April 15, 2009
Taking My Own Advice
So a couple of weeks ago a friend and I were talking about writing. She had mentioned to me that after taking a break from a story for a few weeks, she felt she’d lost the momentum and wasn’t sure if she would finish the story, or if she should scrap it and start something new. Having been in this situation before myself, we discussed the pros and cons of sticking with it versus starting something else. I also added that the best way to not lose the momentum was to write everyday, write at the same time everyday, to have a page or word count goal and not to go back and read anything until the entire piece was completed.
Then it hit me. I was not currently doing any of these things. Instead, I was working on the WIP when I could squeeze in a few minutes here and there, fitting it in around edits, rewrites, bookkeeping (grr) and, well, everything else, then wondering why I couldn’t feel the story. Crazy.
Obviously, I’ve rectified this situation. Being sure to set the same three hours aside a day to work on the WIP. It sounds tough at first. After all, anytime we block off a chunk of time for a specific task its so tempting to think of all the other things we could be doing instead. But it turns out it’s easier than you might think. Close email, Twitter, Facebook and all the other time wasting distractions (computer games, in my case), close the office door, and for next few hours know that it’s just you and the story.
After all, if you don’t commit and make the time it write, you won’t. And producing on a regular basis is one of the major things that differentiates a career writer from a hobby writer.
Mood: Good
Music: Season of the Witch – Donovan
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I couldn’t agree more, Dawn. As hard as it sometimes is to do, you have to write a little each day. If you slide, it’s harder to climb back up again. Good luck getting back in the groove!
April 15th, 2009 at 6:17 pmI agree as well, Dawn. I need to do this. Right now I’ve been working on rewrites, but I need to also work on my current wip.
April 18th, 2009 at 12:03 am