You know you want to write a book. I can help.
[image: sea the pause]All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It can make writers collapse in a gibbering heap in the corner, which might also be dull.
Yesterday I was telling you to keep your momentum. Today I’m telling you to take a break. Coping with conflict is part of the writer’s life. Here’s my perspective on how to balance these opposing needs.
“Now, where was I?”
Most folks dislike being interrupted. Finding your place in that column of figures you were adding. Wondering whether you were just about to add the salt, or just added the salt. Might as well start the joke over from the beginning because you aren’t sure where you left off.
With a non-fiction book, momentum is a good idea. With fiction, it’s vital. One reason to write every day, even a few sentences, is to keep the story rolling in your mind. The thread of story, the creative process, is tenuous at times. We’ve all experienced the brilliant thought we were sure we’d remember but which evaporated, leaving only a stain.
[image: keep moo-ving] keep moo-ving… more … “Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ — Momentum as a Writing Tool”
It’s easy to fool ourselves. Two specific ways we improve our thinking process when we feel accountable to someone else for our results:
[image: decisions, decisions . . .]First, we’re more aware of the cues and clues we’re using to make decisions. The interplay between our conscious and unconscious is complex. As a result, the facts we think we’re using to reach conclusions aren’t necessarily the facts we’re really using. Accountability nudges us toward awareness of the cues and clues we’re actually using.
Second, we’re less likely to overestimate our accuracy. Studies show that we’re very likely to overestimate how accurate we are in our estimates and judgments. When we feel we’ll have to explain or defend our decisions, our improved thinking process reduces this tendency. It doesn’t make us more accurate, but it makes us more aware of how accurate (or inaccurate) our estimates are.
This was originally at Finding Why and written for entrepreneurs in general. That was before I realized my mission was to help authors.
[image: I will not get out of bed you can't make me” width=”256″ height=”149″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-3629]Once in a while someone will warn an aspiring writer that “you’ll feel like giving up.”
That’s a bit like describing drowning as “you’ll have trouble breathing.”
Here’s the truth:
There will be days when the only reason you don’t turn in your Writer’s Badge in a miasma of frustration, anger, and disgust is because you can’t find the flipping phone number of whoever takes the “I Surrender!” calls, and that’s because you can’t bear to crawl out from under the covers to go look for it.
Y’know, like yesterday.
Then sleep, with its magical power to strip us of reason and pour beautiful dreams back into our souls, will gently wipe away the smudges and push you out the door to do it all again.
Y’know, like today.
[image: Larry Brooks]No secret I’m a huge fan of Larry Brooks. If you’d like a huge jump start on your next novel, check out Larry’s Conceptual Kickstart Story Analysis. For fifty bucks you’ll get feedback from a master to ensure that your concept will result in the best possible book (as long as you execute the other 5 elements of story engineering and all 6 elements of story physics.
We’re moving everything we own into storage this weekend because the house we’re renting just sold, and we leave on Tuesday for a month-long business trip so ta-daa! it all has to get done now now now.
Posts here should continue as usual. They may, though, have a certain frantic or distracted tone.
[image: Getting Your Book Out of the Someday Box]The greatest challenge to getting your book out of the “someday” box isn’t writing, it’s starting. It helps if you spend some time finding why; if you clearly establish your real reason for writing a business book.
… more … “Getting Your Book Out of the “Someday” Box by Finding Why”
[image: fountain]Writing has to flow, like water. Writers thirst.
Imagine, though, if you were dying of thirst (you are, you’re a writer) and the person holding the hose kept shutting it off so they could adjust something. Spurt of water; shut it off, adjust. Spurt of water, shut it off, adjust.
You’d strangle ‘em, screaming “Just give me the water!”
That’s what your heart is doing when you write slowly, methodically, with your head. Because you don’t write with your head, you write with your heart. You edit with your head.
No one but you will see your unedited words, so don’t worry about whether they’re perfect.
Because if you worry that they’re perfect, nobody but you will ever see your words, period.
In an email, Cheryl mentioned her writing schedule, and pointed out that she keeps it flexible. I asked her to tell us more about it.
[image: flexible schedule” width=”222″ height=”139″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-3488″ style=”border: none;]My writing routine typically works out that I am at the computer for a couple hours on Thursdays, hopefully an hour or so on Saturdays, and a few hours on Sundays. I spend several hours twice a week traveling and bouncing between airports. Couple this with long work days when I’m on the road and I do not sit down to write. Being out of town much of the week, my weekends are busy catching up with things around the house, doing errands, and prepping to fly out again on Monday.
… more … “My Time to Write – Guest Post by Cheryl Campbell”
[image: bucket at the well]Since I’ve started a daily routine of writing come what may, I’ve noticed something.
The more ideas I spit out, the more I have.
In the past week, I’ve written 1,000 words a day on the sequel to Through the Fog. Another story forced its way into my head, and I’ve managed 1,000 words a day on that one as well.
The past few Februaries I haven’t participated in February Album Writing Month. But this year I’ve had so man song ideas I can’t bottle them up. Four written and recorded with another well on the way. Since I spend the 3rd week of every 3rd month writing 3 songs with my buddy Terry, I’ll be doing that whether I push for 14 songs at FAWM or not.
The well doesn’t run dry, it refills itself. The more art I create, the more wells up to be created.
[image: mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig]Elizabeth Spann Craig shares an excellent outline of her method for rewriting. It’s short, but involves a lot. While writing should be done straight from the heart, rewrites and revisions will involve a bit more of the structural orderly stuff done best by other parts of your brain.
I’ll soon be doing the rewrite for the sequel to Through the Fog. Once I finish it.
Bookmark this. You’ll want it when you reach this point.
Ali Luke describes her method. Parallels and differences.
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