In the last few months I’ve been talking a lot to a friend who was stalled in the novel he’d been working on off and on for a year or two. We’ve been discussing what we’ve learned from experience and books and trying to motivate each other, and in fact, the first of my road trips this year was with him, and we both wrote on most days, as I posted about before.
Among lots of other excellent advice (most of which I learned from other people and not my own brain) I told him that all he had to do to get started was to write for 10 minutes each day, even 5 minutes, just long enough to get a taste for it but not long enough to feel like it’s a pressure. He blew it off at first, then started doing it, and has been very consistent about it, as I was before these road trips began. He’s started doing hours at a time, which is rare for me. Now he’s very nearly done with his first draft, which puts him weeks ahead of me, and which also makes me proud of him.
I lamented to him several times over the last couple of weeks that I’d been breaking Rule #1 to the point where I might as well have never formed the habit in the first place. The first few times, he said it’s OK, you need to let things stew sometimes, to let ideas gel and problems to be solved by your subconscious, or whatever.
I told him that might work for him, but it’s not what I need, and it’s an unfairly generous interpretation of my slowed progress. Those sorts of inspirations and epiphanies do come to me in the shower or dreams or whenever, but productivity comes from following Rule #1 above all.
Finally he said, OK, you’re right. You do suck, plus you’re whiny. So go back to 10 minutes a day. (Some of that might be paraphrased.)
This, of course, was a really good point. I’d gotten to where I was expecting myself to do 1-2 hours per session, and it had become hard to find that kind of time on road trip days, so I was blowing it off entirely…when all I really had to do was 10 minutes to keep the habit going. Of course, it’s the rough gear shifting between mindspaces that’s hard, and probably takes more than 10 minutes to achieve after driving hundreds of miles, but the principle is sound.
I’ve said in the past that it’s much easier to keep a habit than form it. Now I’m going to have to find out. After I post this, I’ll be doing my 10 minutes for the day. Maybe even much more. I have to get back in the saddle.
Setting goals is another key to completing your novel. Maybe Set and Achieve Goals should even be Rule #2, though if I’m going to be declaring a whole set of rules I’ll need to put some time in to get them just right. Anyway, I haven’t done this as much as I should. So, my goal, now, shall be:
to finish my first draft before I leave for my next road trip in about 3 weeks.
Can I do it?
I guess we’ll see.
Meanwhile, my message to all working writers is, as always, follow Rule #1. Write every day! Don’t blow it like I did and have to form the habit again from scratch. 10 minutes is enough to keep yourself on the wagon.
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