So this weekend I once again posted my goals in the hopes of getting more accomplished than I normally do. And, once again I’m happy to report that it worked!
Yes, I got the contest entries judged, a few blog posts written and stored away, and even a little bit of writing done. In fact, I was done with the first two items on my list on Saturday in the hopes of having all days Sunday to write. I had visions of 5+k words written by this time.
Uh, didn’t happen. I was lucky to get 1k written. And many of those words weren’t new (to be fair, I actually wrote about 2k but lots of what I wrote was either deleted or set aside for later scenes).
Even though I know what I want to happen, I just can’t seem to get it written down. What do the rest of y’all do when this happens? How do you motivate yourself to write? How do you keep at the keyboard when the words either won’t come or come kicking and screaming from your head one at a time? How do you keep the magic?
I have to accept that it’s not always going to be magic. Sometimes I have to write through it, even if I know I’ll rewrite later. Sometimes I try writing a different part of the story–maybe something inside is telling me that what I’m working on right now isn’t right.
But getting the words down is the biggest thing, I think, even if they don’t feel like the right words at the time. It’s amazing what your mind will produce if you keep the fingers going (talking to myself here, I might add).
Up to reading something? I’ll send a story to JP, as if the two of you had any spare time…
Here’s the big secret:
1. Give yourself permission to write crap.
2. Crap can be fixed. (See #1)
What I did was tape a large X underneath my keyboard.
Whenever I’m having trouble, I push the keyboard out of the way and gently press my forehead into the middle of the X. You know, gentle, so it makes a loud thunk.
Another imfamous depends answer.
Sometimes this is your brain going – Whoa! Wait a minute. Maybe this isn’t working. In that case, sit back, take a look at the flow of the story and say okay – what’s wrong.
Sometimes this is a natural writer’s laryngitis where the words aren’t coming to you. That’s normal. Take a moment and write through it. This can always be bulked later.
As a general rule, this can become a habit. No matter what the problem is, give yourself permission to honor the work and a day or a week to get over it.
Then plant your fingers on the keys, and start typing.