I’m not a firm believer in writer’s block, but I have my tough writing days just like anyone else. Today’s one of them. Or rather, it’s becoming one because I’m forcing myself to work on Frobisher instead of Hubris Towers. Writing Hubris Towers is currently about like eating kettle corn. Once I’ve written a few paragraphs, I can’t help but write a few more. Frobisher, on the other hand, is getting so long and clever and funny and deep that it’s starting to feel like there’s no way I can bring it to a satisfactory fulfillment, and now I’m getting toward the end where I really need to figure out the extra-clever solutions to the very interesting problems I’ve been raising.
And the thing is, if I were to just sit down and write some stuff, it would probably be, on average, just as good as all the other stuff I’ve written, which is currently intimidating the hell out of me. Worst case scenario, it wouldn’t be, and I could delete it and write some more. It’s not like I’m facing bears or razor guns or something.
A razor gun, apparently.
But I managed to get myself into a mindset that’s more focused, I guess, on trying to figure it all out in advance rather than just writing it and giving myself more raw word count to shape into something exceptional. I’m finding every excuse and non-essential task I can find to avoid sitting down and actually writing.
It doesn’t help that my monthly target is looming, with 7,500 words left to write in the next few days (when I usually shoot for 5,000 per week).
I got out of it by making my goal easier. 7,500 more this month is too much to think about. Let’s start by adding 1,000 today. No, still intimidating. Maybe 500. Better, but that’s like half an hour unless I hit a groove, which isn’t looking likely. 250? Not at all scary, but what would I write? That’s still nearly a page and the whole point is I’m not sure what’s next
Bear in mind, of course, that if I were to just look at the page I’d probably manage to figure out what’s next. But so far I’m just arguing with myself while working on other things.
So I set a goal of 50 words. Seriously. That’s three minutes, one if I’m fast, five if I’m being ridiculous.
And it worked! Or at least it’s working. I’ve gotten moving on the writing, and as usual once I get out of my head and start spilling story it gets the flow going and soon I don’t want to stop.
There are a few reasons this works so well:
- It cuts out the cost of trying – I can attempt 50 words any time I have a couple minutes to spare
- It also cuts the cost of failing – who cares if I have to delete 50 words?
- It gets my logistics in line – once I’ve done my 50 words, I have my tools in place and my Scrivener project open and ready for more
- It forces me to look at what I’ve got so far, which gets me thinking about the story again
- It provides an easy win. Once I’ve got 50 words (which is almost immediately), I can go for another 50. Then another. Then why not 100 this time? And by then I’ve finished 250 and that’s a quarter of a day’s production. A few more of those and I’m breaking actual targets.
So that’s what I’m dealing with today. Really am excited to see what I come up with for Frobisher now that the story’s open and growing again, though. In other news, I’m nearing completion on the paperback layout for The Stone and the Song. So much exciting in so little time! Stay tuned.
Cheers!
—Ben
Ben Y. Faroe 
I’m currently feeling a little… sluggish with my writing right now. I like the idea of giving yourself small goals. Eventually, I want to get to a chapter a week or ten days if possible, which includes me going back and doing minor edits/smoothing and layering before I add more. 50 words is such an easy bite, and as you said, it’s encouraging to meet the goal and try again. Success breeds success.
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Yeah, it kind of bugs me when I have to resort to tricks like this to get started, but I do what I need to do :]
Out of curiosity, about how long are your chapters usually?
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Well, my books usually have 37 chapters (no idea why that number), so each is about 2500 words.
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Nice – thanks! I’ve been trying to figure out what makes a good chapter length lately, so curious what patterns others are settling into.
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I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer. It depends on the writer’s style. I like short, episodic chapters to move the story along.
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Agreed. I’ll probably end up varying it even from series to series.
One of the more specific questions I’m pondering right now is for Dream World Collective. I originally wrote it as blog posts years ago, so each chapter is maybe 2-3 pages, with 251 chapters total. That really moves the story along and gives it a very readable, almost popcorn-ish feel, but now that I’m re-releasing it in novel form I’m wondering if I should consolidate it into fuller chapters, say 5-10 of the tiny original chapters each so it’s more like 20-25 chapters of 20-30 pages each. It’s tricky.
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Hmmm… I don’t know. I mean, you could always use scene breaks within the chapters, which would still keep it moving.
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Yeah, I think that’s what I’d have to do if I combined them. And that’s a good point – you really don’t need to call them chapters to keep the momentum. Could be vaguely disorienting to keep switching POV within a chapter, but as long as the scene breaks are clear I don’t see that being too much of an issue.
Plus that gives me the freedom to pick (new) chapter breaks at the most gripping or otherwise optimized points.
Ooh, also just realized I could compile a quick test file to see what the new method would look like in practice and what kind of reading experience it provides. Scrivener is great.
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