{"id":809,"date":"2015-10-23T09:36:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T16:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/?p=809"},"modified":"2015-10-23T09:37:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T16:37:45","slug":"the-well-needs-time-to-refill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/the-well-needs-time-to-refill\/","title":{"rendered":"The Well Needs Time to Refill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good ideas take time to form. I have to remind myself of this when they\u2019re coming out in a slow trickle, and when they\u2019re pouring out of me faster than I can write. My new habit, to plod ahead at a steady pace, means tightening the reins in both cases. Learning to harness the muse this way has helped me write more and better than I have before.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you get burnt out.<\/strong> Even with a whole day to write, I can\u2019t write all day. I\u2019ve spent whole days doing nothing but reading and writing \u2013 I reach a point where I can\u2019t read anymore, I can barely think, and I end up going to bed early because my energy is spent. Everyone has different limits, and I\u2019ve been pushing mine a little to see how far I can stretch them day by day, but I have more energy if I spent time on other things. I forget I wrote my first novel around a dreary day job. I\u2019d spend my day on mindless drudgery and run home brimming with ideas. Allowing yourself to be bored can help refuel the tank.<\/p>\n

Sometimes you need to write anyway.<\/strong> Especially if you\u2019re stuck. It\u2019s too easy to turn being stuck into a plug in your brain that stops you from writing altogether. I\u2019ve written before about priming the subconscious by engaging with your work even when the ideas don\u2019t flow.<\/a> The other day I was so stuck on a plot problem that outlining didn\u2019t help. So I wrote a couple character interaction scenes to see if I could find a plot hiding among them. This primed my brain enough that the next day I was exploding with ideas, but I decided not to write it all at once because\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sometimes you need to leave fuel in the tank.<\/strong> It\u2019s hard to stop writing when the ideas are hot, but many professional writers recommend it because it gives you a concrete starting point the next day. Those people know their shit. Since I\u2019ve started doing this myself I\u2019ve had fewer bad writing days. I also sit down to write earlier in the day when my brain is burning with the next plot point or line of dialogue. I\u2019ve found the best point to stop for the day is when a character asks another character an important question. It gives me time to work on the answer, which leads to the next point.<\/p>\n

Sometimes slowing down saves you time.<\/strong> I\u2019ve found when I run away with the first idea I come up with, I waste a lot of time on bad stuff. Since I\u2019ve slowed down, my character motivations are stronger and plot problems work themselves out in less obvious ways. On a sentence level, when I write quickly my words are strewn with typos and cliches. The cliches are stand-ins for better words later, and typos are easy enough to fix. Plot holes and weak character motivations take a lot more work to correct. I will write a wrong scene knowing I\u2019m going to excise it later, but only if I\u2019m stumped. I prod the story just enough to keep it going, and let it rest for the day.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s better to read for inspiration than write.<\/strong> I once took a whole year off from writing stories, dedicating myself to reading good books instead. When I finally sat down to write, my work had massively improved even though I\u2019d barely practiced writing at all. That\u2019s an extreme case, but it did show how important the advice \u201cread more\u201d is to any writer. I would add \u201cread well\u201d to that, because you learn more from good writing than bad.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good ideas take time to form. I have to remind myself of this when they\u2019re coming out in a slow trickle, and when they\u2019re pouring out of me faster than I can write. My new habit, to plod ahead at a steady pace, means tightening the reins in both cases. Learning to harness the muse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[20,47],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-advice","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809\/revisions\/821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sarahdimento.com\/~sarah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}