But when magic ran out, they turned to oil. Titanshade is an arctic city of oil rigs & sorcerers, kept warm by the tortured screams of the god buried beneath its streets.
Day 15: Would the Book Survive with Me as Protagonist?
If I were the protagonist of TITANSHADE, murders would go unsolved, villains go free, and the plot would largely revolve around binge-watching Netflix and eating Jeni's Ice Cream by the pint.
All things considered, it's probably best that Carter's on the case instead.
Day 17: What Drink Pairs with Your Debut?
A nearly-drained bottle of beer, perched on a nightstand crowded with empties, soon to be used as an ashtray.