Get The Words Down

I was answering a Comment from a reader on a post I wrote a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about distractions.

OMG! I know all about distractions. As many of you know, my youngest child (now an adult) has multiple medical problems. I spend more time with her on a weekly basis than I did when she was in school. I take her to PT once a week, to doctor's appointments, or just hang out at her house if she's having a difficult time.

The last few months have been difficult for her.She has Adhesive Arachnoiditis as a result of back surgery and pain abatement procedures. It's changed her life--and mine too. This is year 2 of the "new normal" for all of us. She's an amazing woman who keeps persisting in her effort to manage the pain.

Anyway, I thought I'd pass along the advice I gave the reader.

No Perfect Time

One thing I've learned in life is that there is never a perfect time to write a book. When your kids are young, there are school activities, homework, PTA, church, family and friends to visit, etc.

If you work outside the home or at home, there's the job and all it entails then the housework, the meals to prepare, the laundry, etc.

There's always something that needs to be done. No one can do it all so you have to figure out how you want to spend your time.

For most of us with too many demands and too little time, that means we have to give something up to carve out a block of time to write. Many people watch TV in the evening or read for pleasure. I don't do this very often. If I'm watching TV because my hubby wants my company, I have my laptop with me so I can work on some of the many tasks authors must do in this digital age: social media promotion, email, blogging, keeping up with market news, designing graphic image teasers for online use, and about a million other things.

I try to find at least 3-5 hours a day to actually write. That may not be a block of 3 hours. The time may be squeezed in throughout the day. Or, I get up early or stay up late to get it done. 

Get The Words Down

I do this because I know there are 2 secrets to writing a book.

(1) Write something every single day because it keeps the story in your mind and you don't have to waste precious time trying to remember what the scene was about. Or, letting a couple of days expand into even more time when you haven't written. When that happens, you lose the excitement of the story you wanted to tell. That's the key to catching a bad case of Writer's Block.

(2) You need to get to THE END as fast as you can. The secret of getting it done is to just get the words down on paper/computer. No matter how much you think it sucks, just get the words down. Resist the urge to edit as you go along. GET TO THE END.

Something amazing happens just by reaching the end. You realize you did it! You wrote a book. It doesn't matter how awful it is because you have a complete draft of your story.

Writer's Button 2.25 inches Diameter

The magic happens when you then go back to the beginning of your completed draft and start editing. If you don't have a complete draft, you don't have the raw materials for the magic to happen.

 If you polish as you go along, you'll probably never get a book finished. Or, if you do, you'll only be able to write one or two a year.

Takeaway Truth

Get the words down so you can get to The End. That's just the plain truth.