Or, embrace your process. I’ve come to realize that I’m more creative/productive doing a lot of things. Because if I get stuck on one thing, I switch and keep moving forward. If I’m on one thing and I get stuck…the stuck has a lot of impact on my productivity, and is also discouraging as hell.
Which is why I’ve decided to be okay with writing four books at a time while reading ten.
I’ve also decided it’s okay to have a process that’s a mish-mash of planning and discovery in the moment. Sometimes you have to plan ahead. Sometimes you don’t know how to plan because something hasn’t been discovered yet. This thought brought to you by Candace Haven’s Mozart or Beethoven? post on Genreality. I couldn’t answer the question until I admitted I do it both ways. In the same book. Sometimes a scene is just there, whole-cloth. Sometimes I have to figure it out, one random and disjointed piece at a time.
While I’m at it, I’ve decided it’s also perfectly healthy that I get all cheerful plotting fictional murders and violence.
If you’ve tried to change something about yourself or your process and gotten discouraged, why not just make a virtue of your vices and go with it?
I admire your ability to work on multiple projects at once. I’m very much a go-until-I-finish-the-book type writer. VERY FOCUSED.
Don’t forget, I’m waitin’ for something to crit! 😉
Hope those contractions are leading to something soon!
At a certain point I always drop everything else and focus on one book until it’s done, but until that point, I’m better off not trying to make myself just do one thing. It leads to way too much time spent spinning my wheels.
The first thing I have for you to crit will probably be after contractions are over and there’s an actual baby. ; )
Perfect timing! I’ve been considering a change in the way I balance Paying Writing and Hope-It-Will-Pay Writing, and thinking of my experiment as turning a vice into virtue gives me a fun approach. Thanks, Charli.
You’re welcome. And have fun!
What you said, Charli!
I have given up on trying to write in chronological order, write one scene at a time, write one book at a time, etc.
Unless that’s just how it happens to work out. In which case I do a happy dance and then get back to business as usual.
May, sometimes chronological works for me, but not always. I think the important thing is to not get hung up on process and just produce!