Discipline
According to Hemingway, the first rule of writing is to “apply the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”
Discipline has always been an issue for me. I tell myself I’m going to write for at least so many hours every day, or get in so many words every day, and I do it for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, and I fall off the wagon.
Applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair isn’t the problem, the problem is that once I get in that chair, I tend to find other things to do to avoid staring into the abyss that is the blank page.
At the same time, I’m constantly writing, whether I’m sitting in that chair or not. There’s always something going on in the background, in the basement of my mind, always some characters conversing or playing or otherwise generally misbehaving.
I’ve been doing well lately, though, with that ellusive discipline thing. Pretty much since I got into the habit during the rush that is NaNoWriMo, I’ve been writing 1000 words a day. And when I get to that 1000 words… I stop. Even if it’s in the middle of a sentence. That trailing sentence sometimes help me get back into the “zone” once I start back again the next day. The only days I skip are Saturday and Sunday.
This blog is also an attempt to wrest some discipline in my writing. I’ve committed myself to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday posting schedule, and it’s one I plan to keep up with, even if I don’t have anything to write that day.
There’s always something out there to write about, even if it doesn’t make all that much sense to anyone but you. (Hell, sometimes it might not even make sense to you, but at least you’re writing something!)
It’s rather like that old “freewriting” exercise anyone who’s ever taken a writing class has gone through. Pick something at random and write about it. Always the first thing that pops up. Even if you don’t know diddly about it, make up something. That’s where it really becomes a challenge, when you actually have to apply true creativity. (The Wikipedia random article generator is *wonderful* for this sort of writing prompt.)
I still free-write, when nothing else comes, if the novel is sitting in a dead spot, just so I get that 1000 words done, just so I’ve gotten something on the page that day even if I end up throwing it away. Sometimes turning to something else is all I need to make the *real* work start flowing again. It’s still practice. It’s still writing.
Discipline. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you.
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