If you’ve been keeping up with my writing-related blogs and newsletters (get the newsletters) you know that I’ve been running into a problem lately with my writing. One part of the problem is actually finding the time to write and enough time where I can get in a groove and actually accomplish enough work where I am happy. The second is doing it with consistency. With 2 books going and the intent on publishing them next year, I am trying to get back on some sort of schedule that also fits in with my full-time job and my busy family life.
I am a pantser when it comes to writing (more or less). If you don’t know what that is it means I basically write by the seat of my pants. I have a story, how I want it to start and end, a rough plot in mind, my characters and then I go from there. I don’t outline much at all if ever. This all, for the most part, works for me and I have published three books writing things that way.
Having two books that I am currently working on means sometimes my mind wanders while I am working on one story and it goes to another. I’ll have both WIPS (works in progress) open on Word at the same time. For a while, I would work on one then go to another. Once I go to the next I would fight my urges and stay on that second one trying to be a good boy. Eventually, I would give in and go back to the first but by then I would forget my really great idea that I had even if it was just some lines of dialogue let alone lengthy exposition. For the last week or so in the sparse hours I have for writing I tried an experiment.
First off, I’ll say one book is the 3rd book in the Oregon Series called Voices, the second book is a standalone novel about a young boy named Braden who is dealing with body image issues and bullying along with the struggles of moving to a new school in Michigan after he and his sisters’ parents die. Then I through a short story into the mix which is really just a writing exercise to experiment on styles and improve my ability.
So, to my experiment.
Instead of just sticking to one project and fighting my creative urges I decided to just go with it. I started “small” and wrote a page or two from one project, switched to another that hit me then wrote a few pages and did the same with the 3rd. The next time I was able to write I did the same thing, in no particular order and wrote another page or two in each. I kept going back and forth, switching projects and slowly putting more and more words on the screen.
What I found is that it worked for me. In fact, it worked for me in an amazing way. I was able to swiftly write and work my way through each of the stories at a rate that surprised me with an initial quality that made me happy. Some writers might balk at this idea and maybe I did at first too, but I needed something to help me proceed towards the finish line with at least the two main projects let alone eventually crossing the finish line.
For some reason *read as luck*, I was able to keep my stories, characters and flow working for each project while not interfering or affecting the others. While writing for, let’s say Voices I came up with where and how I wanted to proceed with the standalone novel as well as the short story while not hurting my progress with Voices. It is very important to me to finish both of these books, but I don’t have the ability or time to schedule writing periods for each individual one. Especially since I don’t always get time for writing every week with my other life responsibilities. I can’t say I’ll “work on Voices for two days next week and the standalone the week after” etc etc. My life just doesn’t work like that. I know it doesn’t work that way because that is what I’ve been trying which as led to little progress. I don’t want to focus on just one WIP until its finished (which, yes, I did try) because I inevitably think about the other or others and get frustrated with whatever one I decided to “stick with.”
This experiment was chancy and might not have worked out as well as it has so far. Who knows it might crash and burn in a few weeks. For now, though I am up roughly 5,000 words on Voices, 2,500 words on the standalone and 3,000 words on the short story. So, with this little experiment in productivity, I am up 20 pages, 10 pages, and 12 pages respectively over nearly two weeks when I was struggling to hit 3-4 pages over the last month on any of them. I found this experiment helped my mind stay fresh during my writing time and kept my creative juices flowing until I had to quit and go to bed so I could be an adult the next day at work or for my kids.
So, if you are a novelist or even a someone who writes more on the journalistic side of things what weird writing tricks have you tried in order to finish a project, get out of a slump and increase your productivity?
Did it work or not?
If not, then why?
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