[Perry] Writing in Short Sessions

The Experiment

Near the tail end of 2014, I tried a bit of an experiment with my writing.

I was sort of in the doldrums, no wind in my writing sails and sitting dead in the water. I needed a bit of a change, I needed to push myself to write, so I did.

Following some advice, I banged out a short science fiction oriented story about a man who was linked to a ship and they were on the run together, being chased around the galaxy, etc.

And the advice? Was to write daily.

Write daily? But do it in short spurts. Set a super relaxing and easy word count on yourself of 300-350 words per day. It’s enough of a chunk to make you feel like you got something done on the story, but not enough to tire you out.

If you don’t feel like writing that day? 300 words is short enough that you can force yourself to do it pretty easily. It only takes about fifteen or twenty minutes. And if you happen to find a good groove? If you slip into the zone? Hey, write more. Nobody’s going to stop you.

Putting It Into Practice

So I tried it. And wouldn’t you know it? It worked. In relatively short order, I had enough of a story out and on paper to know that I wasn’t happy with it on foundational levels and shelved it for later pondering.

But it still worked. I wrote every weekday (I took the weekends off), and got it done.

One problem?

I wasn’t happy with the result.

And it wasn’t just about the building blocks of the story I didn’t agree with. No, I had issues with the disjointed tone, pacing, and general clumsy feel of it.

Results and Analysis

So what happened?

I couldn’t figure out why I was so dissatisfied with my writing until I spoke with Tami about it. And while speaking of an unrelated issue she was dealing with, she smacked that nail right on the head.

Writing in such short bursts? Tends to make my writing feel disjointed.

You know that feeling you have when you’re reading and you’re interrupted mid-paragraph? You set down the book and maybe hours or days pass before you get back to it. Can you really just read from the very word you left off?

I mean…you could? But it feels a little jerky, disjointed, till you settle back into the groove and remember what you’d been reading before your interruption.

In much the same way, I feel that every time I break off my writing sessions and resume the next day? It takes a couple hundred words before I’m back in that groove…except with this method of short, daily writing? Right when I settle back into the rhythm, I usually called a halt.

Queue the next day and the same thing happens…

This becomes a problem.

The writing was getting done, but it wasn’t…I mean, I wasn’t happy with it. I felt that I could do a lot better, write more clearly and incisively, even on a first draft attempt.

I’m aware of the idea of just vomiting out the words and completing it first and fixing it later on the edit…but you know what? Speaking just for myself, when I finish a piece? If I get depressed reading it over? That’s not really a piece that motivates me to devote the time to clean it up to a mirror shine, you know?

I mean, I think back to our Saucy Ink endeavors. My entries for those? As rough as those first drafts were (overburdened sentences growing all up in here), I LIKED my writing in them. I felt that spark, where the only issues I had with the writing were largely of a grammatical (and repetitive phrasing) nature.

Looking at my little scifi story that thought it could? I just want to smother the writing with a pillow while it sleeps >.>”

Conclusion

So clearly…for now? That short spurts of daily writing advice isn’t really going to work out well for me. I’m exploring other options, especially as the third week of this new year rolls out and I’m about to start making good on my promise to myself to spend more time writing this year.

What sort of writing schedules and stratagems have you guys concocted for 2015? Any tips or methods that you’d care to share that worked for you last year that you’re planning to repeat?

Related posts:

Hiatus Ends
NaNoWriMo Musings
Love of Writing