Delay...
I think you’ve all heard Jane Yolen’s good advice for getting books written. She calls it, as I recall, the BIC method--Butt In Chair. If you don’t get down to the work, it’s not gonna get done.
I’ve been a firm believer in this method. I try to write every day. In the past I set firm deadlines for when my drafts had to be finished. I pushed through even when they made no sense to me.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve been rethinking it lately.
See... sometimes, I think, ideas need time and space to grow. If you always go with the first thing that comes to mind, you’ll end up getting stuck with a lot of half-baked thoughts. These past couple weeks I’ve allowed myself the freedom to let things percolate...to use some of my free moments to think instead of to write...to spend some more time out of the chair and out in the garden, or walking by the river, or staring up into the treetops.
Then when I got back to my revisions, I brought a depth to my themes and my characters that had been completely lacking before. My story had grown inside me while I’d been away from it, and the new ideas seemed to spring onto the page--completely unlike the way that I’d been dragging them along before.
I’m sure there needs to be a balance; even though I wasn’t working on my revision all those days, I still wrote every day. Sometimes snippets of short stories, journal entries, and plenty of ideas and questions about my book. Writing is a skill that needs to be practiced and exercised.
And I’m not sure exactly where I’ll find the balance. When I work on my next first draft, will this opportunity for delay work, or will it enable me to postpone the hard work indefinitely? Maybe I need to take a good chunk of time to think and imagine before I begin, and also break periodically to re-assess... Maybe the “perfect way to write a book” changes with each one.
What do you think?
I’ve been a firm believer in this method. I try to write every day. In the past I set firm deadlines for when my drafts had to be finished. I pushed through even when they made no sense to me.
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| Une Vocation, by William Adolphe Bouguereau |
Maybe I’m crazy, but I’ve been rethinking it lately.
See... sometimes, I think, ideas need time and space to grow. If you always go with the first thing that comes to mind, you’ll end up getting stuck with a lot of half-baked thoughts. These past couple weeks I’ve allowed myself the freedom to let things percolate...to use some of my free moments to think instead of to write...to spend some more time out of the chair and out in the garden, or walking by the river, or staring up into the treetops.
Then when I got back to my revisions, I brought a depth to my themes and my characters that had been completely lacking before. My story had grown inside me while I’d been away from it, and the new ideas seemed to spring onto the page--completely unlike the way that I’d been dragging them along before.
I’m sure there needs to be a balance; even though I wasn’t working on my revision all those days, I still wrote every day. Sometimes snippets of short stories, journal entries, and plenty of ideas and questions about my book. Writing is a skill that needs to be practiced and exercised.
And I’m not sure exactly where I’ll find the balance. When I work on my next first draft, will this opportunity for delay work, or will it enable me to postpone the hard work indefinitely? Maybe I need to take a good chunk of time to think and imagine before I begin, and also break periodically to re-assess... Maybe the “perfect way to write a book” changes with each one.
What do you think?
This is a great post. It is hard to strike a balance between BiC and letting ideas percolate. When I'm not actively working a project, I do write everyday--a blog post, or a super-long email telling a random story to my best friend.
ReplyDeleteI am a firm believer that every book is written differently. I've written four novels (nearing completion of the fifth) and without fail, I've used a different method for each one. Some have been easier than others. I don't think I'll ever arrive at a tried and true method for writing novels as each story requires a different process. That's kind of frustrating, but at the same time, it keeps things interesting!
ReplyDeleteI understand the rationale behind "write everyday", its just that some days the way I feel all that will come out is crap, and what good does that do? :)
ReplyDeleteSo, you know I'm failing, but I just have to tell you that I LOVE the picture. I am going to print it out for my office.
ReplyDeleteAs to writing vs. pondering, there is a time for every phase, and certainly when you write you are thinking, but because one of my procrastination pitfalls is to say "Oh, I'm doing research" or "I'm thinking" I do write daily. It keeps the muscles limber, just like walking ;)
Okay, back to my cave.
I believe in percolating, too. I try to write daily, but I need to get outside (or drive) to go deeper into a scene or character. I'm sure you'll find the balance you need.
ReplyDelete~Debbie
I'm with you Faith. This past fall I started re-thinking my 1,000 words a day mantra. I need time to think too and my work is better for it. Like the other Melissa said above, sometimes there are different methods for different books. I think it's an ever-changing journey. Makes it interesting : )
ReplyDeleteThanks, all of you, for your encouragement and input! As always, it's good to know I'm not figuring this out alone. :)
ReplyDeleteI do think that requiring a daily word count can just become "grinding out any old words to make the quota." I've learned that when I feel the book slow up, there's something I should be paying attention to rather than just bulling ahead.
ReplyDelete