Get up and Go

So you want to write a novel, say 60,000 words long. You do a little math and you figure at 250 words per page you need 240 pages. Ugh, that sounds like a lot. You do a little more figuring and if you write 3 pages a day you'll have that novel done in 80 days. Only two and a half months. That's not too tough, right?

So you sit down in front of your computer, open a word processing document, label it Chapter One, punch to tab button, then... Might as well get that laundry started. Yeah, you'll be done with the first page by the time it is done--heck, you'll probably have the whole three pages ready and spell checked by then. Right? Right! But first, you'd better water those plant that are starting to droop.

No, no, no. You sit your butt down. A ghost voice from your past says, "You're not getting up until you clean your plate!" I mean, "You're not getting up until you write three pages!"

You groan and whine and wiggle. Why'd you ever what to write in the first place? Oh yeah, you have this great idea for a story. Remembering your initial enthusiasm for your story and characters you manage to get those three pages. Yeah!

The next few days you manage to more or less keep to your goal. One day you only write one page, but it was a hard page so you forgive yourself. The next day you get out a few paragraphs and you struggled for every word. Ack! This writing stuff is torture, why'd you ever what to write in the first place?

That character you couldn't wait to write about is not cooperating, that plot you scribbled down on the backs of several envelopes doesn't look quite as brilliant as it first seemed, and if your villain was only more two dimensional he'd be twisting the end of his pencil-thin mustache and tying virgins to railroad tracks. Besides that, you've got this new idea that is niggling in your brain, crying out to be written. What to do? What to do?

One glance at the stack of half-started and half-finished novels renews your determination to finish this one even if it means chaining yourself to the computer until you do. Okay, back to work. You stare at the flashing cursor that is ticking off the minutes since you typed that last word, mocking you. Curse that cursor! You'll show him, you'll flip him off. Reaching for the power switch, you pause. You really did love that character. And that story line really should work.

Reading over what you've written so far you finally spot the problem. Right there where you lost your momentum you had your character do something totally out of character. With a little thought, you find some way to accomplish what you needed for the plot and still let those headstrong characters be themselves.

With a new burst of energy you type away, forgetting the time and surpassing your page goal for the week in just one day. Life is good. You scribble a little note to yourself and stick on the refrigerator. "Next time your writing gets off track, find out where your story fell off the track."

Now, get back to work. :)