My answer to this was so long I decided to do it as a normal post. @_@
I wouldn’t say I have a secret per se. I’ve developed or else discovered a few different techniques that help me stay focused.
I think if you really want to write some larger projects and stay focused through them, the most important thing is to figure out what is stopping you. In my opinion, everyone has different things that hold them back from writing. In order to develop a strategy to write more effectively, you have to first identify why you’re not writing.
That’s just to say that what works for me isn’t going to work for you unless your hold-ups are the same as mine.
My biggest struggles with writing are:
Writing myself into a corner
This is just usually the result of bad planning. By nature, I’m a very seat-of-my-pants style writer. I come up with a lot of ideas as I write and over-planning can really bog my writing down and get me stuck. So I’ve had to find the level of planning that keeps me from getting stuck but that also allows me the flexibility to run with spontaneous ideas.
For me, this involves breaking the story into bitesized pieces and doing a detailed summary/synopsis of each section (each chapter, each scene) but avoiding very detailed outlines. Detailed outlines just weigh me down so I stick with focusing on summarising the events at a slightly higher level and leaving the details to be determined as I write.
So I might have something like:
Ari and Morgan are training in the training room.
Ari is teaching Morgan about the concept of falling safely (for instance, if someone throws you or hits you, you fall in a specific way that keeps you from getting injured.)
As he explains this concept, Morgan realises the idea of “falling with grace so you can get back up and continue fighting” is a sort of metaphfor for life.
She brings it up to Ari and he admits he chose this specific starting point because he felt it was something she needed to hear.
I’ll create something like this for each scene and then that forms my basic structure for a scene, and I flesh it out as I write it.
If I do end up getting stuck because my planning wasn’t great, rather than floundering in place and getting frustrated, I just make myself back track and re-plan or push ahead through the scene. I do not let myself stop and fret about it. I’ll forge ahead with a not-great solution if I have to just in order to keep my forward momentum.
Getting stuck within a scene
This is that situation where you are at point A and you know you need to get to point B, but you’re stuck on the wording and exactly how to make that happen. I’ve just learned that I cannot allow one scene to hold me up otherwise I just get frustrated and lose my motivation and descend into a proper writers’ block. (In my opinion a lot of writer’s block is fueled by frustration and discouragement rather than not having ideas).
Usually in this situation, I will list out the scene “beats” (in other words the most important moments in the scene) in a small beat sheet. Or, basically, just a list. Like literal bullet points.
You can kind of think of this as creating stepping stones from my starting point A and leading to my ending point B. These are not detailed. They may not even be complete sentences. It’s just me listing out the important moments the scene has to hit.
Ari demonstrates how to fall (using the principles of ukemi)
Morgan notes it can be a metaphor for life and he agrees.
He shares a story about his mentor teaching this concept to him.
Morgan appreciates the advice and seeing a bit further into his personality.
This is a moment she realises he’s more thoughtful than he initially comes across.
They move to Morgan having to actually demonstrate the fall technique. She’s nervous.
Arit tells her not to worry because when she falls he will be there to catch her and help her up.
He’s speaking literally but she gets the sense it’s also figuratively.
I then go back and flesh these out so they are complete sentences and fully connected to each other so that one transitions smoothly to the next. I fully detail this out with dialogue and narrative if I can. But in some cases, I’m still a little stuck on wording and I will connect with the most basic of sentences and almost no real descriptive flavour.
Because at this point, I’m not even trying to make it good or interesting. I’m just trying to get a continuous path from point A to B even if it’s really sparse. I just want something you can read smoothly. Because I can flesh it out fully and polish it up later. The point isn’t to create a polished scene. It’s just to create a scene that functions and can be read smoothly.
Getting Frustrated with Quality
This one, I think stems from the above two problems.
A lot of times I find myself getting frustrated with the quality of my writing. I know my rough drafts are really bad. This is why I’ve always referred to them jokingly as “potato drafts” - they’re like a dirty potato that comes out of the ground. They’re not pleasant and they’re kinda gross. Certainly, they’re not nice to read. The characterisation is flat, the descriptions are crude or non-existent, etc. Sometimes it can be disheartening because I’m writing and writing and I know what I’m writing isn’t *good.*
I’ve really gotten myself accustomed to a thorough editing process though. So if I’m not liking something in my early drafts, I don’t let it weigh me down or hold me up and I don’t stop and edit it. I tell myself I’ll come back to it and edit it later. I’ll fix it later. And, telling myself that, I just push forward.
Being able to accept that rough drafts suck and do not need to be perfect, and that they *will not* be perfect is probably one of the most important things for me. I find this internal struggle against the imperfections of our early drafts is really prevalent. We always tend to think that our writing has to be perfect, and start struggling with self-doubt when it’s not. But it doesn’t have to be perfect right away. It’s called a rough draft because it’s not perfect. We need to be able to accept our potato drafts.
Writing potato drafts that have to be polished up is kind of part of the process. The ability to accept this is one of the main things that helps me write as much and as fast as I do.
This is obviously something a lot of writers face. Barring a writer having a physical issue that is causing them to be distracted, I think the only real solution to it is discipline. Sometimes you really just have to…do the thing. It’s a decision you make.
That said, I’ve found the pomodoro technique helps a lot for me because it takes a massive project and breaks into manageable pieces. So this is a time management technique that utilises a timer. You set the timer for 25 minutes and then you write for 25 minutes. And at the end, you take a 5 or 10 minute break.. And you do it again. And again. And again.
Many people have found this technique to be helpful for managing time and staying productive. It really works for me as well. There are timers online or timer apps for your phone that are set up for this technique so I really recommend trying for people who have difficulty just staying focused for writing sessions. I use it a lot when I’m struggling.
I also use really strict word count goals (daily goals, weekly goals, etc) and track them in a spread sheet that calculates things like how many words are remaining for my total goal, for my daily goal. It tracks how many words I have to write per day to have the project done by a specific date, etc. This method is really, really helpful for me personally.
Knowing I have to write 1200 words a day to have Lance’s route done by mid-April just kind of helps take a overwhelming word count and break it into portions that are much more manageable. And I think you’ll notice a recurring theme for me is breaking the project into manageable portions instead of trying to focus on a much bigger whole.
I really approach writing in a mechanical way - as if it’s work. Because it is work. It is also a creative endeavour but I can’t view as this obscure creative process. I have to break it down into a more tangible process in order to stay focused.
Losing my zeal/motivation/passing/inspiration for a project
This is a another that I feel a lot of people do struggle with. We see it expressed in a myriad of ways. “My characters aren’t talking to me.” or “My muse is being difficult” or “I can’t stay focused on one project and get distracted by new ideas.”
We’re not special in this regard. Everyone has billions of shiny ideas. Everyone has days when the words don’t want to come. These aren’t unique experiences as much as I think we sometimes try to tell ourselves that our struggle is somehow different. All of these are essentially ways of saying “I’m struggling with this project or I just don’t really find it interesting anymore.”
I think a lot of things can contribute to this feeling of losing your passion for a given project. Generally, for me, it’s actually one of the above issues that is the source of losing motivation. Sometimes it’s just mild burn out or getting bored. With long projects, there’s always a point where the project just isn’t exciting anymore and it’s tempting to start focusing on something else.
This is another place where I feel you just have to take responsibility for your own feelings. You can blame it on your characters (who aren’t real by the way) or your ‘muse’ (who isn’t real by the way), but ultimately it is you who has to make the decision to continue working. It comes to finishing the project or not finishing. If you want to finish it, your only choice is to work on it. That’s the only method for finishing a project. You can decide how that happens and what it looks like - how you manage your time and everything. But ultimately you do have to work on the thing. And, again, barring some kind of physical barrier (like genuinely not having time or being ill), it’s just deciding to do it. There’s really no secret ingredient there.
If you have hold ups (like the ones I mentioned above), then it’s necessary to identify them and come up with a solution that works for you. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what the problem is. So if you’re struggling to finish projects, really stop to think about about why so you can come up with solutions that work tailored to your needs.
I think working on and finishing large projects is about learning to overcome the hurdles in your way. In my case, I’ve just learned what the usual roadblocks are for me and I’ve come up with ways to help me over them or around them. That’s really the only reason I write as much as I do. It’s not a secret or a special technique or anything.
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