A. O. Henderson

Your great idea strikes, you’ve planned an entire universe (including plots for five sequels), and you decide to write every day until it’s done. First day, writing’s great! Second day, it’s okay! And then…

Nothing.

Then nothing happens again, and again, and that guilt takes up residence, because you said – no, you promised – that you would write this, and write it well. And now you’re not even writing at all.

It’s time to try something new.

We all wish it would, but

It will not write itself

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s proceed to what might actually be helpful.

Excuses and reasons

When I was first developing the habit of writing outside of November, it sucked. I had set what I thought was a reasonable goal of 500 words a day, writing every day (figuring I would have a novel within 180 days). I could consistently maintain my goal for about three days, and then… then it became a game of excuses: family, work, travel, school, computer issues, pens ran out of ink, no ideas – pick your favorite.

There’s a difference between an excuse and a reason. In the most literal, dictionary sense:

An excuse is an apology without action. A reason is a justification with an action.

An excuse builds guilt, because it is coded as a failure. A reason is shameless, because all other options were considered, and were unavailable.

Reason, don’t excuse. Excuses snowball. Reasons have a root cause which can be addressed, so address it.

The reason I could not write every day when I was first starting? My goal was too high for my lifestyle, writing speed, and stress level. What could I control within the way I lived, and what was I willing to change? I couldn’t control my schedule, or any of my other external factors, but I could control my goal. I reduced it to one sentence.

One sentence a day: I could slip that in at work. I could sneak it in before turning off the car after coming home. I could open my laptop for two minutes and add one line to the story, which more often than not became at least a paragraph, and sometimes became a page, or a chapter, or three chapters. I could handle that every day.

By addressing one factor I could control, I was able to write for two days, then a week, then a month, then a year.

Don’t make excuses and build guilt for failure. Find what is stopping you, seek what you can control within that reason, and address and manipulate it until you can manage it.

Note: sometimes, life sucks. That’s okay. Use your energy wisely and without guilt.

Set finite goals

“Write once a day” is a broad goal with a large chance of failure. Even worse: “Write well once a day” (what defines “well” and is it really achievable on a first draft?). If you’re just starting to build a habit, make your goal smaller – there’s less chance of failure, which means there’s less chance of snowballed excuses, which means there’s a much higher chance of success.

And if the goal is still too high? Bring it closer.

When I was in the homestretch on Reverberate, I had three major life events vying for my attention, plus travel, plus moving, plus finals, plus a hurricane, plus plus plus. My one sentence goal was too much, and you know what?

That was fine.

One word a day.

If not one word, one character.

Note: again, sometimes life really sucks. It’s okay to take a break. Do what’s best for you.

Don’t burn yourself out. Set a finite goal, with an achievable and definable end-state, even if that end-state seems trivial. One character a day (literally: some days I changed one comma) carried me to the end of a 150k+ word first draft.

Note: obviously, that draft needed editing. I’m an overwriter. 150k was waaaaay too long for that story. That was a problem for editing-goal me, whose minimum goal per day was “delete one word.”

Create win-states for yourself.

Do something different

You can achieve your goal, your life is wrangled, but that blank screen is still freezing you up, and now you’re feeling guilty over that? Type nonsense until it isn’t blank. Nothing? Change setting. Still nothing? Change medium. I normally write on my laptop in Word, but sometimes, I have to go outside and long-hand it – which works fantastically for me since my handwriting is more or less illegible.

Intimidated by messing up your characters, or your plot, or your setting, or your prose, or xyz? Note the excuse. Find the reason. Why is it intimidating (or verb-ing of choice)? What can you do to it – or your skills – to make it less intimidating? Consider practice, prompts, study, and spite.

I had… a lot of issues with my first page in Reverberate. I was throwing myself against a wall trying to redo it, and redo it again, and again, trying to make it not perfect, but right. I dreaded dealing with it to the point that I was willingly deep-cleaning instead. Cleaning’s great, but cleaning has never addressed my writing issues. So, what were the issues, when I finally accepted defeat and sat down to deal with it?

Frustration. Causing the frustration? Inability to get it “right”. Why wasn’t it right?

My writing wasn’t good enough – excuse

What wasn’t “good” enough about it?

I hadn’t practiced first pages, and I felt like my setting wasn’t coming through clearly. This made me feel like my writing “wasn’t good enough” because the major setting in Reverberate is a character in and of itself – reason

My solution: study more first pages, particularly those which gave me a strong sense of setting, noting the common elements between them. Then, practice those elements.

For my case, I studied a few first chapters from Clive Cussler’s Oregon Files, with an eye towards how the Oregon was introduced. I practiced writing similarly-styled introductions, and then attempted my first page again. It was terrible, but it brought me to the right place.

Seek motivation

Why do you want to write?

Why do you want to write this story?

What makes you excited about your story?

Are you doing this for someone else?

Are you doing this for yourself?

What do you want this to be?

Why are you doing this?

Note: I like to write because I find it genuinely fun. I feel productive when I write, and I don’t feel like I’ve wasted a day, and even though I might have only managed a thousand words and a comma, that’s a thousand words (and a comma) which have never existed before. I think that’s neat.

Write

You’re here to write. So, write. And if you can’t write that day, plot. If you can’t plot that day, characterize. If you can’t characterize, work on setting. If you can’t setting, work on dialogue, work on description, work on emotion, work on internalization, work on scene-sequel sequencing, work on blurbs, work on beat placement, work on synopsis, work on vocabulary, work on…

Work on.

At the end of the day, the only one motivating you is you.

TL;DR

1. find reasons, not excuses, and address the cause behind those reasons
2. set defined goals, and if they’re too grand, move them closer to you
3. try something new
4. figure out what motivates you and why you’re doing this
5. do it

You have permission to fail. You have permission to be terrible. You have permission to be non-descript beyond all measure, and to take breaks, to rest and recharge, and to learn. Every failed sentence makes another sentence better.

Exercises

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Questions, experiences, thoughts, or comments? Else, another topic you would like to see explored in the Addendums? Leave a note below!