So it has now been officially just over two months since I started up my Twitch channel (https://www.twitch.tv/myriai if you haven’t checked it out yet) and I’ve been consistently streaming every week. Sometimes it’s just once a week (on weeks when my work schedule is particularly rough–7 days straight in pharmacy is no joke–or usually on the weeks it’s my turn to be the weekend tech) to three times per week (when I’m feeling particularly ambitious or I’m on vacation like I was this week). Most weeks I do two streams–usually on Saturday mornings (Coffee, PJs, & Productivity) and either a random day that works out or Thursdays since I’m off usually around the same time every Thursday (though if I get back into Critical Role…I may end up moving those streams). The not-Saturday stream is usually either a ‘Sip ‘n’ Write’ or sit down and write with me without timers couched in some cute-ish sounding possibly alliterative title (Myriai’s Midafternoon Tea, Myriai’s Midafternoon Madness). I do occasionally do game streams–my original intention was on weeks where I did that bonus ‘extra stream’, the extra stream would be a game of some form, but I’ve been leaning hard into the writing thing.
Looking back over the past couple months, I realized having that sort of set time for me to sit my butt down at a computer and write has helped quite a bit. Admittedly I don’t always write on the days I am not streaming (I’m working on that–the Summer Slump (TM) is looming and I’m never sure when it’s going to kick in)–but I do write usually upwards of 1,000 to 2,000 words on the days I’m doing the writing streams. Well at least the productivity writing streams. Sip ‘n’ Writes usually wind up with me talking far too much and not nearly enough click-clacking of the computer keys, but I still get something written and something written is better than nothing written.
There’s a Jodi Picoult quote that sits near and dear to my heart:
You can’t edit a blank page.
I will be the first to say that the pages that I type up on my stream are far from perfect and they’re going to need some tweaking and shifting at some point in the future, but they’re written and that makes a lot of difference. The stuff I’ve written on those pages may also wind up removed from the primary work, but that is okay.
Why is it okay?
Because it means I wrote them and writing those words probably got me started on a train of thought that leads to more words being written–words that I’m going to keep. And really, that’s kind of what counts. It take a whole lot of bad words to come up with better words ultimately leading to the best words (at the time). Sometimes just getting those words down is half to two-thirds of the battle because once they’re on that page you can edit them, you already created them.
The other advantage to having written those words on stream is that now they’re mine and I can go through them. Even on days when I don’t get a whole lot written, I can go through what I sat down and wrote and even if I’m just tweaking it I’m doing at least a little writing. Sometimes as I’m editing and tweaking the words, new words pop into my head to be written down and taken care of and the cycle continues and that’s how books get written. You start with a sentence that sentence turns into a paragraph, the paragraph turns into a page, those pages turn into a chapter, and the next thing you know you’re sitting with several chapters written and what may be a complete story in your hand.
So the TL;DR gist of this entry: Sit your butt down and write even if you hate every word appearing on the screen there might be something to salvage.
Now I don’t necessarily suggest that you start up your own Twitch Stream to force yourself to sit down and write unless that’s something you want to do. I spend a lot of very awkward moments in front of the camera and every once in a while it feels overwhelming even if I just have an audience of 3 or 4 (two of which are probably my niece and nephew lurking in the stream to support their favorite aunt because they’re amazing kids). But if you hop on over to Twitch (if that’s your thing), you can find lots of great writers doing streams that may help and inspire you to keep doing what you need to do: Write.
Heck–drop by my stream and we’ll get some writing done together and on Sip ‘n’ Write nights you can tell me all about your current project or ask me questions. If you’re struggling with something in your writing–drop on by when I’m live and you can toss a question into the chat and I’ll do my best to answer in such a way that you can figure out the answer.
But yeah.
Write.
♥ ~ Myriai
Myriai's Myriad 