Today, I found a new trick to use with my writing. First, let me back up and ‘splain a bit.
With my decision yesterday, to write in the CampNaNoWriMo next month, I have decided to write for 30 minutes daily, non-stop. Certainly, I don’t mean my fingers are hitting keys at every second of the 30 minutes, but for 30 minutes, I have an appointment with myself and the keyboard. No phone calls. No internet or emails. No conversations. Nothing. In those 30 minutes, I am going to write about story thoughts, or portions of a scene. Whatever hits the keyboard, but I am going to try and keep it somewhat related to writing. Ie, I don’t want to write a recap of my day up to that point, or complain about work.
So, yesterday, I started things off with an explanation of what my goal was through the remainder of March. I then just gave myself one last day of complaining in the journal, as I wanted to start fresh today.
Today arrived, and although my morning was packed, I still planned on writing. My ultimate goal is to write before work starts. Today it was not possible because I had some things due out. I didn’t get to write until 12:30, right after lunch. As I sat and ate lunch, my mind thought about what I was going to write about. I came up with nuttin’. Zip – zilch. When I set my timer and started to type, I gave a few lines of gibberish to get my mind/finger connection established, and then it hit me. How do I “unplug” a backed-up story? I decided to interview myself about the story in question. I typed my question out, and then immediately answered it. I ran almost the whole 30 minutes doing this question and answer thing. Actually, I ended up running past my 30 minute timer by some 5 minutes, just to complete my thoughts at the time.
OH. MY. GOD. I was able to see through so many issues with one of ‘works in progress’. I didn’t get everything answered, but I certainly gave myself a lot of direction to take, and should be able to get to my next plot point with ease. It worked so well, I plan on “interviewing” myself again in a few days or maybe next week on a few other stories that are stalled.
Hi Paul,
thanks so much for this tip! Monday I wrote a little piece for The Write Practice, just something that came to mind on the spot. I liked the theme, but wasn’t sure what to do with it next. This morning I tried the self-interview idea for my practice on 750words.com. Writing out responses to the questions that came to mind was helpful. Now I have some next steps for developing the theme into a flash fiction story or maybe a full short story. Thanks again for the post. I’m enjoying reading what’s on your mind.
Paul