Editing is annoying.

I began writing a novel last August. I finished it around February. Since then, I've gone through it half a dozen times, editingeditingediting.

It's at the point where I'm sick of my own work.

In other news, I've barely been writing anything at all. I like to blame school for this.

Routines and Playlists

Everyone has a different writing process. Some take the 10 o'clock bus to the library, sit down at a table, and begin writing. Some merely eat breakfast and go to their home office and start writing. Some begin writing an hour before sleep. Regardless of who you do it, it's good for every writer to have a routine. Getting into a routine can help a writer to access creativity on a constant basis.

Being a writer that's still in school, this routine isn't so easy. Sometimes I'll sit down, type a few pages, then not write anything for weeks. Some days I'll be consistent and write about a two pages a day.

Either way, I do have a sort of compensation for my lack of a routine. I have a writing playlist. Some writers have playlists that are versatile and work for any piece they write. For me, I have a specific playlist for each story that I feel has great potential. This may sound impressive, but it's not. I only have one playlist for one of my stories. I'm not saying that my other stories don't have potential -- I'm saying that once a story surpasses the 20-page mark, that usually means that I can make a commitment to the story.

I like playlists because it can easily set the mood for what I'm writing. For example, the only one of my stories that gets it own playlist takes place in a lot of forests and cabins and a lot of other hipster stuff like that. (Though it should be noted that the story isn't really hipster at all.) So for that sort of setting and the theme that goes with it, I decided that soft alternative or folkish music would be best for the story. (So basically anything really hipster.) Some of the songs include:

• Tin Man by Animal Kingdom
• New Morning by Alpha Rev
• Meet Me on the Equinox by Death Cab for Cutie
• On a Neck, On a Spit by Grizzly Bear
• Basically anything by Mumford & Sons, Blind Pilot, Sea Wolf, and City and Colour

Playlists don't easily make up for routines, but for someone who likes to procrastinate, it's pretty good.

Funny enough, this entire post is still me procrastinating on writing. Should probably get on that now.

Yep.

Soon.

Soon.

Well, now, I guess.

Naming

My method of naming characters hasn't been consistent over the years. When I was still a relatively new writer, I would scour the internet for names that could become potential character names. I remember when I was younger, I printed out a three-page list of names and their meanings. I would carry that list around in case I needed to come up with a new character.

Then I sort of stopped that and began relying on my instinct. When I began writing a character, sometimes the name would just come to me. For example, I had named a character Daniel without giving it much thought. Nevertheless, it just felt right. I'm sure that many other writers have this instinct for naming their characters.

It's not always easy, though. I've struggled with names before. Sometimes I'll spend a good hour on behindthename.com, trying to find the right fit. Even when I find a good name, it takes a while to get used to calling a character by their new title.

And sometimes I come up with a name that seems fitting, except:

• the name is painfully boring (Like John)
• someone I know already has that name (In which continuing to write that character with that name begins to become a little odd. I have only broken this rule once. Technically twice, but the second time doesn't really count because I really only knew this person in passing.)

For the Maybe Short Story, Maybe Novel, I'm still generating a list of names. In this, there aren't many main characters, but secondary characters are still extremely essential to the story. These characters have a bloated sense of self-importance, so they must also have names that show that off. And what's the most explicit way to show that characters have been raised to believe that they're the greatest things to ever walk the earth? By naming them after stars and constellations.