Who’s writing this weekend? If you’re like me, you likely have just a few hours or minutes – here and there – through the week to write. Having a full-time job is annoying sometimes, but it does pay the bills. When the writing is paying the bills full-time, then we can let the job go. Right?
Until then…
So the plan this weekend is to get some writing done. The project I started a few weeks ago is still going, but slowly. I’ve gone from having 0 words on the page to having over 5,000. That may not sound like much. Of course, it’s not the length of a full novel, but it’s a start. Also it’s a good start for me considering in the past couple of years, I write out an idea and after getting 2,300 words written, the idea sort of falls apart.
That’s why…
I’ve decided to get organized. I always thought since I had to be very organized with my full-time job, I could pull back from that with my writing. I could simply just sit down and write. In the beginning, that did work for me. But now I feel like it’s more complicated than that. Or it really needs to be more thought out and planned.
If I want to think of my fiction writing being a full-time job some day, now’s the time to start treating it like a full-time job.
Step 1 – Plan it out…
Over the past two weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about my story while I commute to work. It’s helped me to summarize in my head what I want to write about the next time I sit down at the computer. It can be one simple scene or an idea for the overall plot.
I’ve always dreaded looking at the blank page when I sit down to write. Now with having an idea already planned about what I want to get done in the 30 minutes or an hour I have, I can actually do that. Remember thinking is a lot like planning. If jotting out your ideas on paper first helps you formalize your plan for what you want to write, that can work too.
Step 2 – Keep writing and planning…
When I started this experiment, I thought I needed to write every chance I got. I’m learning that it’s a good option to give myself a brief break as well. I’ll write for about 30 minutes in the morning. Then at lunch I’ll take my journal with me and write 10 or 15 minutes as well. Having a set day each week to write a blog here has helped too.
Since we live in a society that keeps us over-saturated with information, I have found that I need the break to just think. I’m trying to get better about not checking my email or social media as much on my phone, and instead devote that time to brainstorming about my story. I’ll email myself a scene idea or string of dialogue I want to use the next I write.
Step 3 – Be patient with your progress…
As I’ve mentioned recently, I tend to be impatient with what I dream of doing and what I end of doing. I regret not been more prolific the past couple of years, but that’s not going to help me now.
Instead I’m being patient with myself, doing something each day or every other day that gets me closer to my dreams and my goals.
Keep Writing, everyone!
Ally Thomas 