On my creative process…

When I first started writing, I struggled to balance an influx of ideas with my day-to-day life. I started taking notes while I was doing stuff, but then I realized I was taking endless reams of notes, and I might as well be full-on writing.

What I do now is I assign myself a daily word count (500 at the moment, although I have gone as high as 3500). Then, if there are ideas that nag me at the end of my word count, I place an extremely brief written reminder in brackets at the end of my manuscript. For example, I might condense an entire fantasy-glider dogfighting scene into [dogfight in ravine like Star Wars X-wing trench run]. When I get around to writing the scene, I’ll erase the reminder once I’m done.

If I don’t do this, I find myself constantly, CONSTANTLY taking notes and thinking about my work in progress. This way, I can keep my writing and the rest of my life separate and functional.

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Comments

8 responses to “On my creative process…”

  1. That sounds like a really good approach. I write reminders or things to research in square brackets and capital letters. It saves me getting distracted!

  2. I get stuck in note taking loops and then all my ideas stay in the notebook. Itโ€™s so easy to do.

  3. Different approaches work for different authors. Some, for instance, put their notes into a separate, structured document, with links to characters, world events, storyline and so on. Some use index cards for the same purpose. Some, famously, kept little notebooks to jot down ideas. But I think you’re right … We get the best out of our writing machine if we limit it to definite parts of the day and if we focus it on achieving a certain word count. And spend the rest of our day living in the real world. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Your approach certainly works for you.

    1. absolutely! I think I read somewhere the Michael Crichton physically copied and pasted stuff in his manuscript with glue and scissors

  4. Love the 500 words a day concept. It’s definitely a doable goal. Better 500 words a day than a blank page. I may give that a go. Thanks.

  5. I keep notes on my phone if I am out and about! I also screenshot visual ideas and save them in a Google docs app on my phone. Love this post, thanks for sharing!

    1. Google docs is a great idea!

  6. I really like your post, and thanks for the good idea! As someone with a day job that takes up a lot of time, but who is also trying to make more time for my writing, it’s great to read your techniques and what is working for you! ๐Ÿ™‚ Matt

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