In truth, I’ve found that any day’s routine interruptions and distractions don’t much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster’s shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters.
Stephen King - On Writing

King’s On Writing is probably my favorite writing book ever. It’s not so much a technical how to but a successful writer talking about writing in a very personal sense. I highly recommend it! He’s got a very no nonsense approach, which I appreciate. Because really, it’s all about just doing it.

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up
Anne Lamott

Lamott’s Bird By Bird is another book on writing I love. Also a very personal, non technical approach by a writer talking about writing.

In truth, there’s a lot of joy to the process if you realize it’s about effort and heart and realizing life is PART of the process, even when it’s an impediment.

Any favorites from your library?

It’s tough to have writing motivation at this time of year. There’s so much going on with parties and gift wrapping and shopping…I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Remembering that writing is my dream job helps. It takes work, but it’s worth it. Eleanor Roosevelt said it best:

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

That quote just makes me smile.

“You don’t find time to write. You make time. It’s my job.”
- Nora Roberts

It’s so true. Off to make time…

How goes it? Are you able to make some progress amidst the holiday madness, or is shopping and cooking and gift wrap getting in your way?

SantaSven is watching….

The best stories start with change… A stranger arrives in town… The first leaves of autumn fall… Notice in your reading of popular novels how often the moment of change is the moment the book begins… Think deeply about how to open your story with this crucial time of threatening change.

What do you think about when you write? Is it the story? Does it unfold in your mind like a movie? A series of still images? Little fragments of something that doesn’t make any sense you’ve put it down on paper (or the screen)? Something else entirely?

I think mine is a little bit of of each. When it’s really moving, it’s series of still, flashing through my mind or a movie. When it’s slow, it’s bits of nonsense that eventually form something resembling logic or sometimes the images are in slow motion, like I’m taking a leisurely tour of a photo album.

But then there are the awful times when my mind is on anything but the story. Worrying about future projects, pain in the butt issues, bills, shopping. My mind does won’t shut down.

Today I’m going to focus on the images of the story and I hope you can do the same!

So, just about half way into the challenge, sweat-people. What’s your status? Are you super-achieving? Or sliding? Racking up solid word counts? Or just pottering?

Stick with it, folks. Do what you can. Hang on in there.

Quoth Jaci, yesterday:

Imagine that with every book you write, you hit the wall, stop, dump the entire thing and start over with a brand new project, one you love. It’s so much better than the last one that wasn’t working. Your fingers fly, the story shines…

Quoth challenge participant Jen Hayley on her own blog yesterday:

So, I sat down tonight to do some writing on the middle of CLASH. Middles are hard. Instead of coming up with brilliant prose and writing the next scene I have mapped out, I kind of sort of fiddled around with a New!Shiny! Idea that popped into my head tonight.

Hmmm…. appears to be an epidemic of shiny things floating around in the collective unconscious, does it not? Jen’s even got a new status bar up on her page tracking her progress on her new project, a codification which (and I’m not picking on Jen) may make it even harder to realize that it’s not what you’re supposed to be working on.

I am familiar with the allure of the shiny new thing. The new book has no mistakes in it. The new book is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. The new book won’t have these truculent characters or difficult middle or sticky wicket of a transition scene. The new book will be all things wonderful, so why the heck am I working on this old piece of dreck?

Someone once told me the best way to think up a new idea is to get stuck on an old one.

Sometimes it’s best to ignore these ideas, to stick them in an “idea” folder and promise that you’ll get back to them later. (The “promise” part is very important — otherwise they won’t believe and will keep on nagging.) But what if this idea will not be put away? What if it won’t be told to shut up? That’s when I use a different tactic.

I had an idea like that once. I was in the middle of finishing up one novel that had been requested by a bunch of agents, and doing editor-requested revisions on another. This idea would not leave me alone, however, It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up in the morning, the last thing I thought about before going to bed. I had industry professionals waiting on me for two other books, and I really, really needed to shut this project up so I could concentrate on my requested work.

So I turned it into a carrot on a stick. I made myself a schedule: X many hours of work a day on the requested project, and then I was free to do whatever I wanted on the bright, shiny idea. Here at 70 Days of Sweat, we already have a schedule. You’ve already agreed to write 900-1500 words a day. After that, you are free to work on whatever you’d like. Indulge yourself in your bright, shiny carrot on a stick — after you’ve finished your other work.

That’s what I did. I worked on my requested revisions and full manuscript, playing with my new idea in a few scraps of leftover time. Once I turned them in, I went after my bright, shiny idea with gusto.

Now, I probably shouldn’t tell you this part, because it will make you even more certain that you should dump your current ms for the new idea, but those other books didn’t end up selling. The new one, however, became Secret Society Girl, my first published book. But here’s what I think. I learned things finishing that one book (which was the hardest book to bring home!), and revising the other (my first editor requested revision!) that I think helped make Secret Society Girl “the one.” If I hadn’t done it the way I did, maybe I wouldn’t have had the skills to turn the shiny idea into the saleable project.

Have you hit it yet? The wall? That thing that stops us from moving forward?

I have. I’m there. My story is a total piece of shit and I can’t go any further. I want to print it out and toss it in my fireplace to use as kindling. It’s crap. It’s worthless. I’ve never written such dreck in my entire life.

Fortunately, I’ve been writing long enough to know I hit this wall with every book I write–the point where I realize the book I’m writing is toast and I need to start over.

So what do I do when I hit the wall? I keep going.

Imagine that with every book you write, you hit the wall, stop, dump the entire thing and start over with a brand new project, one you love. It’s so much better than the last one that wasn’t working. Your fingers fly, the story shines…

Until you hit the wall again. And believe me, you will. So you stop, dump the entire thing and start over with a brand new project, one you love. And so on and so on…

As Lauren said in her post yesterday, revisions are your friend. But you can’t revise what isn’t written.

So while I’m stomping around and cussing and hating life and this story, I keep going. I will finish. I have to finish. And when I do, I’ll turn this piece of shit into a book.

Kick that wall down or walk around it. But don’t ever give up and start over. Kiss of death for a writer.

Every writer I know has trouble writing. ~Joseph Heller

It’s hitting some of us right about now. The words become harder. The little voice in the back of your mind becomes more critical and the pace slows. Doubt might even be sneaking in - should I just pack it in now? Should I wait until the next challenge? Am I cut out to do this? Is this story even worth finishing?

Guess what? Every single writer I know has had doubts. Has looked up from the screen where they’ve stared at the nineteen words it’s taken her four hours to write, and delete, and write again.

Sometimes it is tough to keep going. Sometimes the words are like ticks and they do not want to be dug from your brain, from your fingers and put on the page.

Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head. ~From the movie Finding Forrester

And when that happens I just keep working. I make myself sit there and type those nineteen words and I make myself stop deleting them. I make myself write the book and eventually, after I did it a few times I realize that for me anyway, at least once a book, sometimes more, I hit a wall where the story eludes me, where it feels like I’m reciting a bunch of words that mean absolutely diddly poop. And I make myself keep going because when I finish the first draft I can go back and fix it.

You can’t fix it if you quit. You can’t fix it if you don’t finish so the only option is to forge through and remember editing and revision are your friends! Writing is a process. It’s more than just the fevered love affair you have when the story is working, it’s also the tough times, the moments of doubt, when you’re not so sure you love that darned book so much anymore and a new project seems so shiny and young. Writing is work. So keep at it and I’ll see you at the finish line.