Type It Out

I get the worst writer's cramp. In school, it was the bane of my existence. Ever tried to keep up with a fast talking math professor? And don't even get me started on timed essay tests. (All this was in the dark ages, before the proliferation of cell phones and laptops, so I have no idea if it would be as bad now as it was then.)  

I still remember taking my AP English test and wondering if my hand would give out before I could get that essay finished.  

That's why I love computers. If I had to write my stories out longhand, I would not be writing.  

I love typing (or is it called keyboarding now?). I love the sound the keys make as the words appear letter by letter on the screen. I love the feel of the keyboard beneath my fingers. And I can type about as fast as I can think, so I don't spend too much time having my words catch up to my thoughts.  

A hard copy is good sometimes. I like to be able to cross out sections, circle words, and see my writing on a physical page. (Why is it that you can see your mistakes easier on a hard copy?) But when I'm writing, I need to type it out.  

Thinking About It

Before I sit down to write anything, I think about it. A lot.

I've spent the better part of today pondering what I'm going to blog about. Not continuously, but here and there over the course of the day. I was going to give it up as lost (since nothing was coming to me), but I didn't post yesterday, so I figured I should put something up today.

About then, it occurred to me that this thinking I do is part of how I write.

Last week, I got a couple comments about how I must be some combination of a plotter and a pantster since I don't follow my short draft very closely. I disagree. Just because my writing rarely goes according to plan doesn't make me any less of a plotter, I think.

I spend a lot of time figuring out my stories before I even start writing them. I spend a lot of time planning my blog topics before I even get online. I can't stare at a blank screen and put down the first thought that comes into my head. I have to have something in my head, a place to start, before I start.

I may diverge from the plan once I get started, but I can't start anything without something to start with.

That's just how I'm wired.

The Short Draft

As a writer, I'm a plotter. I have to know how the story is going to end before I can even think about beginning it. But, I can't outline.

I tried. I would sit down and try to bullet point each of the main plot points, but I couldn't get it right. I had a good idea of how the story was supposed to go in my head. Putting it down in written form was impossible.  

Eventually, I figured out the answer for me. I write what I call the short draft.  

As I'm plotting out the story, I write out a sort of summary or synopsis. Kind of what I want to happen in the story. I can work on this for weeks (a couple, anyway) until I have a cohesive story. Some sections I sort of skip over, while others I write out in some detail. The thing can end up being about 6000 words.

It's not a novel by any means, but once I'm done with the thing, I have an idea of where I'm going. I then take that document and turn each paragraph into a bullet point. As I write my first draft, I check off paragraphs as I write them into the story.  

So, I guess I do write an outline, sort of.  

Then, somewhere around chapter 3, I find that I deviate from my short draft. I start to go off on weird tangents. I add characters. I take out scenes that I thought would work. I rearrange events.  

Yeah, kind of like battle plans not surviving contact with the enemy, my "outline" doesn't survive contact with the actual writing.  

Ah well. I think this still qualifies me as a plotter.  

WBW

...which stands for Writer's Block Workshop.

The name is a left over. There was a time when I'd go into that file and write random stuff when I was stuck. However, this thing has evolved since then.

Nowadays, I do all my writing in the WBW. I start a new page. I put the date in the top right hand corner. Then I start by whining about my day.

What I whine about varies. I could be tired. It could be late in the day. I might have no idea what I want to write about. I might be stuck in the plot of the novel. Whatever it is, I give myself permission to write it all out, and in about a paragraph I've whined myself out.

Then I get to the writing.

What I'm writing depends, of course, but generally I continue on from wherever it was I left off the last time. Interestingly enough, I find that after my whine, I can write 500-1000 workable words. Sometimes. Other times, I write two or three paragraphs, and then I stall.

At that point, I write down what it is that's stalling me. "This paragraph sucks." And sometimes I write out something that's bothering me about where the story is going.

I used to stop and talk out the problem. I'd get up, walk around the room, and think through what was wrong. It could take me twenty minutes to get back to the writing.

Now, I write out 1-3 sentences (usually one), and I'm back at it.

Then I go through, take out all the usable parts, and I paste them into my working document. What I'm working on varies, but no matter if it's a short story, a novel, or some other random article, I find that if I can stop and write out what I'm thinking when I'm thinking it, I get back to the writing that much quicker.

It may be a strange system, but I find it works for me.

Do you have any strange methods that work for you? Please share. I get my best ideas that way. (I didn't come up with the WBW on my own.)

Flexibility

Last week I talked about my wonderful writing schedule. Then this week blew it out of the water.

Things have been crazy. I believe I've mentioned that my brother is moving. While this has been a gold mine for blog topics, it's wrecked havoc with my writing schedule.

Sigh.

This happens from time to time. Stuff happens. The writing has to be pushed aside for more immediate concerns. That is one of the reasons why I don't write every day anymore. So, while I have my preferred days for writing, some weeks I find that those days have to change. And some weeks the weekly goal can't be met.

I give myself a "forgiven" day once a month. That's a day I can miss the writing without piling on any guilt. I couldn't get to it, so I had to let it slide. I rarely invoke this rule, but it's in place for those weeks that just get away from me.

And then there's the extraordinary circumstances clause. (I don't have these written down anywhere, but maybe I should.) Whenever I have one of those events that has to take precedence over everything else (you know, the emergency situations), any writing not done is just forgiven. It has to be.

Last year, I took two weeks off because I was miserable sick. I didn't feel even a twinge of guilt for missing those days. I needed my rest, so I got it.

I hope to get caught up with my writing this week, but I have no idea if I will. I can only do so much, and once things get back to normal, I'll get back to my writing schedule.

What do you do when life gets in the way of your writing?

Enjoy the Silence

Last week, I talked about how when I started writing, I started by writing a page of something every day. That worked great...for a while. But things change.

After a series of moves, the computer, which once had a private room of its own, had to be set up in the living room next to the TV. I no longer could go and write whenever I had the time. I had to find times when I was alone and the TV wasn't being used.

Some people don't mind noise when they write. I do. I don't need absolute silence, but I can't write with a TV show on in the background. I don't even put music on. Ambient noise is okay, but conversations distract me.

So, I modified my writing schedule. I do keep to a schedule. That's just the way my brain works. But the schedule is pretty flexible, allowing me time to write when I have time, and allowing me days off when I'm busy with other responsibilities.

The trick to the schedule is that every time I modify it, I make myself responsible for more pages per week. When I first had to go off the page-a-day, I modified my schedule to two pages for four days of the week. So, instead of seven pages a week, I was responsible for eight.

At the moment, my weekly goal is twelve pages, but that is soon to work up to sixteen (I hope). It sounds like so little, but some weeks, getting those twelve pages done is hard. (For example, this week. But that's another story.)

What about you? Do you have a weekly goal?

A Page a Day

It's Thursday, so I'm going to talk about writing. (I could do it on Wednesdays, but that would lead to the obvious alliteration, and I just can't do that.)

I got my first real novel idea in the 10th grade. The problem was getting the courage to sit down and actually, um, do the writing of it. That was an issue for a very long time. I would think about sitting down and writing, but I'd never get around to doing it. Then, when I'd get around to sitting in front of the computer (it had to be a computer as I get wicked writer's cramp), I might fiddle around for an hour or so, but nothing would get accomplished.

It wasn't until I made a habit of writing that I got any writing done. And I started simple. I made a commitment to write a page of something every day.

Depending upon my work schedule, I'd do it before or after work. I wrote on my birthday and on Christmas. I wrote when I wasn't feeling all that well. I wrote.

I started a novel that I never finished. I had days where I just didn’t feel like writing, so I wrote journal pages. I worked on short stories. And somewhere in there, writing daily became so ingrained that a day didn’t feel complete unless I got my writing in there somewhere.

Since then, I have moved up from a page a day. It’s not much more than that, but at least it’s a weekly goal, and it’s a weekly goal that I can meet, even when other obligations must be met. I’ve learned a lot about how I work best in that time. I’ve managed to complete (first drafts of) two novels. And I’m working on a third. (I’ll get one of them ready to be read by someone other than me one of these days.)

Starting something new is hard. Figuring out how to accomplish it in manageable steps helps. So, if I had to give a new writer any advice, it would be to write a page of something every day. It’s what worked for me.

What Am I Doing?

I don't spent a lot of time talking about my writing. I don't even write a lot about my writing. There's a simple reason for that. I have no idea what I'm doing.

There are so many writing blogs out there with great advice, interesting tidbits, and good information. I don't have that. So, I write about what I know, and I read about what I don't know.

But it's summer. The sub jobs kind of dry up when school is not in session.

I've decided that it's about time I write something about writing. But since I don't know anything useful about writing, I can only write about how I write. Hey, it's a great way to fill up my Thursdays.

Before I got the courage to sit down and attempt to write something, I read a lot about how writers write. Some of the information was useless, but some of what I read helped me figure out what kind of writer I am. I guess that's what we're all doing here--figuring out what we're doing by using the example of others.

Yeah, it's much simpler when I have crazy sub days to write about.