It's too late for me to use this technique now, but it's something I can use in the future. The key to being successful, in anything, is handling things on the front end rather than on the back end. That's really just it. At this stage of my life I have to learn to incorporate that philosophy, but I also need to learn to handle loads of work accumulation due to not handling my work on the front end. My greatest weakness is that when I get overwhelmed I shut down. As if I only have one speed, or one effort level, that can not be exceeded. I've been thinking on that lately. I've got to figure out a way to store away a reserve batch of energy, dedication, and desire for those times when I have to do a little more work. I think I could do it if I knew it would be only for a short time. But I'm so horrible at differentiating between work loads. Well, now it's in writing, and that is hopefully the first step towards a new level of effort towards change, and indeed that old elusive bugger, change itself.
Thanks Mr. Oltion.
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/strategies.html
50 Strategies For Making Yourself Work
by Jerry Oltion
Copyright © 2001 by Jerry Oltion
Work avoidance is one of the major paradoxes of the writing profession. Generally, writers want to write (or want to have written), but all too often we find ourselves doing anything else but. We'll mow lawns, do the dishes, polish silverware--anything to keep from facing the blank page. At the same time we know we eventually have to get to work, so we come up with all sorts of strategies for forcing ourselves to the keyboard.
Sometimes a single strategy works beautifully for an entire writer's career (for instance: for over 40 years Fred Pohl wrote four pages a day no matter what, after which he was free to polish all the silverware he wanted), but in my own case I've discovered that any particular strategy only works for a couple of months before I learn to subvert it. As a result I have to keep inventing new ones. I've come up with quite a few (some of which I've stolen from other people), which I offer here for anyone who cares to try them. They're not in any particular order, so don't feel compelled to work your way down the list. Just try the ones that seem interesting, and remember that some of them won't work for you at all. Also, while some of them are mutually exclusive, most of them aren't, so you can mix & match all you like.
*
Set a quota of pages written per day. Make this realistic. The
object isn't to prove anything to anybody, but to give yourself a
reasonable goal to shoot for, one you'll actually be able to hit
every day. If you go over it, that's cool, but all you have to do
each day is hit the quota. The catch: Extra pages don't count
toward the next day's quota.
*
Set a quota of hours worked per day/week. The same applies here as
with page quotas. Make it realistic.
*
Write a story or chapter a week.
*
Promise your sweetie a steady supply of bedtime stories.
*
Pay yourself an hourly wage for time worked, and don't allow
yourself leisure activities (movies, dinner out, etc.) unless you
can pay for it with this writing money.
*
Have someone else pay you for writing. Use the coin of whatever
realm you happen to be in: someone else cooks dinner when you
finish a story, or a friend buys you a cookie, or your significant
other does that kinky thing with the chocolate syrup.
*
Write to music. Put two or three CDs in the player and stay at the
keyboard until they're done. Crank it up. Boogie a little. That's
not just background noise; that's the sound of you working.
*
Lighten up on yourself. Give yourself the freedom to write when
the urge strikes, and not write when you don't feel like it.
That's one of the attractive things about the popular conception
of the writing life, right? So enjoy it!
*
Hide your wristwatch in a drawer. (Meaning: reduce your dependence
on the clock. Let your inner circadian rhythms tell you when it's
time to write and when it's not.)
*
Set a timer for a short period of time (15 minutes or so) and stay
at the keyboard--no matter what--until it dings. Then do it again.
Only allow yourself to get up after the timer dings, and always
set the timer again if you stay at the keyboard. This will hold
you in place long enough for the first impulse toward
work-avoidance to pass, and you'll often discover yourself eager
to keep going when your time's up.
*
Schedule your day's activities--and schedule writing hours
/first/. This doesn't necessarily mean putting them first in the
day, but putting them on the schedule itself first, so they get
priority. Schedule everything: bathing, eating, sleeping,
telephone time (outgoing calls, at least), walking the
dog--everything. Then, if it's not on the schedule, don't do it.
Schedule it tomorrow.
*
Form a support/nagging network of other writers.
*
Graph your hours and/or pages against those of your support group.
Post the graph where you can see it when you write. Also post it
where you can see it when you /don't/ write.
*
Challenge other writers to finish a story a week, losers to buy
dinner (or dessert, or whatever) for winners.
*
Generate story ideas mechanically. Roll dice and pick characters
and settings from a list. Tumble a desktop encyclopedia downstairs
and write about whatever it opens to when it lands. Throw darts at
your bookshelf and write a homage to whatever you hit. The goal
here is to demystify "idea" as a stumbling block. Ideas are a dime
a dozen once you learn how to find them. Become a supplier rather
than a consumer.
*
If you've been sitting on an idea until you think you're good
enough to do it justice, do it now! You may be run over by a bus
tomorrow. Even if you aren't, by the time you think you're good
enough, the passion for it will be gone. Write it now! Write all
your good ideas as quickly as you can after you get them. Don't
worry about getting more; they'll come faster and faster the more
you write. Before you know it, you'll be begging people to take
them, like a gardener with zucchini.
*
Outline. Plan everything you're going to write, scene by scene,
all the way through to the end. Do your research while you're
outlining, so by the time you start writing the actual story,
you're already living in that world. With a detailed enough
outline, the actual writing becomes a matter of choosing the right
words to describe what you've already decided to tell. You can
concentrate on style and let the plot take care of itself, because
you've already done that part.
*
Don't outline. Don't plan ahead at all. Feel the lure of the blank
page. Trust your instincts and dive into the story, and don't look
back until you're done.
*
Keep written goals, and revise them daily. (Production goals,
/not/ sales goals, which you can't control.) Rewriting them every
day helps you focus on each one and think about what you can do at
the moment to further it along.
*
Unplug the TV for six months. This is a tough one, but it's the
one with the biggest potential for shifting your priorities over
to writing. You can gauge your need for it by your resistance to
it. If you can't imagine giving up your favorite programs in favor
of writing (or if you're more faithful to your viewing schedule
than to your writing schedule), you should probably remove the TV
from the house permanently; but no matter what you do, give it six
months, minimum, before you even look at it. Turn the screen to
the wall. Seriously. What's more important to you: your writing or
TV? Find out.
*
Turn off the talk radio. Same as above; if you can't give it up,
you're making it more important than your writing. Even if you
think you need it for background noise, substitute some other
noise that doesn't engage the language center of your brain.
That's for writing, not for listening, when you're at the keyboard.
*
Remove all games from your computer. This is just as vital as
reducing your dependence on TV or radio. The key to all these
suggestions is to reduce the amount of time you spend on
unproductive stuff. If you play games to relax, put them on
another computer in a different part of the house, and play them
outside your writing time.
*
Ditto the above for email and web surfing. Don't allow yourself to
do it until after you've done your writing for the day. If you're
really addicted, allow yourself to read only one email message per
paragraph written. Don't count paragraphs shorter than 50 words,
either. I don't mean add up all your short paragraphs until you
get 50 words--I mean don't count paragraphs shorter than 50 words
at all. Write until you get one that's at least 50 words long. So
what if you're in the middle of a stretch of dialog? Keep writing.
(And if this email-as-reward system works for you, join a busy
listserver!)
*
Reward yourself for success. Choose the reward so you'll work hard
to earn it.
*
Read a book a day (for inspiration).
*
Keep 5 (or 10 or whatever) manuscripts in the mail at all times.
Choose a number that'll make you stretch a little, but one you can
realistically maintain.
*
Use every spare moment to write something, even if it's just one
sentence. An extreme version of this: don't plan any official
writing time; just use the spare moments in your day--but use them
/all/.
*
Carry a note pad or tape recorder with you wherever you go. Use it
to record ideas as well as the actual text of stories. Make it
your external memory. The idea here is to keep yourself focused on
writing no matter what else you're doing.
*
Keep more than one project going at once. Switch to another the
moment you slow down on one.
*
Collaborate. You'll be less likely to slack off if someone else is
counting on you to perform.
*
Switch tools. If you normally use a computer, write with pad and
pencil for a while. If you normally write hard sf, write fantasy.
Get out of whatever rut you might be in.
*
Change your writing environment. Rearrange your study, or go write
in the library or a cafe for a while.
*
Keep yourself constantly "on." Start another project /immediately/
after you finish one, before you even get up to stretch your sore
muscles.
*
Don't think; just write. Keep the writing and editing processes
separate. Don't worry about clumsy bits; you can fix those later.
If you're writing on paper, intentionally cross out a few lines
and re-write them so you won't have to worry anymore about messing
up the page.
*
Edit for perfect copy as you go. This one works for some people,
but not for others. If you find yourself getting too critical of
your new material, stop editing during your creative time. But
some people discover that they build up momentum editing, and when
they get to the end of what they've already written, they're eager
to forge ahead into new territory.
*
Write an hour for every hour you read.
*
Spend an hour a day in the library researching new ideas.
*
Rewrite a story a day. (Works best if you've got a lot of unsold
stories lying around.)
*
Jump-start your creative juices. Start your writing day with a
long walk in pleasant surroundings, or gardening, or doing
something else that wakes you up and gets your mind working.
*
Identify your best hours of the day and write during those. Let
other people take the leftovers for a change.
*
Paper your study walls with /Playboy/ foldouts (or whatever else
is likely to keep you in the room).
*
Evaluate everything in your life according to Maslow's hierarchy
of needs. Air is at the top. Food and shelter are close behind.
What's next? Sex? Money? Where does writing fit in /now/? See if
you can move it up a couple of notches. Write now, breathe later.
*
Give yourself regular days off. Most people get weekends off; why
shouldn't you? An important point: Days when you tried to write
but failed don't count as days off. Only days you've scheduled in
advance count. Conversely, now that you've got regular days off,
don't use your work time for personal stuff.
*
Take up a hobby. A lot of writers started writing as a hobby, and
it slowly became their passion. That's cool, but it left an empty
niche in your life where the hobby used to be. Find something else
to fill it. You'll be amazed at how much you realize you missed
that kind of thing. More to the point: you'll suddenly stop
resenting your writing for not fulfilling that need, and you'll
start to enjoy it for what it is.
*
Turn writing into a hobby. Not everyone has to be a full-time
writer. If you don't want to (or can't) write full-time, or if you
can't find another hobby that scratches the particular itch that
writing did when it was a hobby, then make it one again.
*
Hack-write. Put words in a row for pay. Write anything you can get
a contract for, so long as there's money in it, but here's the
kicker: do the best job you can on it. Even if it's something you
don't care about, do a good job anyway. You're practicing two
things here: writing on demand, and writing well.
*
Build a ritual around writing. Start well ahead of the actual act
of writing, and continue the ritual after you've finished work.
The idea is to make writing an integral part of a bigger picture.
Let the cat out, make a cup of tea, feed the fish, put on some
music, light a candle, write, check the mail, fix lunch, do the
dishes. Doesn't seem quite so ominous when it's buried among all
that other stuff, does it?
*
Light a candle. Make it a big, wide one. Write until the wax pool
is entirely molten, as far out as it will go. Anything less will
"core" the candle, wasting wax as the wick burns itself downward
without using the wax from around the edge.
*
Binge! Gear up for a major writing weekend. Get your ideas ready,
set a goal, and plan to work every waking hour until you're done.
Cook meals ahead of time and freeze them so you can just nuke 'em
and keep going. Tell your friends you'll be out of touch. Turn off
the phone ringer and put a message on your answering machine
telling people to send the cops if they really need to talk to you
that bad. Lock yourself in your study and don't come out until
you've committed fiction.
*
Chain the wolf to the door. Buy expensive things on credit, quit
your job, etc. JUST KIDDING! (But I tried it once, and it worked,
too … for a while.)
/This article is Copyright. Reproduction and distribution specifically
prohibited. All rights reserved. Reprinted here with the author's
permission/.
This page was last modified on Tuesday January 04 2005.
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Posted By Mr. Hernandez to Text eMissions at 4/28/2008 08:14:00 AM
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Posted By Mr. Hernandez to Text eMissions at 4/28/2008 08:22:00 AM
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