Here’s another tip for writers. Ignore the immensity of the task in front of you and take it day by day, writing bout by writing bout.
Around January of this year, I thought of what the next eight months was going to look like. I started drinking heavily.
Okay, not really, but I did slightly freak out.
I knew the projects that were in front of me, and while I was incredibly thankful for them, I also knew that they were going to take a lot of work.
I share this all the time, but writing a novel is like running a marathon. Not that I’ve ever run in a marathon, but I can the similarities.
It’s almost the middle of August, and I’ve survived. My mind is a little more mushy than it was in January. But things are working out. There’s still SO much work to do, but I’m still running in the race. I’m still running steady. I’m still doing the work at hand and trying (and hoping) to do it well.
A part of me in January that thought about the first half of 2010 and seriously thought there’s no way.
I’m doing that as I look to the second half of 2010, but that’s for personal reasons.
Yet we surprise ourselves, don’t we? Maybe it’s not the easiest path ever taken, but the journey often surprises us.
So don’t look too far down the road when it comes to writing (or when it comes to life for that matter). Take it day by day. You’ll be surprised how a day turns into half a year, and how there’s no need to freak out.
Chances are you’ll freak out at some point. I guess that’s part of the journey too.
This is more related to the beginning of this post and not so much the end. Although, it's also related to the end somewhat.
I was always a seat-of-my-pants writer. Never liked an outline. Also never finished much. Mostly because I got overwhelmed as the story unfolded in front of me. Too many ways to take things. I introduced too many threads that would need to be tied up.
Then on my most recent work I decided that once I saw where the story was going I'd try a very rough outline. That's helped so much, mainly because now I can concentrate on just writing my way to the next point on the outline.
I've called the outline my ladder and each chunk of the outline is a rung. All I am worried about now is making it to the next rung and nothing more. If I can just concentrate on getting to the next rung then I will eventually make it to the end.