These past few weeks, I’ve allowed Fun with Blood Pressure to disrupt my writing habits. Normally, I churn out words at an alarming rate … but having your head constantly pulsing in time with your heart does nasty things to your work-working abilities!
Now, I’m back at work again on Fool’s Errand, my first foray into mystery fiction. Drawing on the techniques I learned during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I’m:
– showing up at the keyboard at the same time every day (early, before the day’s landslide of distrations begins)
– meeting a minimum daily quota of words (2000 at least)
– refusing to rewrite until the creative phase is completely over (to keep that nasty Inner Editor bound, gagged, and silent)
– allowing the book to go where it needs to go (in other words — being inspired, but not enslaved, by my outline).
Having a schedule and setting a minimum number of words per day gives me an objective standard of success. Without those things in place, I discovered I couldn’t relax, go to movies, read a book, work on other projects, or watch t.v. without thinking, “I ought to be working on the novel.” Now, having or exceeded my goals for the day, I’m able to step away from the work without stressing.
I learned all this four years ago, and used this very system to draft my first novel, Family Thais … and promptly forgot how well it worked for me in the meantime.
This weekend, though, I stumbled on No Plot, No Problem, a short, sweet, witty, and wise little tome by Chris Baty, the fellow who came up with NaNoWriMo. The book amounts to a clever workshop on how to draft your novel in thirty days — but everything inside can be easily adapted to your way of working, whatever it is.
Maybe it’s time you stopped talking about that book you’re going to write someday … and started writing it? If so, pick up No Plot, No Problem. A month from today, you could be holding a finished draft of your first novel in your hot little hands.
Today’s Fool’s Errand Word Count:
Required words: 2000
Written words: 3800
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