Daily Writing Challenge

 Lately I have been collecting wisdom and hacks to keep a steady and consistent flow of creativity (I can write about my process some time).

Recently I've been inspired by a video on Youtube called "Why do adults stop drawing?And how to start again", I love it and I suggest everyone watch it and give her process a try. She gives everyone a daily practice to get into drawing again, and I think she makes great points. I think this process could be adapted to more than drawing and I'd like to try it with writing. So here is what the adapted form will look like:

Day 1 - Dungeon24?

I haven't really figured out the perfect game writing analogue for "Draw little circles",  but I remember when I started out doing Dungeon23 I felt like it got me warmed up and ready to create, and the circles are just a warm up. Like she mentions in the video I might do this warm up everyday.

Day 2 - Write like a kid

I take her "Draw like a kid" prompt to mean create whatever whim comes your way. Not only this but be shameless, write about that thing you love. As a writer of games I tend to avoid things like clichés and heavy tropes because that is something anyone can do on the fly while running a game. I use them as a tool to convey cheap and free information, otherwise I try to write something unique. This can lead to judging ideas before they are ever written. So this day is a judgement free day where I indulge my favorite things to write about.

Day 3 - Get inspired

This is mostly a task to seek out inspiration. The prompt is simple enough to understand, write something influenced by recent inspiration. Go seek it out and adapt it.

Day 4 - Study

On these days I will look through my list of blogs for techniques and then try my best to practice what it discusses in my writing.

Day 5 - Still Life

This one is a little hard to adapt, still life is a great fundamentals practice, and I'm not sure how that correlates to writing for games. Another element of her task is just doing it, so I think for now I will commit to a barf draft on these days. For anyone unfamiliar, a barf draft is a judgement free draft where you take your project and write everything down that comes to mind. It's a good way to defeat a blank page when you've got an idea.

Day 6 - Write as an adult

On day 6 I'll take what I wrote on day 2 and incorporate my studies, inspiration, and anything I learned through the week to make it something closer to what I'd be happy to put out there.

Day 7 - Rest

I will probably still write if I feel like it.

I think the most important part of this process that she brings up is that you should just do it and don't think too much about the result. Creative arts don't get better by keeping your ideas and impulses locked up in your head until you're good at executing it. These tasks help get everything out and most importantly encourage healthy practice. As Vesper says "a passion should not become an obsession".