During my initial attempts to set up a writing process there was often nothing more daunting than beginning each day with the blank page. The fear feasted on an internal monologue of doubt which manifest itself in the belief that I had to write PERFECTLY. Every word, every sentence needed to be a masterpiece. This lead to many an unproductive writing sessions where this fear hindered me into only writing a handful of words.
Kurt Vonnegut famously quipped “Swoopers write a story quickly, higgledy-piggledy, crinkum-crankum, any which way. Then they go over it again painstakingly, fixing everything that is just plain awful or doesn’t work. Bashers go one sentence at a time, getting it exactly right before they go on to the next one. When they’re done they’re done.” Vonnegut was a basher banging out page seventy-three after page seventy-three until it was perfection and then he would move on to page seventy-four. With the struggles of getting minimal words down on the page I finally realized that I wasn’t a basher. I was a a Swooper.
Removing the burden of writing perfectly, whatever that truly means, allowed me to focus on getting the words written instead of letting the internal editor nitpick everything that was put down. The only modification allowed was the advice to reread the last paragraph or two from the previous day to get back into the action of the scene. During this two paragraph reread I will edit for clarity where needed, but try as much as possible to not fall into a maudlin state about the quality of my writing. Anything can be fixed in revisions.
The simple mind shift of getting the words onto the page allowed the plot to progress forward instead of bogging down in the minutia of rewriting the same section over and over again. With the plot steadily marching forward it was easier to sustain excitement about the work as there was always new scenes and sections to experience. However this also led to another issue that I had here to yet experienced—obsession.
As soon as my word count was met for the day and the laptop powered down thoughts of the next days writing would creep in. Would I be able to meet my word count? Would the well run dry or would I not know how to proceed forward? This doubt would haunt me at any free moment. What this lead to was an all consuming focus on my work in progress. Not only did this worrying not help most of the time, but I would often keep focusing on the same section over and over again without ever reaching any true catharsis. This process, if I could even call it that, felt like I was doing what all authors do by obsessing about my work. It felt like i was making progress and yet it didn’t actually help my writing it simply stressed me out.
The obsessive process continued until one day I read a quote from Hemingway “It was in that room too that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and at the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything.” It was the solution to a problem I didn’t even realize I had and freed me from the notion that focusing on my story had to be all consuming.
That obsession took me out of the present, out of my life, in a way that didn’t allow the world around me to inspire and refill my creative juices. If I was to focused on myself I might miss the person on the bus who was the perfect bartender for my inn or enjoy the simple beauty in the park as I went for a walk to help build settings. These daily excursions became for me a way of sucking the marrow out of life so I could return it to the page the next day. Taking time away can recharge the batteries more than forcing myself to sit and think about my plotting all the time.
As my schedule elevated into habit it was easier to sit down knowing it was time to write and then when I was done move away from it for the day. At least this is what I am able to do on my best days. I’m not perfect, I still obsess sometimes when I’m at a particularly difficult part of a novel. But now, more often then not, when I am in the middle of a project I can channel that inner resource at will and then set it aside to replenish for the next day.
It was only by experimenting with different strategies, combing through writing blogs, and reading books by authors on writing that I was able to hone a process that worked for me. Taking time away from writing daily is as essential as letting the inner editor take a break. Try it out and see if it works for you.