The Third of the “Goals and Dreams 2012 Series”
Got the goals? Dreaming the dreams? All set for 2012 and a good year of writing?
Standing here at the beginning of the year, every writer I know says, “Ready!”
And they mean it. But sadly, ask all but the most driven writers in May the same question and life will have stopped almost all writers cold. And they will not be back at it.
And the year will pass and around Christmas many writers will wonder what happened, swear they will do better in the new year, set new goals, and off they go into yet another new year to repeat the same problem.
Sounds horribly cynical for me, doesn’t it? But alas, it’s not. It just normal human action that I am reporting. I wish like hell I would be wrong, and I always am happy when a writer proves me wrong on this. But alas, for the vast majority of writers, I will be correct in my horrid assessment.
But there are ways to keep going, to start again in May or August, to climb back on the old horse you mounted on January 1st, and keep riding toward the end of the year. And thus end up having a great writing year.
But these ways are only used by the most driven writers, I’m afraid. And those of us who do this for a living. (You think this gets easier once you are making a living, think again. It gets harder.)
Once you learn and can apply some of the tricks and methods and drive I am about to talk about, you will have helped train yourself to be a long-term professional fiction writer. At least on the production side.
So, I am talking to everyone with this last post in this series, with the hopes the most driven will remember this in a month or three when the world knocks them for a loop.
Stopping is Not Failure
Failing to restart is a failure.
Giving up is a failure.
Failing to even start in the first place is a failure.
But once you are going and get stopped, which will happen at one level or another, you have not failed at that moment. You have only failed if you don’t get back to work.
So let me be very, very clear here. Everyone who starts a challenge or sets goals for 2012 will get stopped at one or more points along the way in 2012.
Everyone. No exceptions.
It’s a long year.
The stops will range from not getting to work at all for a few weeks, to a nasty sickness, to life events like the estate one I dealt with this fall. Friends will need help, people will die, day jobs will need more attention, family and friends will suddenly need to take writing time you hadn’t planned on.
It’s called living. Duh.
And you can’t control all the living aspects of the world and people around you, so don’t even try.
Let me say that again. Back to control. You can’t control what comes at you, so don’t try.
But you can control how you act in response to the life events.
And you can control when you get back to work on your writing.
Response
Most beginning writers I know do one of two things when major life events hit them.
One… They just put the writing away until everything is done. (This is normal and caused by focus. Your focus has been ripped away from writing. Most times this is the only option when an event is very, very large.)
Two… The writer gets mad at the event and gets into blame games and makes restarting writing seem like a HUGE event. And thus never does restart.
So what kind of response is sane and professional?
When the dust has cleared, meaning you are able to think about your writing again, you look at the situation. Cold and clear-eyed, not angry or emotional.
Ask these questions:
1… How much time have I really lost on my goal or my writing?
2…How far behind am I on any real deadline? (contract deadline with publisher)
3… With the new situation, is the old goal still possible?
But what I skipped and made sound easy is the very, very first step: Remembering.
Sounds like a problem you would never have? You can only hope. Because when life comes flashing at you throwing curve balls, only the most dedicated writers even think about writing. Most do not. Most do not remember the January 1st drive and excitement. Most just forget the writing.
But assume you do remember, assume you have looked at the questions and got the answers. Then you are ready to start again.
Sometimes you can just pick up and keep going. By the end of the year a two-week slip won’t even be noticeable in the large total.
Or if the old goal isn’t possible, you reset the goal.
Personal aside:
With my public challenges of 100 short stories and losing weight and running a marathon, I felt like I was right on track on August 21st. I knew I could finish the stories, I had signed up and paid the fees for a marathon and felt comfortable with that as well. All good.
Then I woke up August 22nd after getting home from the World Science Fiction convention and my world had changed. Not just a little, but a lot. And at that point I didn’t know how much, actually. One of my closest friends had died suddenly at the convention after I left, and I was his executor on his estate. And he left me a mess that to this day I am stunned at the scope and size and legal issues.
Over the next few days my thoughts came back to my writing, but only in such a way that I was glad I didn’t have any New York deadlines at that point.
A couple weeks later I surfaced enough to think about the challenges. I cancelled the marathon run, but still hoped to get back to the writing of the short stories. I even did a few of them in that next month, but it soon became clear that I wasn’t going to be home much at all for months. And the estate was going to take all my focus at least until November. As it turned out, it took until December. And then I got sick. Go figure.
So I changed my challenge. (Notice, I was paying attention to it all along.)
I will still write 100 short stories in the challenge and put them up here, but I took the deadline off it, since any yearly deadline is just artificial anyway. And in a coming post I will talk about how I will climb back onto writing. What some of you don’t know is that even though I got home in December, for the most part, I’m still not totally here. For the first time in my life I’ve had a really, really bad flu. And I lost (temporarily) most of the sight in one eye from one of the estate trips.
If I had traditional deadlines, I would have been talking to editors this fall and just now getting back to working on those books. But thankfully, I am still clear of major deadlines, so I have time to rest and come back naturally. And I am allowing myself that time, much to the surprise of my wife and friends. (grin)
But Kris will tell you, over the last two months, we’ve had a ton of conversations about how I will get back at the writing and when. I am not angry in the slightest. It’s not the first time life events have stopped my writing and it won’t be the last. It’s just the way life rolls and the key for me is to not let it stop me any longer than is sane and healthy.
I’ve detailed out all this to show how a professional writer deals with major events. Take from it what you will.
End personal aside.
Some Help in Getting Back On the Horse.
Assuming you remember your writing challenge, that you really, really want to get back at the writing, and it is healthy to restart, let me give some tricks on how to restart.
Trick one:
Plan out ahead what you are going to work on first.
And write it down! I don’t mean outline, I just mean know what story or novel you plan to work on when you start back writing.
And maybe have two or three out ahead of you. Example: Tomorrow plan to work on X-Novel. Chapter 10. Friday plan to work on X-Novel, finish Chapter 10 and start Chapter 11. And so on.
If you have three or four writing sessions out ahead, roughly planned, it will cut down on the panic of the restart.
Trick two:
Have a back-up project to work on.
And have it written down on a back-up list.
Example: Plan to work on Chapter Ten of X-Novel, but for some reason, that’s just not coming, so back up plan is to work on Y-Short Story about (blank).
There is no such thing as writer’s block, but there is “project block” so be ready to move to a new project and fire at a moment’s notice. The moment you do that, the pressure on the other project will ease, your subconscious mind will figure out what was stopping you, and you can go back to it later.
But as you restart, it’s a good idea to have two or three projects ready to switch to.
Trick three:
Set an emergency back-up time each day for writing.
You have your writing time figured out, and you have told your family you are getting back to writing. But life is nasty at times. Be prepared to have that time yanked. So prepare for that.
For example, you plan on a writing session between 7 and 9 in the evening, but alas, family gets in the way and you’re going to miss. Nope. Your back-up for the day is after the family goes to bed, you’ll stay up and get the minimum pages cranked out. That way when you wake up the next day, you’ll feel amazingly good about overcoming yet another life issue and still getting your pages done.
Again, this time is emergency time only. But it will really help you keep up a great attitude along the way.
Trick four:
Set up a “report into” person.
You may have already had this set up when the challenge started. Tell them you are restarting and ask them if can you start reporting into them again?
Knowing that you have to report in will drive you even more. We all hate making excuses and missing. Especially since you just came off a miss. It will drive you to write in your emergency time more than not.
Reporting in to another person is one of the most powerful tools in structuring new habits and rebuilding ones you think you lost in the down time.
Summary
You have your goals all figured. You have your daily or weekly work total figured. You have told your family and friends that you have a set writing time and you plan to protect it.
In other words, you are set to get into a great year of writing in 2012.
Now, somehow, in some fashion, when life bumps you off your goals, off your pace, you need to do the following things to keep the year in writing going.
First: Remember your writing. It might not be on the top of your mind in the emergency, but as things clear, bring it up. Make it important.
Second: Plan your restart. Don’t make it into a big deal. Just do a little planning and then get some words done.
Third: Never try to catch up. Be willing to change your goal, change your plans. Setting a yearly goal is artificial at best.
Stopping and getting knocked off track is going to happen to every writer this coming year. I have never had a year when life didn’t send me spiraling off into strange directions away from my writing. It’s normal. Treat it as normal instead of some big disaster.
Then get your butt back in the chair and get back to typing.
Stopping is normal.
Not restarting is failure.
Have a great writing year, everyone. And stop back here at times. This is going to be a fun year-in-transition for publishing and we can talk about it.
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Copyright © 2011 Dean Wesley Smith
Cover art copyright Philcold/Dreamstime
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This chapter is now part of my inventory in my Magic Bakery. I’m giving you this small slice as a sample. I’m giving you a taste, but not selling any of the pie.
If you feel this helped you in any way, toss a tip into the tip jar on the way out of the Magic Bakery.
If you can’t afford to donate, please feel free to pass this chapter along to others who might get some help from it.
And I would like to thank all the fine folks who have donated over this last year. The donations and the comments both after the posts and privately are really keeping me going on this. Thanks!
Thanks, Dean
The trick I use to get back into writing after a break is set a timer for 10 minutes and just write. Whether I get a paragraph or more I can use in the story does not matter, just typing for 10 minutes gets my mind back on the job. Then a quick break, (coffee, etc) and back to writing for another 10 minutes using the timer. If I am still writing when the timer going off, I know I am back in the right frame of mind to keep going.
Also, I believe the secret to success is not how many times I am knocked down, it is getting back up one more time and trying again. Failure is just not trying again.
Happy New Year from Australia in 4 hours and 10 minutes.
You read my mind. These are my thoughts. It seems whenever I set a definite goal the many-headed monster of life-crises roars into view. I have to constantly adjust my priorities and my writing goals. But at the end of the year, if I persevere, at least some progress is made. And what I like about self-publishing is that if there is a pause in productivity everything I have already published stays out there, available to potential readers. I have to be my own “report-into” person, but by this time I’ve gotten pretty good at nudging myself to keep going no matter what. Instead of throwing in the towel I will use it to wipe off the blood and sweat so I can carry on. I look forward to great things this year, not because there will not be interruptions, not even in spite of the interruptions – I intend to treat all interruptions as grist for the story mill. I picture myself as a halfback who has been tossed the ball and is looking for an opening in the line. If the defense closes up the first possibility, then the second, perhaps there’s a chance for an end run, some open field, and a touchdown.
Thanks for this, Dean. Your writings and common-sense advice have been tremendously helpful in keeping me on track over the last year.
I have a couple of strategies. One is to not have a routine – but to go with the flow and write for an hour everyday. Whether it is in the morning, around lunch time, or in the evening. I just write. If a day goes by without writing I give myself permission to bump something that is higher priority and write in that period.
The other is that I have a group of writers in my circles on Google Plus. Several of us post our word count everyday. That way we report-into a wider group of people – but usually only my writers circle gets included in those posts.
That said I still fell off the wagon the other week when a week’s worth of writing was lost due to backup failure (don’t ask)… next day I sat down to write and found myself grieving for the characters and couldn’t write. It was if someone had murdered them in the night. So an alternative project strategy will be applied next time until I get over the funk. I hope that has happened by now – my new year’s resolution depends upon it.
Dean, you’ve mentioned it twice now, the “don’t try to catch up” thing. I didn’t get that this year, and every time I’d fall behind I’d try to catch up. (Most of the time, I did.)
But, it was damn stressful, and it would have been so much easier and more fun if I hadn’t pushed myself so hard. (Trying to write 7000 words, work a full-time job, and have a young family isn’t a healthy plan
Yes. All of this that you said, Dean.
My year has consisted of so much life slamming me I count myself lucky to still be standing. Between horrible parental emergencies and major personal health crises (still ongoing) and deaths (my dog of 12 years), I have worried I’d end up frozen out of my writing for a long time. I had all these goals that got blown up.
I realized the other day that during all of this difficulty I’ve managed to get my backlist indie published, keep stories in the mail, and, although it’s taken me six months (six months!?!) I’m almost finished up with a novel.
Normally I’d expect more than one novel a year (more like three or four), but I have to say I’ll take this one, thanks very much.
And thanks for this series. It’s a big help.
My biggest problem — especially when there has been a long string of “life rolls” — is that my imagination keeps working, and I come out the other side with a HUGE backlog of stories that demand to be written now.
Sure it can happen the opposite way, but having a traffic jam of ideas can be more difficult than none at all.
That’s what I was struggling with for the past two years, but I think I’ve finally got some big things out of the pile, and the rest more organized. (But new ideas keep coming!)
One thing about the layoff times: I found it helped my sanity to keep a journal. I not only wrote out my frustrations, but also wrote about the ideas I had. This aggravated the traffic jam aspect, but it was a life saver too. It helped me see that I was still a writer, and keep my eyes on the prize of getting out of the situation that was slowing me down.
Sorry to hear that the eye thing got so bad, Dean. My spouse has a similar condition that has happened on and off for the past 12 years. Different medical cause, but same kind of symptoms that you described. Unfortunately it’s like a barometer of stress–it comes back when he’s too stressed and neglectful of his health. Wise of you to let your body rest so that it can heal.
Another thing he swears by that helps is wearing an eye patch so the eye and brain can rest instead of trying to see around the black spot all the time. You’ve probably already got one, but if not, have someone get 2-3 eye patches (they break or get lost over time). Wear the eye patch during work hours and times of bright light. For the most part he wouldn’t take it off until it was time to sleep.
The good news is this sort of thing goes into remission if it’s taken care of. The other thing I can tell you (as someone married to a guy who has had it come back full-blown a few times when he blew off taking care of health) is that he’s been able to prevent a major relapse once he started being aware of early symptoms that it was on its way back and would immediately go to wearing the eye patch again and resting more. The black spot hasn’t come back full-blown for 8 years now.
With any luck, yours will go away and never come back. However, it for some reason it does, I can tell you from my husband’s experiences that it can be managed successfully.
I have life rolls built into my schedule in the form of school vacations. Whenever my kid is home, I know I’ll get less done. Plus this year, my dh had knee surgery and in 2012 I may have a major surgery, which I know will slow me down. But I still managed to get 344,000 words of finished fiction written in 2011, which is mind-blowing compared to my previous years. If I can equal that in 2012, I’ll be a happy writer. Even if I can’t, the fact that I can produce at a much increased speed because I’m not hung up on rewriting and perfection has made my writing life 100 times better than it was. I can’t afford to donate yet, but you have my thanks for helping me see the light there. I send people here all the time.
The goals I had at the beginning of 2011 was to write four novels/books. Well, like you, I did have a “very, very big” crisis happen in May. Which brought a series I had been working on to a screeching halt. It wasn’t until Aug or Sept. that I actually was able to get back on the horse and start riding again. I ended up getting one book written, a non-fiction title on my method of creating ebooks using free software. And I published that beginning of this month as an ebook.
But, I’ve had about five books published this year. One was a reprint, so not much work, but my publisher put out two of them, and I self-published an anthology, a space opera novel, and the non-fiction book I just mentioned. So I’ve had five books come out this year. So despite the set back and not making my goals, it was still a pretty productive year.
Goals for this year is to have four more published. My publisher already has the last novel in my fantasy series set for this summer, so that means I’m going to self-publish three more. One I have in the works to come out by February. One will be picking back up on that series that stalled. The third I’m not sure yet, could be one of two that I have in the works. And start at least a couple more, if not finish them.
Thanks for the encouragement, Dean. I look forward to 2012.
You keep saying “Don’t try to catch up,” and every time I think I need to remember that.
Because if there’s one thing I always catch myself doing, it’s trying to catch up.
I’m glad to see someone else using a list for what to focus on and when. I set one up for this coming year (and I’m sure it’ll have some changes as the year goes), but it’s already helping me with the anxiety from being a popcorn kitteh.
I very much appreciate this post, Dean! Really good stuff. I sure hope you’re feeling better soon!
S.
Thank you for this post, Dean.
I love all your ideas for restarting your writing after life rolls (esp. a major one). Considering I’ve had 3 major life rolls in the past 5 years, this post is going to help me a lot.
Because it’s only a matter of time until I fall off the writing wagon: health and job being the major concerns.
Thanks for the tips. Most appreciated!
I like your first rule of know what project you are working and lining up what you will work on next. For years I’ve tried using word count as a measurement of my productivity but in today’s indie pub environment, let’s face it, there is a lot more to do than just write to get a project to market now.
Don’t get me wrong –writing new stuff is still priority one, but if I spend a day formatting a manuscript or putting together covers or whatever I certainly am not being unproductive. So this year my goals will be measured by the number of projects I bring to completion. This past year my goal was to put up twenty-two new titles for sale. I managed 15. My goal this year is 25 new titles for sale by dec. 31, 2012, with a greater focus on novellas and novels than on short stories than last year.
Good luck to everyone with their goals and the new year
David DeLee
A Cold Wind – a Grace deHaviland novella
Thanks for the article, Dean. You really hit me with the catching up part. That’s me. I’ve got my plan of 4-6 books for the year, (I write fast so we’ll see) and ready to go. I’ve said it in public, so its done. Plus, I’ll not walk into you and Kris’s workshops in July with my head hanging and not at least two books done.
Hey, Ramon, sounds good, but if life gets in the way and you don’t make the deadline, we’ll still let you in. (grin)
Have a great New Year’s Eve everyone. Off to work in the office for the evening.
Thanks Dean, and a happy new year to you! *right behind Dean out the door to go write* I don’t have an office or a desk, so I have to sit on my bed. lol. ‘
Happy new year everyone!
Thanks for a great set of posts, Dean, I’ll keep them in mind as the year progresses. I really appreciate following your blog, as it is a great inspiration while writing my first book! I recently published Exodus, and in between day job, family and everything else, the “keep writing” might have been a challenge all by itself, if not for the practical advice and inspiration found here and a few other places.
I think I’ll take the opportunity to wish you and all the readers of your blog a very happy new year! 2012 will certainly be another interesting year in publishing!
Dean: all three posts were a trifecta of valuable info. Thanks.
Speaking of staying on your goals: One of the greatest boons and yet simultaneous burdens for any writer is the internet.
You can research, read posts by great authors (genuflects in DWS’s direction), and electronically submit to markets, and self-publish. But . . .
Anyone who writes is usually a person intensely interested in a large range of subjects. And if you’re not careful, you can venture off into another subject, which leads to another subject, etcetera. (“Oh! That obscure H. G. Wells story that predicted the existence of the tank is online? Heck, I’ll read that.”) (“I was just checking my email when I saw this op-ed by this idiot who dared to attack/defend/be neutral about Obama. I’m gonna post a long response that will just – show – him!”)
I have found a strategy that works for me is to set an internet search agenda. It can be scrawled on the back of an incoming utility envelope; it doesn’t have to be fancy. But when I am doing research, or even just checking my mail before I start writing, I have to protect my writing time from the only one who can truly steal it from me . . . that chap whose face I shave in the mirror each the morning.
For unstructured recreation online (YouTube, etcetera) I have gone so far as to set a timer. Because otherwise I will just surf and have fun.
I roughly estimate that I saved $340 in postage in 2011 alone because I can now submit electronically. And I have plans to self-publish some of my work in 2012. I love the internet!
But I have to have a mature love for it; I can’t be its cheap whore.
Oh dear, that last part doesn’t sound too good. I can’t risk placing that online. Let’s see, I’m sure there’s a “clear form” button here somewhere. Is this it–
LOL, Eric.
On a serious note, Kris and I are major advocates of writers having a writing computer and an internet computer and never the two should touch. My two are in the same room, at different desks. Kris’s internet is one story up from her office. Solves a ton of problems.
LOL! Eric you are so right! I don’t really have the funds right now to have two different computers, so I really have to watch myself and get down on myself to focus. Honestly, the only time I tend to get sidetracked from working is when I’m editing an already finished work. When I’m writing, I usually have no problems with the internet. Its just the tediousness of editing a work I’m already way to familiar with.
Ramon, I hate to say this again, and I have done a ton of blogs about this, but why do something “tedious” when it comes to your writing? If you feel that way and it’s that much critical brain work, trust me, you are not helping your writing in any fashion, no matter what the myth tells you. Try correcting typos and just getting it out and going on with other stories you can have fun with.
Perfect! Kids home for two weeks plus holidays plus rush to get my first novel uploaded by Christmas (missed, but got it up 12/28) meant no new writing happened from mid-December onward. Tomorrow is my restart, and I was feeling nervous. But I’ve got my agenda (the short story I made notes on during the 2 weeks “off”), my time slot (right after I get home from the morning gym work out), and back-up project (the other short story I made notes on or the new novel I’ve got in mind). Now I need my back-up time: evening after the family is abed. Thanks! I’m feeling steadier, imagining a massive cohort of DWS fans sitting down to write tomorrow, me just one among many.
Dean, truly glad to see these words of advice. For 2012, I’ve set my biggest writing goal ever, one that’s kind of crazy (at least for me). Your tips have come in handy, and are just what I needed right at the first of the new year.
@ Ramon —
You can always try Freedom, which is both for Mac and Windows. You can lock yourself off the Internet for up to 8 hours at a time. Also, you won’t get any emails, either (though you can send emails). If you absolutely have to, you can reboot your computer and Freedom will stop.
I think it’s free, too, which is always nice.
Dean,
I have a question — how do you balance projects especially if you aren’t under contract with either (I would assume deadlines would take care of that question). Sometimes what holds me up is that feeling of being pulled in different directions and stalling with indecision. I know Heinlin’s rules, but does that mean you don’t work on a short story until the novel is done?
Thanks.
PS Eric, LOL
Josephine, every writer is different. I tend to jump around from project to project at times. Other times I only am focused on one. Totally depends. As for getting pulled without deadlines, Kris and other writers, me included, call that “popcorn kittens” because of a video of kittens on a plastic sheet jumping around and playing. Feels like our brains now that indie publishing has given us freedom. “Oh, shiny…oh, shiny…” So that problem is now universal for all indie writers it seems.
I just let my excitement dictate what I work on. Every writer is different.
@ Jeff-
Hey, thanks for that tip, I’ll remember that. Could be very useful.
Dean: The main thing, mostly, that makes it dull and tedious is looking for the words that are used incorrectly; now instead of know, halberd instead of hauberk, etc. My thinking was always that if I’m asking someone to pay for my work, I should give it my best shot at making it right.
Now that said, I totally understand what you’re saying, and I’ve learned not to tamper with the work too much. I now just do a complete spellcheck, read through it once for errors, then I luckily have someone now who reads and posts reviews, so that’s my backup. (wish I could get my wife to proofread for me)
If I want to shut off the internet, I just turn off my DSL modem. HA!
I just spotted two Amanda Hocking books listed on SFBC “coming soon” page, one due out this week and the other next month.
Switched: Trylle Book 1
Torn (Trylle Book 2)
That is so fun.
Hi! I just wanted to say that I’m loving this series–I’ve been dealing with a lot of random life crap, plus the shift from a very structured writing environment with a lot of external deadlines to one where I’m just operating on my own (yoikes), so it has been really useful in helping me maintain perspective. Thank you!
This is some great advice. I always look forward to your posts and I think I will come back to this one throughout the year to keep me on schedule.
Have a great 2012!
Haha. I forgot about the popcorn kittens! I’ve had to write down notes on new projects so that I can stay focused on the current project. Right now I’m working on a vampire book I put off for years because I didn’t want to be a “ME TOO!” author writing in a fad. At the end of the day, the book demanded to be written.
Well into my goal, though. Already a quarter done with the book!
Thanks for the tips, Dean. The ‘never try to catch up’ is going to be my 2012 challenge. It seems, when I am behind the first thought is to catch up, and when I get no where fast frustration kicks in.
Thank you Dean. I remember the popcorn kittens from Kris’s blog and yep that’s me some days. This year I’m focusing on finishing so I am trying to keep my projects manageable, but like you I tend to write whatever excites me for the day. At least I am in good company
.
Thanks, Dean, I needed that. I had some health problems last year, and even the amended schedule I thought I could follow proved more than I could maintain. It’s important to remember not to beat up on ourselves when we fall short of our goals, but to do whatever work we can, when we can do it. Even if I’d be embarrassed to tell anyone connected with the workshops what my actual word count has been of late. The great thing, as you remind us, is to keep looking ahead.
GREAT post, Dean!
This is a good post and thoughtful, but what if your problem isn’t that you don’t write, or can’t make time to write, or don’t get back to it when you have to put it aside? What if your problem is just that it’s not getting anywhere. Your writing is actually getting worse, and you’ve peaked in an unpublished manuscript? You keep writing every day, because you need to write, and because it’s just what you do. You finish another manuscript, and you’ll revise it but before you ever send out the first letter you know you’re destined to a stack of rejections. And the rejections will affect your psyche no matter how hard you try to fight it, and thus your writing will get even worse. So you keep running in a hamster wheel, but if you’re goal is anything beyond finishing a ms or writing 100 stories, or editing a certain # of pages, how can you control it? And when you’ve heard a million times, “This is good, but…” how can you not be less enthusiastic? Sorry for the long comment. This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.
Oh, wow, Beth, I’m afraid you are really, really wrapped up in myths and critical voice, so deep in fact that you can’t imagine another way of writing. How to get out of that location? I don’t have a clue to be honest.
Let me try a couple of things. First off, every writer is the worst judge of their own work. When you look back at your own work, it will always be crap. Nature of the artist in us all. But those of us who have made it have decided to just not look back. We tell a story the best we can, then release.
Second attempt to help is to have you set very hard and fast rules. Write one draft, give it to a first reader, only fix the mistakes the first reader finds, and then NEVER LOOK AT THE STORY AGAIN. Just mail it or publish it. And never, ever allow yourself to put down your own work. You don’t need to hype it either, but NEVER allow yourself to put down your own work just because you “imagine” it is bad. In reality, you have no idea if it is good or not, since you are the author. See point one above.
I hate to be blunt, but unless you can force yourself out of this thinking described in your post, you will always be stuck right where you are. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but when a writer has critical voice turned on so high that nothing can be seen over that filter, there isn’t much anyone can say.
Awesome, realistic pep talk. Thank you for this! This question really hit home for me: “How much time have I really lost on my goal or my writing?” I felt pretty ill after completing my last novel – nothing serious, just horrible migraine headaches and stomach problems that landed me in the hospital for diagnostic tests and prevented me from working on another writing project in earnest. That novel had taken me five years, three rewrites and tons of in-depth research to complete. It knocked me on my butt. I puttered at other writing projects – outlined and started to write another novel, started writing another short story. I spent most of my “writing” time on the Internet, promoting my published work and chatting about writing. A couple of nights ago, beginning to feel motivated to write again, I mentioned to my husband that it had taken me a long time to recover from writing my last novel, but that I felt really good and ready to write again. I was thinking that it had been about a year since I had completed and published that novel. My husband said, “That didn’t take too long. You finished that book in October.” I thought he was mistaken, so I looked it up. He was right. I had finished writing that book in October, only three months ago. That really dumbfounded me; it felt so much longer. I almost quit writing, feeling I’d never get back to it; but I puttered along. Since publishing the novel, I’ve almost completed a new short story, I have a new novel underway, and all my book promotion landed one of my earlier novels on Amazon’s Best-selling Kindle Books list in the Children’s and YA category, my first time ever on a best-selling list. So I agree with you. Don’t ever give up.
Thank you. I think this helps. I’d actually considered letting only one person read it and sending it out before, because all the conflicting feedback drives me insane. But so many people told me that was a horrible idea and that I would never write something polished that way I kept taking critique after critique and thus the hamster wheel. But hearing someone else say it’s an okay thing to do, I think will let me write a draft, fix what one trusted reader sees and move on.
Thank you for this.
Beth, the key is to get the idea of “polished” out of your head. When you polish something, you smooth it down and take what is unique out of it, make it the same as other polished things. The key with your writing is that you are an artist, your voice, your way of telling a story is unique. You must just trust that, even though it looks like crap to your eye. You can’t see what makes your stuff unique, because to you, that’s the boring, rough stuff. You have to learn to just trust your writing, trust your subconscious to put it down correctly the first time and then release.
Second, you also have to get the fear of the outside world judging you out of your mind somehow. It makes ZERO difference what anyone else says and if they buy it or not if the writing was fun when you wrote the story, if you told the story you wanted to tell when you told it. Past that, nothing matters. They can’t come and hurt your writing unless you let them in the door to hurt your writing, which is what you have been doing. Kick everyone out of your head and write for you, get back to having fun, and then just fix what a first reader finds in mistakes and release into the wild and focus on the next story. That’s the key. Always forward. Good luck and have fun.