In Defense of Staring into Space
Writers like word counts. This I have discovered in my brief experience as an author. I've gone through phases with my words per day, sometimes aiming high, sometimes low. Last summer and fall I had a 1000-word-per-day-minimum rule. It was OK.
But lately I'm taking a different tack. I contracted my first few books without giving a lot of thought to marketing or planning or bookkeeping. So when the end of the year hit, I realized I had a million things to do and I should probably get around to doing some of them.
I got up a new website, I paid bills and filed, I got a few guest posts set up. I wrote a free-read. In short, I have done *nothing* about writing a new book to sell in several weeks. Heck, a lot of writers I know would have written a whole book in that time!
Yesterday, I planned to get back in the saddle with a re-write of my WIP from last fall. I meant to hunker down, re-write a chapter a day till I was done, revise, and send. Then start a new book. Like a good hardworking author.
But my kid was sick, and my husband was out of town. And y'know what, I just wasn't feeling it. So I didn't.
I've noticed lately that sometimes the longer I want to start a project the faster I manage to write it. More importantly, the longer I allow a story to gestate in my mind, the better it is! So instead of hunkering down when I had a couple hours to myself yesterday, I had a scotch and stared out the window.
I didn't take notes, or search online, or draw maps. I just imagined stuff that might be cool. I pictured the story, the characters. I tried out ideas without committing them to paper. As a result, I came up with a BADASS idea. In fact, I was so excited about said idea I called my agent about it, and she said we might be able to pitch and sell it based on a synopsis or partial.
It was an effin' awesome idea. Really, I'm still squeeing.
And I never would have allowed myself that level of imaginative freedom if I had forced myself to get words on paper.
There's a time to hunker down, and a time to stare off into space. How do you find the balance?
