Tuesday 7 September 2010

Go With The Flow

We all know some days the words come more natural than normal. Some days the words imbed themselves in your brain and refuse to budge.

So how do we coax those sentences free?

Here is my discovery. My CP's call it a write-a-thon. We set a time to be online, load up Gchat and start the timer. When twenty/thirty minutes is up we recoup and give each other our word counts.

I'd never done this before, but I'm starting to find it useful. Maybe it's the pantser in me, but I've always worked better under pressure. Knowing that I've got to tell the others my progress really seems to spur me on.

But what about the days when I'm not doing a write-a-thon?

I suppose it's a little similar to the write-a-thon. I sit down and force myself to spend an hour writing. Even if it's just sketching out a couple of chapters, I feel it all counts.

What do you guys do to get the words flowing?

19 comments:

Renae said...

That's a good idea. I feel like I work better under pressure. During the summer I have all the time in the world to write and yet I don't get near as much work done as I do during the school year. Go figure!

Vicki Rocho said...

I've been hearing more about this recently. think it would work...except I write at odd times so I'm not sure who would be up to keep me company!

Unknown said...

I'm huge on letting a character talk to me. I give them plenty of time to tell me their likes & dislikes before going to paper. I normally have a few stuck moments and when that happens I think it out, I also write down all my ideas to get all the SUCKY one's out to hopefully get to the good one!!!

Sometimes it's a crap shoot!

Christine Fonseca said...

So funny about this - it's something I've been thinking a lot about of late! And yes,I typically have to find a way to FORCE the words out form time to time. Thanks for reminding me I'm not alone in this

Hannah said...

this sounds long and drawn out but it's what I do on the weekends. I wake up and write 3 pages in my morning book. I put my fears, my dreams, whatever is plaguing my mind. Then I make breakfast and eat it while reading. Then I make a cup of tea and work on a random writing exercise. It takes me about 30 minutes. At which point, I'm done with my first cup of tea and onto my novel. Huzzah!

I lure it out. :)

JE said...

I work better under pressure to, but when it comes to writing, all I need is my comfy chair and quiet. Then the words just come. I wish I had more time for them to come. LoL ;-)

~JD

Summer Frey said...

I love writing under pressure. NaNoWriMo is my holy grail of writing; everything about it is pressure, and then if you interact with the community, you can find all kinds of inspiration.

But most of the time, I just sit my butt down and tell myself to write until my husband comes home from work. I've gotten pretty good at being my own task-master, at least. But it's not as fun as NaNo.

Theresa Milstein said...

When I sit down to write, I don't get the inspiration, I look back at what I've done and revise. Many times, I'll stop editing because I'll get an idea of how to continue.

I like the idea of having to tell your word count. Makes you accountable for your time, doesn't it?

Amparo Ortiz said...

Silence gets the words flowing for me, but music does that for creating scenes in my mind before I sit down to write. I've been doing a lot of music-listening lately.

No, I'm not procrastinating.

Okay. Maybe I am. So what?

Kristal Shaff said...

Speaking of... Are we on for today? (grin)

Katrina L. Lantz said...

I'm in for write-a-thon today, Kristal and Lindsay! Amparo?

I really need to get the words flowing again. I started last night with draft 5 of the beginning of WIP. It's like a sculpture; I just can't seem to get the eyes right.

I hope writing with you gals today gets me over this OCD perfectionist hump.

Jessica Ann Hill said...

I also work well under pressure. It seems much easier to get things done when you have a deadline looming. Fake deadlines, though, don't seem to work for me. :/

Getting the words to flow comes easiest when I have solid scene to work on. When I've already gotten a scene mostly figured out in my head and I can just sit down and write it. When I don't though, I usually have to force out the first paragraph or two, but then the flow usually comes soon after.

Talli Roland said...

I think that's a great idea! I do that sometimes with people on Twitter. It works for me because I like a challenge! :)

JB said...

Sometimes just taking any action leads to inspired action, it's true! Because I am not writing a novel, but rather a poetry compliation, I find getting out into life spurs my creativity: walking, kayaking, hiking, sitting in the woods. :) Way to keep writing!

Angela Ackerman said...

I need one of these, but for revising. Some days it's hard to stay motivated. :(


Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse

Jemi Fraser said...

I like pressure for first draft writing - I've enjoyed NaNo the last few years. But for editing and revising, I need to have less pressure or I can fold :)

Anonymous said...

I also work well under pressure.

Sometimes I need to get things out of the way: a clean (or cleaner) house and a tidy desk. Then I feel like I can dive into writing.

Matthew MacNish said...

I have to set aside a certain time and place these days. It also helps to have a set goal like: spend Saturday finishing the rewrite of chapter ...

Meredith said...

I definitely need to try timed writing exercises! It sounds so productive. I always put on music when I want to get some good writing done. It may seem distracting, but it always makes me excited to write!