Étiquette : Writing Tips

Tested Writing Tip: Micro Writing Goals

One thing I was not expecting while trying to keep up with the writing routine during the holidays: lack of motivation.

It’s a bit of a surprise, because the current writing project is going well. Better than two weeks ago anyway!

I’ve finally wrapped up the missing elements, which made the A plot and the B plot so much stronger. After more than 70 days working on the manuscript, I now know the characters better. They have their distinctive voices and their own agendas.
Like I said, it’s going well.

Don’t get me wrong, the manuscript is not finished. It still needs a TON of work before I can have a beta-reader have the first.
By the way, finding a francophone beta-reader for a 35 to 44 years old writer living far for it all is Hard. Still looking, still looking…

Back to the lack of motivation and the writing tip that helps me deal with it.

I’ve read in countless blog posts. In essence, they all say this: to overcome the lack of motivation, one must identify the source.

What seems to be the problem here, officer?

Ok, in this case, the source is clear. As previously stated, the structure, the keys moments, the plot twist and so on and so forth are figured out. Nothing more to discover, see. The sparks of novelty, they have vanished.

I can’t help but feeling a bit… bored. Not by the story, by the work left to do.
Not that I don’t like to write. I love it.

Plus, it’s December, and I have a kid now. I therefore want to do more stuuf to make it extra special for kiddo.

Baking cookies, reading cozy mystery novels, watching the cozy fire after reading too many bedtime stories, decorating, wrapping up presents, trying in vain to make my front porch look like a Pinterest dream; those sort of things.

Non-ambitious, non-important, non-deadline things.

It goes so fast, the best time of the year…

Micro Writing Goals

I still want to meet my deadline for this project. But I also NEED to relax, breath and forget about how awful November was in real life.

Changing my strategy a bit, I still keep my writing routine, but I set Micro Writing Goals during the day as well. When I have time, of course.

For a half-hour, I try to write at least a 100 words.

15 minutes, 50 words.

Since it’s not many words, I now write every single day, in order to try and write at least 2 000 words a week (when I should be writing 7 500 words!).

Often, the micro writing goals leads to a good writing session.

Other times, I’m just a proud little crazy writer on a quest, happy to have push through one more time, simply to get a couple hundred words on the page.

I hope this post helped. If you have tips and tricks, and if you want to share, please do so down there in the comments.

Dear writer friends, until next time!

Diary of a new writing project. Day 18: cleaning sprints

I used one my most faithful, always working writing tip during this blissful daylight creative writing time: cleaning sprints.

This week word count goal: 15 000 words
Word count so far: 12 427 words

I had three free day hours to work on the YA-Wip today. Three ! As my new early morning tv friend would put it: hooray!

I used one my most faithful, always working writing tip during this blissful daylight creative writing time: cleaning sprints.

Better then looking endlessly at the screen, or re-writing a sentence ten times and get all bump out. Plus, less chores left for the weekend – wishful thinking helps sometimes.

A little sweeping here, folding laundry there, dealing with dishes (which feel like it could be a full-time job sometimes). 5 minutes of brainstorming – aloud more often then not – and I am back in front of the manuscript.

No rest for the wicked

This coming weekend is a activity free weekend. That means: nap time writing session will be available!

Will I reach 15 000 words? I am going to try anyway.

Thanks for reading this post. Find me on twitter and or take a look my Writing Boards on Pinterest.
Until next time!

Tested Writing Tip: Off with distractions!

I adapted this tip from a prolific indie author to my reality.
My adapted tip certainly seems a little, well, easy and not really worth to talk about. But again, it’s very useful, simple and attainable, the three things I’m looking for in a writing tip.
I’ve been using this one for several weeks now, and it’s a keeper. It was so easy to implement in my existing writing routine.

Off with distractions!

Here it is, so simple I actually never tough of it as an actual writing tip.

Get rid of distractions before writing.

No phone, no emails, no social media. And for the mama writers: no shopping for kids clothes between sentences. (Staying away from the cuteness is hard)
Clear whatever you can off that never ending to-do list of yours (another « ps » for the writer mama’s: it never hurt anybody to leave dishes sit in the dishwasher for a night, or pick up the toys in the morning; I pinky swear).
Once all the distractions are dealt with, it is so much easier to focus on the writing, and the writing only.

I say « tip adapted to my reality » because, in the first place, this writing tips goes way further. The indie author I got the tip from actually bans his loves one from coming in his office (a smart idea), which is not a possibility for this lower middle-class mother of a young kid.

Et voilà, my tested writing tip for today: getting rid of distractions to be able to focus more on writing.

Thanks for reading this post. Until next time!

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