So here's a question for your Friday evening: What excuse cycles are you used to?
What are the sequences of thought that sneak into your mind, and cause a little chain reaction of stepping back from the work?
It's the end of the week, and that makes it a good time to clean the lint out of our mental pockets, right?
Here are the top four goofy excuses that have crept into my thinking this week, kicking me away from my desk:
Read MoreI caught my foot in another cycle of overthinking this afternoon. Overanalyzing, hyperscheduling, visualizing the worst, overplanning.
I find myself in these cycles a lot.
So, into that bit of madness, this breath of simplicity:
Because sometimes, that really is all I need to know.
Sometimes that's the only rule I need to keep.
And sometimes, I need to remember that it can be that simple.
You write by sitting down and writing. -- Bernard Malamud
I love the truth in this: every day is a restart button. Every writing session can be better than I thought.
And why wait for a new day? Why not use every break to reset my thinking? Coming back after a meal, after an errand, after any extended interruption: it's a chance at new words. Better images. Cleaner sentences.
This is an especially good quote for me, since I'm revising one of my manuscripts. And it is all too easy to stare at my old paragraphs and either think: Hey, that's not so bad, I'll leave it, or, Oh my gosh, am I really that bad at this?
Today's my chance to do a little better. To take what was already decent, and turn up the volume, make it shine. To take what was crappy, and make it, well, at least mediocre!
Mediocre? I'm totally joking. Today I'll make it awesome.
With each new dawn, every writer gets a second chance to write well. -- Eric Maisel
Yesterday I was thinking of sustainability, of making sure this day's work can lead to tomorrow's work. Building a groove. (I have my heart set on a groove right now.)
And this quote--I love the recklessness of it--says: drop it all right here, right now. Put it all down on that page. Spend everything.
For me, this gets at the generosity of a creator. Writing generously means, you don't hold back.
When I'm at my most generous, I'm ready to mine and use every single experience I can recall, stories I've heard through the years, characters I've met, dialogue I witnessed, my own most embarrassing or difficult moments.
I become the best-ever reference librarian of my own experiences, and I pore over my inner catalogues tirelessly; I am an A-1 pack rat, ready to bring my entire hoard out for the story's sake.
It's too easy to pull back from this. To be stingy, to write from the very top of the brain--that place where all the clichés hang out and make bad jokes.
Stinginess lurks in my bad time management, in a reluctance to sift through memories for the right details, or--especially lately--a stinginess of attention.
Read MoreI do love a good metaphor, and there are so many aspects of this one that seem spot-on to me.
Running and writing. Lacing up your verbal shoes, doing some warm-up sprints across the paper. Working toward this goal, this race, this project, a little bit every day. Training for it, practicing, getting stronger, building stamina.
Also, a good breakfast goes a long way with both pursuits.
But the thing that's ringing most true in my mind these days is sustainability. A runner has to take these steps now, and also those steps farther down the path, and then yeah, those last few waaaaaay at the end of the track. All from the same person, the same legs, heart, and lungs.
The question I ask a lot is, how can I make sure I get my work done today? And part of that question is, how can I make sure I also work tomorrow?
Read MoreSome days, I'm the overthinker. I'll overplan things that don't need to be planned. I hyperschedule; I obsess over details.
And sometimes, fine, it makes sense: writing a novel is a bit like building a rocketship in your imagination, all the parts and pieces in your head. Some days it feels like rocket science.
But I have to remember: it's also okay to loosen up. Shake out cramped fingers, turn the characters loose to play for a while, make daisy chains out of words.
Sometimes I have to remember, this really is just a story. It's just a bunch of words.
And for those days, this quote:
So here's to lightening up.
Stop making this harder than it is. -- Heather Sellers
Today is a marathon work day! Can you feel it? That urge to get into a groove and catch up a big project. Keep the caffeine coming! All hands on deck, all systems go, everything marching forward!
Because I totally am doing that.
Except for falling asleep on top of my work, and then distracting myself with the Internet, and maybe also staring at the ceiling a lot.
But otherwise. Otherwise, I'm telling you, I'm totally rocking it.
Okay, in all seriousness, it's a good day for writing. It's raining here, and for the most part, the words are coming steadily. I am having a marathon revision session, and today's quote is my happy cheerleader: pointing me toward the goal of all this good work, all the clarifying, the search for better words.
I'm building toward (or muddling toward) the draft that works. The final one.
The one that takes the best of my original vision, and all the best of everything since then.
The one with the sharpest conflict, the highest stakes, the brightest characterization, the most memorable settings. And hopefully, all the right words.
Barbara Abercrombie's quote comes from her book A Year of Writing Dangerously, which I highly recommend for any type of writer. It's packed with clever advice, much-needed encouragement, and (you know I love 'em) quotes from other writers.
Best of all, it reminds me that I'm normal. That all the weird little tics of my writing brain are so similar to the other writing brains out there.
It makes me think of all the other writers today, turning phrases one way and then another, refining one draft and turning it into the next and then the next. Some of us maybe napping in the midst of it.
All that scribbling, typing, clattering, mumbling out loud, staring into space, reaching for a better word.
It's a good crowd.
And I think they're telling me, it's time to get back to that manuscript.
What we need to do is think of all our failed drafts as simply steps toward the final one, the one that works. -- Barbara Abercrombie
There is something exhilarating about this quote.
Probably because: it does not describe me at all right now.
I have been living on the surface, my friends. Skimming along, trying to deal with the urgent things before they get out of control, taking care of immediate needs. I have not stolen the time to sit still, breathe deeply, and look close.
And while that keeps home life simmering happily, it is wreaking havoc on my writing.
Which has filled up with adverbs. Oh, adverbs. The sign of sloppy thinking.
Dull word, dull word, blah verb, and then a whole wodge of adverbs and cheap adjectives marching in to fluff out the image.
This is not how I like to work.
Read MoreToo often, when life is being chaotic and crazy and harrowing, or in other words, life is just being lifey, I am a mad mess. Itchy, irritable, unwilling to handle the new. And extremely willing to be a chattering, rabbity, panic festival.
These are not the occasions when I do my finest work.
And this isn't when I make clever, wise decisions.
This is when I'm shrill and defensive, bitter, venting fears. (And fears are contagious, so, let's make this a group party!) And it gets obnoxious being inside my own head, where it's suddenly suffocating and damp.
So I stick this quote on my desk, propped against my pencil cup, to help me realize that I'm breathing too fast and too shallow.
Read MoreThis is one of those wisdoms I pray for. Because it's a hard thing, discerning what exactly is pulling me away from the desk.
I have been the smarmy, glowering girl, bringing her notebook everywhere, insisting to everyone that she isn't going to stop her work, thanks very much. I'm embarrassed to say, I've been overly defensive of my time when I didn't need to be. I've kept working when I should have stopped.
Other times I do stop. Because it's truly needed. (This past year and a half have been record-breaking in that respect.) Sometimes I really do need to get up, shelve the book for the day, and permit the interruption.
And then I've also been too delighted to step away. I would much rather participate in that movie marathon, thanks so much! Why yes, I will run errands instead of writing. I wanted to make the four-hour dinner.
When are those breaks feeding the work?
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