Making Yourself Write

Back when I did the poll on what to talk about, lage_nom_ai mentioned discipline. What do you do when you sit down at the computer and your thoughts go everywhere but into the chapter you're working on, how to actually focus when revising, etc.

This can be a toughie. Sometimes I'll have difficulties concentrating and focusing due to depression and anxiety, or if something good or exciting has happened it's almost equally difficult to concentrate. But usually, my level of concentration is directly related to how well the writing is going. If it's going really well, the plot is unfolding, I'm coming up with neat insights about the characters, etc, it's really easy to focus. (Sometimes I'll get up and go right into working on the book without even stopping to check on my friend, the internet.) If it's not going well, if I'm stuck on a plot point or the logistics of a scene, I start getting into a failure loop. The whole "you didn't figure this out yesterday so your chances of figuring it out at all are dropping and you suck, etc." thing. Once I get into the failure loop, it feels like I'm hitting a wall and it's hard to keep hitting it. If the book is already sold (which hasn't been a factor for me for years) or if people are expecting it, looking forward to it, if I feel guilty that I'm not getting more done, it helps me make myself keep trying. Sometimes I don't have any of that and just have to make myself keep trying.

I think Jay Lake was the one who said that as a writer, you kind of have to assume that no one's heard of you, and if they have heard of you they don't like you. It's easy to get into a mindset where you feel no one is reading you and no one cares if you ever finish anything again or not. (It's especially easy to get into it if you can't sell any of your finished pieces.) So it can be very hard to keep going back to the work.

It also gets tempting to jump to the next new exciting thing. I see a lot of aspiring writers do that, where they're always starting something new, and not finishing anything.

Another thing you have to be aware of is when you're working on something, and the scene, or the plot, or the characters are boring you, and you're just trying to slog along. If you're bored with what you're writing, your audience is going to be bored too. It may be time to rethink what you're doing, add a twist. Sit down and think about what you really want to be writing, and try to incorporate that. Remember what got you excited enough about this idea to start working on it in the first place. You may have drifted from your original concept and need to get back to it.

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I have only one link: Laura Anne Gilman is having a sale of signed books to offset vet bills.