How To…Develop Discipline

BY A G Carpenter

Since writing is work that means if we're serious about being "writers" – pursuing publication, honing our skills, etc – we need to know how to keep working even when the muse isn't smiling at us.

This means developing habits and strategies to get you through the "dry spells". Here are the ones that work for me.

1. When in doubt, outline.

It's true that I don't always outline before I start a project. But once I see what kind of shape the story is taking I do like to sketch out my ideas. This might be just a paragraph summarizing the story-arc. Or it could be a detailed 3 page bullet-pointed breakdown of all the key plot points. Or a stack of index cards containing notes for each proposed chapter. It just depends. But when the creativity gets thin I have something to look at to remind me what should come next. That has proved invaluable on many occasions when I've opened up my document and just thought "I don't know what to say now." It's not foolproof, but it gives me a way to see where I'm at and where I should be going.

1b If you're a panster, call it brainstorming

If you happen to be one of the folks really cannot stand the thought or concept of outlining, look at it as a kind of brainstorming. It's not about dictating where a story should go before you write it out, it's about figuring out the possible outcomes of a given set of characters, their goals and where the story has taken them so far. The idea that outlines are some kind of impermeable code of honor that once written they cannot be deviated from in any way, shape or for, is rampant. And this is silly. And outline, just like any other writing practice, is just a tool. You use it for however long it works, then put it aside when it is no longer useful. I use outlines as kind of a rough-rough draft. They give me a chance to try out a plot without wasting two months and 80k words writing a story that has plot holes you could drive a bus through and requires a total rewrite.

When the creativity runs thin (and you note I say when, not if)I find that brainstorming about where the story could go next is just the kick in the pants I need to write the next chapter. And it helps me avoid writing myself into a corner and having to trash three or four chapters in which my characters wallow about with no direction.

2. Set Measurable Goals.

This may sound obvious and unnecessary, but it's really important. Set a goal that you can measure. This means number of words (or pages) per day/week/month. Giving yourself a specific amount of time to write every day/week is good too, but it won't produce the same results. (Haven't we all sat down to write for an hour and then spent 45 minutes of that writing time playing solitaire, reading email or surfing the web?) Set a goal that can be quantified, something concrete, something you can't waffle about. "I will write 500 words every day." "I will write 15 pages every week." And so on.

I like to have a daily and a weekly goal because, like most of us, some days produce nothing but frustration and a worn spot on the delete/backspace key.

3. Keep your goals in mind.

Once you've set your goal, keep it in mind. When you sit down to write, review what your goal is and how much you have already achieved that week/month. (This is important because some days you simply will not reach your goal. Other days you will write as much as you normally write in a week. By having goals that are not just daily but also weekly and monthly, you can see the overall progression even when a cold destroys the daily wordcount.) If you are ahead on the weekly wordcount at the beginning of a writing session congratulate yourself. "My typing ability is improving" or "That day off to sleep really paid off" or whatever. If you're behind, figure out how much needs to be done to catch up. (Maybe slipping in an extra session or adding a hundred words to the daily goal for the rest of the week.) If at all possible make it something achievable, otherwise you may start to feel overwhelmed.

4. Write every day.

Not all of us can do this. But if you can, you should. If you can't, then find the time to write as frequently as possible. Trust me, it helps.

5. Write to the limits of your capability.

An online acquaintance recently asked how much he should be writing every day. (He's in college and usually busy with schoolwork.) Unfortunately that answer depends on the individual. When my story is firmly in my head I can write 1500 words in an hour. (When it's not, well, let's just say the number isn't that big.) And I can normally find an hour a day to write. (Sometimes it's more but I try to be realistic.) So, for me, 1500 words a day is a good goal. For someone else it may seem an impossible dream.

The point here is to figure out-given the best possible circumstance: Gotten enough sleep, no unexpected crisis etc-how much you can write a day. Then set that as your goal. Don't try to make it some impossible-to-achieve-and-ultimately-momentum-killing goal that is way beyond you, and don't settle for something easy. Best case scenario is you write at the upper edge of your capability. When that starts to get easy, raise the goal, or if life gets difficult, you bring it back down a bit.

6. Keep Writing Time for Writing

It's easy to get distracted by other stuff when you sit down to write. But the most important discipline you can develop, more valuable than writing every day, or setting goals, is to use your writing time to write.

This means you do not do research when you sit down to write. You do not check email or read blogs or otherwise engage with teh internet. You do not fiddle with your wordcount spreadsheets. You do not play computer solitaire. (Note from Julia: Have you been spying on me? )

When you sit down to write, you write. If you can manage that, the rest will fall into place.

By day A.G. Carpenter is a mild-mannered stay-at-home mother. By night she writes fiction of (and for) all sorts. Her microfiction has been published at Every Day Fiction, One Forty Fiction and Trapeze Magazine.

She blogs at agcarpenter.blogspot.com and Twits @Aggy_C