Professor Bauer's Writing Tips for Dummies (like me)
My former Creative Writing teacher and current Literary Marketplace teacher reminded us all of his #1 piece of advice, and the one thing he says separates the failed unpublished authors from the successful, published authors:
Put Ass to Chair.
He reminded us all that if we wrote just one page a day, we could have a novel of over 350 pages in a year. If we wrote two pages a day, we'd have a 700 page novel. While this seems like a common sense, "duh" sort of issue, I have never reached page 300 of a story. Not even close. I do, however, think I could squeeze out a page a day if I didn't fiddle around online so much, even on heavy homework days. If I didn't procrastinate so much, I could be done with my current story by the end of the year, and well into editing. And that would be at one page a day, which probably equates to 30 minutes to an hour on average. If I broke the habit of procrastinating, I could actually start finishing things. There's an idea.
I should make it my goal to write for at least 30 minutes every day, even if it sucks.
He also emphasized the importance of getting used to writing "Shitty first drafts," because it's important to get it out, because you can go back and make it better in round 2. I've been actively working on doing that lately, responding to every moment where I look at what I just wrote and say "Wow, does THAT suck!" (almost everything), with "That's okay, it's supposed to be dreadful. You write the story, THEN worry about how it's written." That frame of mind really does help, and I'm getting better at it. If you tell yourself that what you're writing is supposed to be mediocre, and that it doesn't reflect on your writing ability, it's a lot easier to plow on. At least for me.
I wrote a page and a half tonight, and it's in special sucky form tonight, but I'm getting the almost-stalled ball rolling again before it comes to rest.
Put Ass to Chair.
He reminded us all that if we wrote just one page a day, we could have a novel of over 350 pages in a year. If we wrote two pages a day, we'd have a 700 page novel. While this seems like a common sense, "duh" sort of issue, I have never reached page 300 of a story. Not even close. I do, however, think I could squeeze out a page a day if I didn't fiddle around online so much, even on heavy homework days. If I didn't procrastinate so much, I could be done with my current story by the end of the year, and well into editing. And that would be at one page a day, which probably equates to 30 minutes to an hour on average. If I broke the habit of procrastinating, I could actually start finishing things. There's an idea.
I should make it my goal to write for at least 30 minutes every day, even if it sucks.
He also emphasized the importance of getting used to writing "Shitty first drafts," because it's important to get it out, because you can go back and make it better in round 2. I've been actively working on doing that lately, responding to every moment where I look at what I just wrote and say "Wow, does THAT suck!" (almost everything), with "That's okay, it's supposed to be dreadful. You write the story, THEN worry about how it's written." That frame of mind really does help, and I'm getting better at it. If you tell yourself that what you're writing is supposed to be mediocre, and that it doesn't reflect on your writing ability, it's a lot easier to plow on. At least for me.
I wrote a page and a half tonight, and it's in special sucky form tonight, but I'm getting the almost-stalled ball rolling again before it comes to rest.