What Starts Your Engine?
An author friend of mine is determined to get back on track in 2009. Last year was rough on her: health issues, traveling, family problems, and a huge crisis of confidence all added up to a big fat goose-egg as far as producing books is concerned. Her solution is to set the timer for 30 minutes and write. Just write. No editing, no (or minimal) research, and definitely no computer games. So far, she has written 16 pages in three days, which is about 16 pages more than she has writtenin several months. Hooray!
I once met a writer who said she couldn’t get through the first draft because plotting was too daunting, but without plotting, she had no direction. Her solution? She wrote:
Title
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
. . .
Chapter Twenty
Author’s Notes
The End
That was her first draft. Then she “revised,” meaning she wrote the chapters. Revisions seemed less daunting, she said. I say, whatever works, and if this works for her, go for it. I’m not so sure this technique would work for me unless I included at least a scene idea or two.
At a writers’ meeting, the workshop presenter had us write twenty words. Then she told us to spend 15 minutes (there’s that timer again!) and a scene that would include those twenty words. While this technique did get my brain working, it didn’t help my story go forward because the scene would have been contemporary and I was writing a historical at the time. Nevertheless, it did trigger an idea that was appropriate, so in a circuitous way,this technique did work for me.
Changing my writing method or place seems to work for me, too. If I’m in a lull, I can get a jumpstart by taking my AlphaSmart to the back deck and writing. Or sometimes a multi-colored pen on rainbow paper will do the trick–any writing device, any location, except at my computer. I don’t know why this helps, but it does.
Setting goals nearly always works for me because I’m a goal-oriented person. If you’re task-oriented, goals need to be much smaller and day-to-day in order to make good progress, but I believe goals can help anyone focus. But there are lots of ways to set goals. Angela Booth claims there are two types of goals: process goals (page count per day), and achievement goals (hit the NYT Bestsellers List by 2011). Ms. Booth points out that the law of attraction comes into play here. What we conceptualize is what will happen. Angela Booth’s article made sense to me.
These methods all serve to get our writing engines jumpstarted, and hopefully, keep it going. So what’s your favorite way to motivate yourself? Got any advice for the rest of us?
Have a wonderful Magical Monday!
Jacquie
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Tags: timed writing, writing motivation
Hi,
Thanks for the tips. I too have a resolution for the new year to include daily writing goals and have already hit snags. I’ll have to try some of these.
I am a goal oriented person too, right now my goal is to lose 20 pounds, so I look great in my wedding gown!!
I don’t always plot, it depends on the story….I think I make notes but not really plot…
Wow, that’s some first draft! I think I’d need more, as well, but maybe just writing that down is enough to get you going. That’s for the great tips you always give, Jacquie!
Kathy, you’re welcome. I like to try new things–gets me out of my rut and that in itself is generally a motivator.
Mercedes, you’ll look great in your wedding gown no matter what your weight is.
Savannah, lots of great writers “fly into the mist,” as Jo Beverly says. (Jo, Nora, and SEP are just a few.) I actually have never met anyone who didn’t know at least something about the story they’re writing. The plot may not be written down in an outline or a synopsis, but the writer has some vision or feeling, albeit sometimes in the barest of forms. For instance, Eilis Flynn starts wit a “money shot” in mind, and that’s the sum total of her plot–but she has a direction. I don’t think it matters how we write, just as long as we do write.
LOL, Pamela. Maybe I’ll try her method. Like she said, only 99,950 words to go! Seriously, though, I have written chapter headings and scene titles or ideas. Kind of helps me stay on track. I don’t always, but every once in a while it seems the right thing to do.
Jacquie