I’ll admit it, when it comes to slow and
steady, I am a failure. I have more of a tendency to put things off (writing
included) then race in and do a few massive marathons to catch up. My record
was 10,000 words in one day during NaNo a few years back.
I KNOW that staying in contact with my
writing world every day is the best thing, both for my sanity and for my
writing. It’s just the sticking with it I can’t seem to coordinate.
Until this last week! *cue suspenseful
music here*
For the last 7 days I have snuck in little
writing bits, some before EDJ, some in the evening, a few notes at lunch. As
little as 200 words before work. And guess what?
·
I ended up with 3,200 words from little bits
(also did 2040 on Saturday, but that was a normal longer run for me with a few
hours of time to do it in). The big
thing is, that those tiny bits, stolen here and there added up to a nice amount
of words.
·
I thought about my work more. Because I was sneaking it into normal
non-writing times, I carried my characters around in my head all the time.
·
I came up with more new ideas for other
projects! LOL- I guess my little brain
was just running more all around.
·
I slept better and was less cranky at work.
Ok, my degrees are in Psychology, and I’ll
be the first to admit correlation isn’t the same as causation. (For example- both murders and ice cream
sales are positively correlated, when one goes up the other one does too. Are folks killing people when they get an ice
cream headache?)
But most of the above list is directly
the result of the tiny bites of writing. The
sleeping better and less cranky at work could be due to me relaxing more when I
write.
The point is that writing is like
exercising. You don’t need to wait until
you have a big chunk of time to get really great results.
Think about your day—where can you sneak
in some writing bites?
(Oh and that murder rates and ice cream
thing? Yes, the two are correlated
however, one isn’t causing the other- they are both “caused” by an increase in
temps. A little Psych 101 for your day!)
Lol! Writing bits is my life. Glad it helps you ;)
ReplyDeleteLOL! T.- you should have told me about this! Ok, I might not have listened ;). But good to know there are others on the tiny bites of writing track!
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
A little bit here, a little bit there and you're getting lots done. The correlation with exercise is true. The experts say if you can't get your thirty minutes of exercise a day in during one session, break them up to get your minutes in in smaller packages. You've done the same with your writing and it's working for you. I think it would work for lots of people. Now if we could only figure out a way to combine exercise and writing we'd be twice as ahead. (Great grammar there, eh?) Maybe a pedal system to power the computer.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Marie.
Sharon
Thank you, Sharon! Hmmm- i think you may have hit on something working out and writing at the same time! Or a computer treadmill?
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
Great advice! I, too, find that the more attention I give my book, with butt in chair, fingers typing, the more it stays with me throughout the day, even when I'm not working on it. So that when I DO sit to write, I've worked a lot of it out in my head already, and typing it in is a breeze. About the ice cream and murders correlation -- it's not the murderers going for ice cream to celebrate? Yikes! What a great concept for a story. Sophia
ReplyDeleteExactly! I think logically we all know it'll only help our writing, Sophia, but I know I've got a long way to go to make it a habit. But I can but try!
DeleteLOL!! That could be a great story concept! Killer ice cream headaches? Murders celebrating with ice cream? I used to teach Psych 101 courses and I'd always have at least one student who was bummed when I told them it's the increase in temperature that caused both-not each other ;).
Thanks for coming by and commenting!