Sep
Getting to Work
I love excuses. I have tons of them. And everyone has their own unique reasons for not getting their writing done. Jobs, families, other obligations. They all cut into writing time. I know. Before I wrote full-time, I work a full-time plus job, that had me traveling usually two weeks a month. But I wrote. A book a year. And I wrote when I least wanted to: first thing in the morning. I dragged by butt out of bed every morning an hour before I had to get up for work and wrote. Slowly, each day the pages added up. Because I knew that if I wanted until I dragged myself home after a ten or twelve hour day, there wouldn’t be anything left to write with.
Now for about a year and a half, I was home, writing full time. Ah, what a happy golden time. Then the kids started arriving. We moved. We moved again. In fact the first year my son was born we moved six times. (My husband works in flight test for an aircraft firm–so that year, where the plane went, we went). And still I wrote. My computer was the last thing that got packed up, and the first thing to find a home in our new residence. And when the computer was inaccessible, I wrote in long hand. Once we came home to Seattle, another child arrived. And still I wrote. Pages, added to pages make a book. In the last ten years, I’ve written twelve books and a novella with only a few hours (most days less) a day to work. So excuses, I’m afraid, really don’t wash with me.
I’m not a saint, I’m not a testament to anything, but a stubborn determination to tell my stories. I love writing, and I love seeing my books in print. I wanted to be a writer from the first time I wrote my first word and when it stops being an obsession, I’ll quit. But if you want to be a writer, you’ll do it. You’ll carve out the time and the space in your life to get those pages done. How do I do it now . . . juggling the kids, the house, my youngest son’s autism, all the things that peck away at my day? Three simple steps:
1) I prewrite. I do a lot of sketching out scenes in long hand. Dialogue, scene notes, setting, whatever thoughts I have in my head about what I am going to be working on next. Here are both my notebook and card files that I use to map out scenes. The cards work like a storyboard, while the notebook is where I really try to flesh things out before I ever sit down. Prewriting is something you can do anywhere, carry with you always. Everything goes in the notebook. Revision notes, character questions, snippets of anything that seems mildly relevant. 
2) I write. When I sit down to write, I might turn on a playlist to get me back into the story, but my notes are right there to start my fingers tapping. If you begin each day by starting to write whatever notes you’ve jotted down, you are writing your book without any effort and by the time you run out of notes, you’ve pulled yourself into the story far enough that your imagination should just be running on auto-pilot.
3) I don’t edit. Not until I get the first draft done. This works for me. It may not work for everyone. The lesson here is to know what is the most efficient way for you to work. If you can’t move forward unless everything is perfect behind you, then that’s your style, but if that method is keeping you from finishing, then perhaps you need to let your hair down a little and cut loose. Trust the muse as it were.
Best wishes and keep on tapping!
Elizabeth
I am the queen of excuses. You give me something I’m not in the mood for and I can think of 100 excuses on why I shouldn’t deal with it.
Typically the one for my writing, isn’t so much that I don’t want to write but more than my poor head is fried from all the meds I take. I have days I can’t even remember the street address. I can’t even imagine working on my book in this state…it might turn into a Stephen King novel.
But when I do feel good and haven’t taken the various 6 pain pills I have, I do love to write. I just can’t do it for long periods of time. With site hopping, I get a change of what I’m reading…with my writing, its that white screen. Hmm, now I wonder if I can write longer if I change the color of the page. Maybe that will help.
Anyhow, I’ve written 3 pages (I know it doesn’t sound like a lot) on my WIP this morning, I feel like death, fever is 103 and I slept on the bathroom floor for about 20 minutes. Today is going pretty good so far lol.
September 23rd, 2006 at 12:45 pm3 pages is fabulous! Never discount whatever amount of pages you get done in a day. And there is nothing worse than trying to create when your body isn’t well. Take care of yourself!
September 23rd, 2006 at 1:54 pmDear Elizabeth,
My apologies for not even stopping by once to say hello during your blog week. I have been without a working computer at home for a little over a week now. I feel terrible I missed out on your visit. While I do have online access at work, my job and client projects are keeping me busier than ever. Even writing an email takes me days instead of minutes.
That said, reading your last two blogs (today’s and yesterday’s) the first thing that popped into my mind is…“everything happens for a reason” as passive as that quote sounds, it applies to this past week. If my home pc had not kicked the bucket I’d be procrastinating. Drawing my feet and not following up on my writing goals. As it is, my life in the past three months has been riddled with excuses. My day job has been draining my brain and I admit I’ve been pulling my hair over there. Then, there’s our crappy home pc…I keep saying to myself I can’t write because the computer shuts down every 10 seconds and that I don’t want to write long hand because my handwritting is attrocious (sp). It’s been “I can’t do this, I can’t do this” not because someone or something is holding me back, but because I’ve been procrastinating. Putting my writing, MY dream on the back burner because I’m too chicken to do it.
As exciting as fanlit sounds I’ve barely been over there, partly because it’s too overwhelming (over 3,000 members) and hundreds of submissions for the first round alone. And because I haven’t had a computer. I have to say thank heavens, I didn’t get caught in that rush. Don’t get me wrong…it’s a wonderful opportunity and it’s fun, but I don’t need another place online where I’m using precious writing time to post on threads and follow ups. When I first came out online over two years ago.. to talk books, make friends and get a chance to talk to authors, I was all over the place visiting several online bbs, blogs, amazon.com you name it. As much fun as I’ve had and as much as I’ve learned, I hardly work on writing a book. I didn’t go beyond, preliminary outlines, bare bones character charts and just plain talk about what I wanted to write about. How I wish I had been more organized, and more focused on my number one personal priority: writing a book to get published.
But as my grandma used to say we’re born to learn. I’ve learned from those times. I’ve slowly weaned myself from the usual hang out places and only visit every now and then. My writing priorities are first, then RI and then my personal blog. If I have time for anything else (and I could have time if I apply myself) then I do other things. Then I’m not even addressing things that happen at home, chores, taking care of the house, running errands, the animals, the dh, just everyday things.
Elizbo, thanks for calling all of us to attention. You’re right, more than right, (if that makes sense) the reason RI exists is because we all want to write books and be published. But we can just say, we’re goind to do it, blah, blah and nothing is done. *G*. I’m seriously speaking for myself here.
Now, if I haven’t lost your interest somewhere in this loooong comment, I have a question or two. How are your index cards divided? I noticed numbers, is it by chapters? scenes? I see a character tab. I’, curious.
Ok, I think I’m doing rambling, for now.
Thanks, Elizbo, for coming back here, for all your advice and the kick in the pants I needed. Hope to have you back in the future.
September 23rd, 2006 at 3:41 pmHugs,
Isabel
Isabel, the index cards are divided by chapters–my own sort of breakdown where I think the chapters will fall. Never works out that way, but the beauty of index cards is they are very flexible about moving around.
September 23rd, 2006 at 5:18 pmGood luck with the writing and the computer problems! I hear you on those. Have you considered wiping out your hard drive and reloading your OS and all your programs. I did this recently to my kaput computer and now it seems to be working fine. Wiping the drive and redoing it all was pretty easy–I have a Dell and they have step by step instructions on how to do it on their website. Just a suggestion.
Having been the shoulder that Isabel whined to haha, I know she has tried that. Matter fact, her husband has tried a great many things..I’m actually at a loss on it as well, as I know pc’s fairly well.
As for keeping healthy, I take my zillion pills a day and do what I can. I can only hope that I live to see “The Last Kiss”(working title) published.
Hmm, that makes me wonder..when submitting to a publishing house, should I mention to them that I could “push up daisies” at any moment? I think I’ve been pushing my luck as is. The docs said 6-8 months at best and that was around 3 years ago.
September 23rd, 2006 at 7:56 pmWell, I also snag the time when I have it (I’ve been able to finish two books in ten months!) And I also have an autistic son as well. I KNOW how hard they can be, bless their hearts.
I have a basic outline for the chapter in my head, or written down, but then I just sit at my computer and write! I’m definately one that pushes to finish the first draft THEN I go back and do the editing. This system just works for me.
Thanks Elizabeth!
Michelle
September 23rd, 2006 at 10:09 pmThanks for your advice on the pc situation, Elizbo. I don’t take credit for fixing our old pc, Rich fixed as much as he could so I can back to work. It’s been a pleasure having you here again.
Thanks!
September 24th, 2006 at 8:51 amIsabel
I prewrite in longhand, too, and for the same reason you said. It gives me a starting pont.
I remember when you brought in all your cards and notes and stuff to a presentation and I was very pleased to see we have a similar style. Even if it shouldn’t matter what other people do, it’s still nice to see!
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October 3rd, 2006 at 2:30 pm