Focus.Right=Focus.Write
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My last blog prompted several writers to ask about my personal writing process, specifically, tips for optimizing writing time by focusing their writing from the moment they sit down with pen or keyboard each day. Because so many writers face extreme time deficits while balancing the day job, family, housework, writing, and promotion, the topic is probably on our minds every day. Most likely, bad language is often attached to the thought.
I am a list maker and an efficiency nut. I don’t relax well and don’t feel like I’m operating at an optimal rate unless I am doing three or four things at a time. I listen to audio books in double speed. (Seriously, I do.) And I panic if I don’t have enough podcasts queued up for the commute home. At the office, I have three monitors and am coding in different languages on each of them. The danger in this sort of efficiency hounding is that in trying to do so many things at once, none of them are earning your full focus. The other danger is in losing one’s mind completely, but that is another blog… likely one I am writing simultaneously with the toes of my left foot.
It is impossible to write a novel without devoting one hundred percent of your mind to it. Better add one hundred percent of the subconscious mind as well as all the fingers and toes. If you attempt to write a novel while checking the Facebook news stream, answering emails to your aunt, and reading a fairytale to a sleepy child, don’t bother checking the best seller list for your name.
My life schedule dictates that I write at night. So I land in the writing chair with a full day’s worth of baggage and a limited amount of keyboard time before I start to drift or outright doze. Here are the methods that have made me a rather prolific writer despite the chaos of my day life. I hope some work for you, and if you have alternate suggestions, share. We’ve already established that I’m willing to try them all simultaneously.
Having a physical place set aside that is a writing place is my first step. For me, this is my home library. If the kids are around and I’m out of duct tape, I turn on the Pandora radio station that I’ve created specifically for the current manuscript and stuff a towel under the door. Next, I have strict rules for myself: turn off the phone, email, and internet. Yes, this includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GoodReads and anything I try to get away with in the name of writing promotions. This also includes communications with editors/agents/writing buddies. Those are not handled during writing time.
The next rule is the most important. As soon as I sit down, I start to write. If I can’t launch directly into the novel where I left off, then I pull up a notes document and begin writing. This is informal and goes something like:
My protagonist is hiding in the forest listening for anyone who might be following. Maybe someone is following but it is his sister, or the girlfriend or something like that. No, that sucks. Maybe no one is there and his paranoia is increasing. It doesn’t matter if anyone is really there or not. Need to amp up the tension because he believes they are. And what about Sammy? Does he fit in this scene? Oh, Perfect. So Sammy is the one he hears in the forest, but Sammy claims he was already there, claims he thought protagonist was following him. Now who is paranoid? It’s been a while since we heard from Big Bully too. What the heck is he up to? He was crying in his beer last I remember. He should be up to something wicked next. Should puppies be involved? His children? Parents? Maybe he is cruel even to himself. No, who cares if he hurts himself…boring…
After a page of this rambling my plot is sorted and solid and I’m ready to pick up where I left off. Either that or I just get tired of my own rambling and begin writing to escape.
Another thing I do is dictate voice notes on my way to the office in the morning. I sort things out much like the above, often with more questions than answers. Then before I sit down to write, while I’m doing the evening dishes and rubbing the cat’s belly with my toes, I listen to 10 minutes of my own rambling about the plot. Some days this is enough to launch me directly into the writing. Other times I’ve used meditation and fifteen minutes with my massage chair, Ivan, to clean the useless junk from my mind.
If all else fails, I wear my lucky writing socks and spin my office chair three times to the left at the end of each paragraph. While this can be effective, you should get a solid location on the cat before the spinning begins, thus eliminating excess noise that is sure to break your concentration and enrage the kids.
