Good Habits & Discipline

[Readingandrighting]

I’ve been writing for twenty years and got good feedback from a friend who is a poet and good marks/feedback from a creative writing course I did. I have always struggled with confidence in my work though and I struggle with discipline, too.

I’d really appreciate your advice on the discipline of writing. I want 2021 to be the year I finally put myself out there and try to get published. I’m going to start small with getting a short story or poem published.

I know in Stephen King’s book he recommended setting a daily word count but I write a combination of poetry, short fiction and have started on a novel; so that might not always work.

Is it as simple as creating a schedule and sticking to it? I’d be so very grateful for advice as this has been burning away inside me for too long now — time to act!

It does feel good! I'm going to sit down to an hour of writing now.

Ha! Well, the North Wind will just have to feature in your novel so!

I agree that the more you write, the more you think about your story. I have an idea for a novel germinating and most of the 'work' these days seems to be in my mind.

Today's hour done! Maybe little and often is the key after all. I enjoyed it again but resisting the urge to re-read as I'm sure it's crud! I'm going to try to get a first draft complete over the next few days and I'll edit afterwards. I'm not letting myself edit until then.

have a good session reading. I time myself, and was surprised when I came to the end of my hour today (carried on for another 30 minutes in fact). I'm getting used to not stopping when I'm not happy with something, but carrying, perhaps putting in a note about what I want to change about it when I go back.
5 days. 5000 words!!

ha! cross post

@MaMaLa321

as a newby (only 4 days in) I've found one of the big surprises, and benefits, is that, the more you write, the more you think about your story, even when not at your desk. I can see now why so many people say it's a good idea to carry a notebook around. So much better than being faced with a blank slate.

Totally. When I really into a story I can think about it all the time. When I'd doing something mundane like cleaning the floor, I'm going through a conversation or toying with where they're going next. It does take over my mind in a way that isn't always helpful. It does mean that sometimes I put an idea off because I know I can't afford to lose most of my thinking power while I write it.

@Readingandrighting

Today's hour done! Maybe little and often is the key after all. I enjoyed it again but resisting the urge to re-read as I'm sure it's crud! I'm going to try to get a first draft complete over the next few days and I'll edit afterwards. I'm not letting myself edit until then.

Well done! I haven't done anything today yet, need to start.

What I find quite helpful is I save my stories to the cloud and then read them that night in bed. I find it helps not to read it on the computer.

Save them go the cloud? Are they not still on the computer? (Pardon my innocence)

The thing that slows me down is all the work around the draft that needs doing. I decided I really needed to pin down my characters better so started a detailed character bible today. Think I've nailed my protagonist, antagonist, and a side-kick. A couple of chars vanished as they got morphed with surpluses. I can feel this is strengthening the structure but I have a lot of this to do before I add any actual words.

All down to a weak start where I just pictured the story and started writing. It's too complex for freewriting, but as I'm trying to learn to write as I go I had no idea of this when I started.

Yeah I find it helps to know the character well. Sometimes I use character profiles & sometimes I just free-write for fun to see who the character is. The freewriting method usually leaves a lot of padding to be done all right.

Oops no writing today or yesterday

well, you can do something tomorrow!
It doesn't matter about the quality, just to get something down.

Yes! I think that’s the key. When I’m too exhausted or glum or just not feeling it, I don’t write but I want to start writing even when I don’t feel great. Thanks. Tomorrow is another day, as Scarlett said.

how has it gone today Reading?
I've done my hour. I do realise now that, when I start, it's really not much good, but I've decided to push those thoughts aside and bash on regardless. I think it must take me about 20 minutes to get into the swing. My next aim is to lengthen the hour.

That's great - good to power through all right!

I did a bit but it was mostly re-reading, thinking and editing but good to get back in to the writer's headspace.

@Readingandrighting

Save them go the cloud? Are they not still on the computer? (Pardon my innocence)

The cloud is an internet based storage area. I can access it on my phone too.

I'm up to 25k words, could really do with about another 20k, but not totally sure where the next bit is going.

Ah cool. You meant you could look at it on your phone.

That's right. Sorry, I wasn't clear.

That’s a good idea all right.

How are people doing? Managing an hour a day?

Mine's going slowly...

I did an hour on Friday but nothing today or yesterday. Will get back on it tomorrow. You can see how I wasn’t kidding about struggling with routine & discipline!

ugh. I feel very disappointed with myself and I did one line today and couldn't carry on.
Possibly because I was looking to start a new arc in the story.

Tomorrow

A book is three questions. Why do I want to write this? What am I trying to say? Why should the reader care? And sorry the publishing world isn't a meritocracy. So if you know this and write anyway, your doing it for the right reasons, and this is important. Story is cadence. A rhythm like the 432 HZ sweet spot of sound. A good one to study for story structure is 'The Story Grid' Then you have the show don't tell crowd. Yes. But most of these enthusiast amateur kids waving there arms around on YouTube make it sound like everything must be shown. Fine if you want 500k word counts. Its a balance of the two. Everyone one here should make a list of their strengths and weaknesses. Those who are stong in one area should help those who feel less so. Offer your work to be read by others on here. Action is action talk is talk. Ask yourself one question. How serious am I?

@Readingandrighting

I’ve been writing for twenty years and got good feedback from a friend who is a poet and good marks/feedback from a creative writing course I did. I have always struggled with confidence in my work though and I struggle with discipline, too.

I’d really appreciate your advice on the discipline of writing. I want 2021 to be the year I finally put myself out there and try to get published. I’m going to start small with getting a short story or poem published.

I know in Stephen King’s book he recommended setting a daily word count but I write a combination of poetry, short fiction and have started on a novel; so that might not always work.

Is it as simple as creating a schedule and sticking to it? I’d be so very grateful for advice as this has been burning away inside me for too long now — time to act!

Act. Yes Readingandwriting. Act is the keyword. Schedule is the death of creativity. Fine you can have a schedule for sitting down and tippy tapping on the keyboard. Ideas come when you least expect them. I carry a small digital recorder or use my phone. My idea and phrases file is 20k long. Go for it with the poetry. Poetry's my thing to. Though we have to careful not to purple up our novels, it helps a great deal to have no trouble with descriptive and introspection. An example of inspiration harvesting. Two years ago in Greece having taken number three daughter and one of her friends. Just sat there in love with my daughters happiness and not a small degree of dad pride at her once again straight A achievement. (Sorry run away dad pride. Holiday was her reward). Then, the first paragraph came to me which I then used at the start of my first thriller. How many times do ideas and beautiful words slip away because we're not prepared to catch them. Although I didn't ultimately secure an agent I had two full manuscript requests for 10 submissions on the strength of that opening paragraph. Even personal email from agents complementing it. To be honest I don't know where it came from and red should take all the credit.