Finding time to write when you're busy.

I know you think you're busy. I often think that I am, too.

On the most recent episode of Writing Excuses Podcast one of the things Brandon Sanderson said he learned was to be able to write in different environments. I think the thing I am most envious of full time writers is they get to write full time. (No kidding, huh?)

How would it be to get four hours at a time to write? That would allow you to complete a major scene from a novel. And if you could come back to it two or three days in a row, rested, focused and properly fed? You could write the next Great American Novel with that kind of time and freedom. Of course, when you are expected to produce like Brandon Sanderson, you would need all that time and more.

Two things I learned this year, (Well, one I built on this year, and one that I learned) were using a detailed outline and writing in the evening.

In 2013, when I wrote, The Pariah for Nanowrimo, I used a detailed outline. Knowing exactly what I needed to write when I sat down made it possible to produce a lot in a little time. Granted, I took Thursday and Friday off from the day job to get a head start and completed nearly 20K words that first weekend. Normally, I only get about 2 hours a day to write, and that's 45 minutes in the morning before work, about the same at lunch time, and then maybe an half hour of conscious and cognizant thought in the evening. 

If you haven't heard me whine about it before, I have a 10 and a 12 year old, both with their special needs, and a wife who is now mostly disabled. My days are often frantic and busy. But, using the time I had, I was able to get 100k words written in 28 days. If I had my days wholly devoted to writing I could compete with Brandon in quantity, if not quality.

This year, my oldest daughter, her husband and three children were coming to visit on the 18th of November. I knew if I was going to get my 50K words done, I would have to hit it hard at the beginning. Again, using a detailed outline, I was able to use my time most effectively and hit 50K on day #18. I finished the story at around 65K a week later.

The other thing I learned to do, and that was only recently, was to write in the evening. It's not my most creative work when I'm that tired, but it works to get the plot and dialog mostly laid out and I can spruce it up in the next few edits. The two things that distract me most in the evenings are tiredness and family. 

My wife expects me to spend some time with her, usually watching cooking shows or something else on TV. What I found was, if she drifted off, I would continue to watch what was on the tube. If I tried to turn the show off, it would wake her, and she would turn it back on, believing she would stay awake this time.

I found a 'White Noise' app for my phone. So instead of turning the TV off, I put on the head phones and listen to "Just Rain". I think that's the name of the app. It's a rainstorm and it goes on for ever. You can set the intensity of the storm, with or without thunder, or you can have it vary in intensity. I find it adequately blocks out the distracting sound of the television while letting me focus on my writing.

pec

The Domingo Montoya Syndrome

I'm having a Domingo Montoya moment. Or maybe it's a phase.

You might remember from "The Princess Bride", Inigo Montoya sought the six fingered man, to kill him.

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." 

I don't know how many times I've said that very line.

Domingo was a master sword maker and rarely did any work in his later years. He was so skilled that found the craft was no longer challenging. 

Then the six fingered man appeared and commissioned him to make a blade. This would be the ultimate challenge to his skill. The blade would require special balance to match the six fingered man's ability.

The book spends several pages on the making of the blade. But what I refer to now is how, at one moment, Domingo would be euphoric in his skill and achievement, and in the next, despairing over his ignorance and inability.

If you have never read the book, but enjoyed the movie, you really need to put this onto your reading list. The movie did a great job, but it's too short. There is so much more in the book.

After a November of knocking out 100k words in a month, and December of making my first pass through "Fly Paper Boy", editing it in less than a month, I was feeling pretty good about myself as a writer.

Then I downloaded three books from Audible, two by Brandon Sanderson and one by Tim Powers. Both of these authors are masters at "Showing and not telling". Their writing is immersive and takes you to the author's world in the first lines of their stories.

After writing a short story for an anthology in January, I returned to "Fly Paper Boy" for a serious edit, preparing it for the LDStory Makers Conference where I will use it in a publication workshop.

I am now at the Domingo Montoya low. 

I feel like my prose are swill and I'm looking at 95K words of 'sow's ear' I need to turn into a silk purse in the next month and a half.

Brandon Sanderson and Tim Powers are masters at the craft. Granted, I've been at this for only five years and haven't had the training and experience of either of these writers, but still, it looks like a steep hill to climb if I'm ever to get a story completed that a publisher would want to buy.

Anyway, for the next six weeks I'll be slogging through, changing thousands of words of 'telling' into 'showing'. Maybe at the end of it I'll feel more like I did at the end of December.

Writing Excuses Podcast, Oct 14, 2013

I was listening to the Writing Excuses Podcast yesterday. If you are trying to write genre fiction at any level and you haven't found this podcast, you really need to. Here's the link: http://www.writingexcuses.com/

I found it because I'm a Brandon Sanderson fan. But, there are four authors who are all intelligent, imaginative, and humorous. 

There was a question about "organic" writing. Also known as "seat of the pants" writing, if you're not familiar with the term, it's when you just  start writing with an idea, not really knowing where it will go. Really, even with organic writing, you should have an ending in mind before you start writing to give your plot some direction, but some organic writers don't even have that. The question was, what do you do to keep your plot moving, when you're an organic writer, and you don't know where to go next. 

Brandon suggested something that I really liked. He said to imagine what's the worst thing that could happen to your protagonist, of course while moving the plot forward, and what is the best thing that could happen. Then figure out how to make it look like the worst thing is going to happen and have her/him overcome in it a way that no one will expect.

I know Brandon is very "Architectural" in outlining a story, which is the opposite of organic. Mary, on the podcast, is more in between the two extremes. But, she does lay out what she wants to happen in each chapter. Someone else also mentioned that a person doesn't need to write linearly. If you're an organic writer and you're stuck, move to another section and write, even if it's far down the eventual plot line. In writing that part you might find how to bring the two pieces together.

In preparing for Nanowrimo this year I am going much more extreme in my planning than I have in years past. My first three Nanos were very organic. My second year I found myself writing myself into plot circles. I got more than 65K words written but never finished the story. 

Last year was the first time I really had an outline of the whole book, but as usual got off on enough organic tangents that I was still interested in the story as it developed. Sometimes the plot twists which are best are those unexpected ones which surprise you as you write them.

This year I am world building and character building the heck out of it. I've got tectonic plates, weather and ocean current patterns. I have races with differing values and leaders with conflicting political intentions and hidden agendas.

I think my fear in the first few years was that I would get into it, write a story, finish and not have enough words. I find that much less of a concern now. In fact, this may be the year that I have too much story for one book. We'll see.

If you're a Nanowrimer, I'd love to be a writing buddy with you so that we can encourage one another. Here's a big surprise, my Nanowrimo name is Norvaljoe. Look me up. I follow back anyone who follows me.

Here's the link: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/norvaljoe