My muse tends to behave like an errant toddler: it flares up at the most inappropriate times (when it must be completely suppressed) and remains stubbornly mute when it should be speaking up.
So I resolved to spend an hour a day after work writing, but when one has already spent ten or more hours mostly in front of a computer writing and editing, my brain suffers from mental screen exhaustion.
What to do?
Well, first of all, I realized last weekend that flogging creativity into submission wasn't the way to go...except on tight newspaper deadlines. Writing a novel, no matter how many words, pages, paragraphs, etc. is the goal, is a slow process. While we writers certainly don't want the process to be so slow that we really aren''t writing at all - just procrastinating and playing at writing - giving the brain a chance to rest is one way to wake it up.
I think this is probably why mine tends to perk-up fiction-wise during the week and leans toward writing feature stories for The Herald-News during the weekend.
Sigh.
So i spent a lot of this past weekend and my day off, not writing (DAMN!), but rather, reviewing what had already been written so far. The first part of Before the Blood (John's story) is over 55,000 words, really a small novel in its own right. I looked back at the days and weeks of this past year - when it seemed little progress had been made - and realized - like the proverbial tortoise running his race - that slowly and surely I had knit together a decent draft that made me give my shoulder a little pat.
(I should do the same at work. Usually all I see are the stacks and stacks of snippets of details that need addressing, not the work already accomplished).
It also made me want to write that much in a single weekend and caused me to give the desk a little kick in frustration knowing that would not happen. Sometimes, I want the whole forest at once, instead of realizing I do have to grow it a tree at a time, trees unique unto their own.
When I was a freelancer, I saw writing as writing, everything was woven into one package, and I shifted from various writing projects, to homeschooling, to housework to delivering newspapers. Deftly, seamlessly, I alternated chores and duties.
However, before I get all nostalgic here, I remind myself that this was a learned skill. I had a different life and routine before that one, and I will surely have a different one after the currentone.
So I'm going to try something this week.
If something pops into my head, I'm going to take a few moments and jot it down and save it for later. Instead of composing at night during the week and forcing a tired brain to produce (which it doesn't really anyway), I'll do the "busy" work portion of writing, research, etc. but only for short periods.
For instance, Christopher Gleason, my illustrator for Staked!, has already asked for chapter summaries so he can beging work on chapter heading illustrations, so even a couple of those at night, saved into a file, should help to keep the creative fires stoked.
On the flip side, this weekend, when my mind starts straying toward features, I'll do the same, jotting down ideas I can use during the week. At the end of the week, I'll review the results and decide if I should continue in this manner for another week.
Instead of feeling like I have to move at breakneck speed 24/7, I'm going to strive for slower, steadier, quieter, more thoughtful and reflective and allow the work to unfold.
As a new parent and member of La Leche League, the oft-repeated phrase was, "People before things." As a worker, the Dickens line (Jacob Marley) popped into my head yesterday evening, "Mankind was my business."
The two are true and synonymous. Readers, be that of newspapers or novels, deserve our very best. Writers, the ones producing those works, need to treat ourselves with the same consideration and respect.
So I resolved to spend an hour a day after work writing, but when one has already spent ten or more hours mostly in front of a computer writing and editing, my brain suffers from mental screen exhaustion.
What to do?
Well, first of all, I realized last weekend that flogging creativity into submission wasn't the way to go...except on tight newspaper deadlines. Writing a novel, no matter how many words, pages, paragraphs, etc. is the goal, is a slow process. While we writers certainly don't want the process to be so slow that we really aren''t writing at all - just procrastinating and playing at writing - giving the brain a chance to rest is one way to wake it up.
I think this is probably why mine tends to perk-up fiction-wise during the week and leans toward writing feature stories for The Herald-News during the weekend.
Sigh.
So i spent a lot of this past weekend and my day off, not writing (DAMN!), but rather, reviewing what had already been written so far. The first part of Before the Blood (John's story) is over 55,000 words, really a small novel in its own right. I looked back at the days and weeks of this past year - when it seemed little progress had been made - and realized - like the proverbial tortoise running his race - that slowly and surely I had knit together a decent draft that made me give my shoulder a little pat.
(I should do the same at work. Usually all I see are the stacks and stacks of snippets of details that need addressing, not the work already accomplished).
It also made me want to write that much in a single weekend and caused me to give the desk a little kick in frustration knowing that would not happen. Sometimes, I want the whole forest at once, instead of realizing I do have to grow it a tree at a time, trees unique unto their own.
When I was a freelancer, I saw writing as writing, everything was woven into one package, and I shifted from various writing projects, to homeschooling, to housework to delivering newspapers. Deftly, seamlessly, I alternated chores and duties.
However, before I get all nostalgic here, I remind myself that this was a learned skill. I had a different life and routine before that one, and I will surely have a different one after the currentone.
So I'm going to try something this week.
If something pops into my head, I'm going to take a few moments and jot it down and save it for later. Instead of composing at night during the week and forcing a tired brain to produce (which it doesn't really anyway), I'll do the "busy" work portion of writing, research, etc. but only for short periods.
For instance, Christopher Gleason, my illustrator for Staked!, has already asked for chapter summaries so he can beging work on chapter heading illustrations, so even a couple of those at night, saved into a file, should help to keep the creative fires stoked.
On the flip side, this weekend, when my mind starts straying toward features, I'll do the same, jotting down ideas I can use during the week. At the end of the week, I'll review the results and decide if I should continue in this manner for another week.
Instead of feeling like I have to move at breakneck speed 24/7, I'm going to strive for slower, steadier, quieter, more thoughtful and reflective and allow the work to unfold.
As a new parent and member of La Leche League, the oft-repeated phrase was, "People before things." As a worker, the Dickens line (Jacob Marley) popped into my head yesterday evening, "Mankind was my business."
The two are true and synonymous. Readers, be that of newspapers or novels, deserve our very best. Writers, the ones producing those works, need to treat ourselves with the same consideration and respect.
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