Write With Me!

I'm done! The draft is complete! Now what?

I got a lot of writing done this week. I made myself do it. I forced myself to do it. I was a harsh task master. And I didn't enjoy my time. There has to be a better way.

I'm going to complete my draft this week. MY COMMITMENT IS SET.Are you struggling too?

Sigh.

Stick with it! Don't edit as you go. No one is watching you. Just get words down on the page. Write 5 minutes at a time. Write 30 minutes at a time. Just...write...something. Before you know it, you'll have written the first draft of your novel. Exciting!

The stats are against us! Making money on debut novel is like winning the lottery. So...do it because you enjoy it!

Find someone that cares and tell them you are writing the first draft of a novel. Ask them to keep you honest. Share with them how it's going. I find that when someone knows that you are trying to do something, it adds a little bit of positive pressure to help you keep the momentum.

Seeing your story through your character(s) eyes and writing from their unique perspective can really draw your reader into the emotions and experience of the story.

You don’t have to write the best novel on your first try. You just have to write a whole one.

Don't worry if the section you are currently writing seems slow or fast or too energetic or too sleepy...it all has value.

I just realized that for almost 90,000 words, I have mixed up the order of my subjects and verbs. For example, "Why don't you ever listen to me?" asked Josie. Compared to, "Why don't you ever listen to me?" Josie asked. Subtle but different! Or, more obscurely: "Josie laughed when the tall kid fell down the stairs." Compared to "When the tall kid fell down the stairs, Josie laughed." Which is right?

I took a break. Guilt free.

I allowed myself to get distracted for a few days this week. It was so enjoyable. But so inefficient. Don't do it!

You are writing something that has never been written, in this way, ever before in the history of the Universe! Keep going!

You probably love reading. Well, as a writer, you not only get to write your own story, you get to be the first reader, too. Enjoy the read!

Steal a style you love! Copy a sound you like! This isn't plagiarizing.

If you ever get stuck, pause, visualize, see the scene in you mind like a clip from a move. Then, write what you see!

Getting this first draft completed is a marathon, not a sprint. Did you write a lot this week? Great! Well done. No? Well, that's OK, you always have now and tomorrow to write...so don't worry about what's in the past, worry about getting some words on the page NOW.

Don't trust your memory, write things down!

Why do you write? Why do you want to write this story? Finding that "why" will enable you to press on when you lack motivation.

I don't know about you but I've put in some big writing "bursts" this week and I can see that I am in the final few chapters. As usual, I am trying to be consistent with my daily writing knowing that soon I will have completed the first draft!

There is a lot of value in reading, and reading intentionally, as you write your first draft. You can pick up effective ways to structure scenes, including realistic dialog, that will help you when the time comes to edit that draft.

One day at a time, progress no perfection! You got this!

You know that favourite part of your story? The part you love writing about? The part you are so excited about? When you go back and revise your novel, you'll have a chance to make every chapter sing in a similar way! People are going to really enjoy every chapter, not just the finale.

Don't worry about flow, plot, structure, dialog...just keep the story moving, stay creative, be experimental if you must. The most important thing is to keep moving forward.

This is my low point...so what?

First drafts are not meant to be good, let alone perfect. Keep writing, don't listen to that inner critic. Everything gets fixed later. Now, during the draft writing, your task is to get your ideas and thoughts down on paper. That's it!

You don't have to write in chronological order! If you feel inspired, feel free to write a scene that comes later (or earlier) than where you happen to be in your timeline.

Stay the course! Keep writing! The first draft isn't your best work! You can do it! If writing were easy, everyone would be an author!

Every protagonist exhibits strengths or weaknesses in: proactivity, relatability and competence. Figure out their strengths and lean on them; determine their weaknesses and show their growth.

As you write your first draft, it's helpful to consider the role of plot. Not only in how it moves your story forward in a rewarding way but how it's essential to make sure that each scene is serving both the "little p plot(s)" and the BIG P PLOT.

There is nothing new in the zoo today, just a discussion of the fundamentals of getting your first draft completed. From consistency to outlines to character generation, I discuss the various topics that I've been keeping in mind as I press on to complete my first draft.

This is it, the last day of daily podcasts! We now shift to weekly episodes where I will spend 10-15 minutes talking about things I've learned about the craft of writing. But I won't get too technical, after all just getting a story down on paper (or digitally) is the aim of a first draft. But the day will be coming when we need to edit this draft so we may as well start the conversation about what makes a good book early.See you next week and happy writing!

Ever notice that movie credits have a "Story by" and a "Screenplay by" or "Written by" and these can each be attributed to a different person? How can that be? Isn't the storyteller the writer? Not always, sometimes the storyteller is simply the person that comes up with the idea and someone else gets does the actual writing. Well, if we think of it that way, this first draft that we are working on can be seen as simply "the story". The writing doesn't have to be good or even complete, that comes later. Just get the basic story down for your first draft.

A quick and easy reminder to get your 5 minutes done today and make sure to figure out how to get it done consistently on the weekends (if that's an issue for you as it is for me).

I'm getting excited not only for the upcoming writing duration increase but also for some tips and tricks when it comes to effective storytelling, which I'll dole out in bits and pieces soon!

I am locked and loaded, how about you? I'm excited to test out my 5-min schedule with a 15-min schedule soon. Those words are going to really fill up the pages!

I will discuss again towards the end of this week but I'm thinking about implementing 2 rules for when we bump the writing time up to 15 minutes per day (for me only, you can adopt only if you want to): 1) 15 min is a minimum 2) if you happen not to write on a day, don't sweat it, skip it and move on.

This is it,final week of daily podcast episodes which means that we are getting ready, soon, to shift to longer writing sessions and weekly episodes. For now, continue to focus on finding a habitual time to do your 5 minutes of writing.

It's the weekend and I struggled to find a time to write...again! I'll figure it out, I hope you are having better luck.

I did some quick math on how many words you may have written over the past 23 days. And it's not nuthin!

Habits, habits, habits. The most critical part of finishing a first draft is to write as consistently as possible. Day 22, let's fo!

3 weeks in, have you got your writing schedule nailed down? I have weekdays completely figured out, still have this weekend to experiment.

Mission accomplished but I don't like my outline. It isn't giving me the confidence that I am moving the story in the right direction so I'm gong to take some time to speed read my draft and come up with an updated outline.

I did a rare thing and wrote this morning during breakfast. And it actually felt fine! At least now I know that I have an optional writing time if I don't want to write at noon.

It finally happened, I forgot to write for 5 minutes. I thought I did but clearly I didn't. Seems the weekends are still an issue for me.

I did not write at breakfast I did not write at lunch. But I did write before making dinner. This seems to be shaping up as my optimal weekend writing time.

Don't like what you are writing? Doesn't matter. Don't like your choices in adjectives or adverbs at the end of dialog? Doesn't matter. Feel like you are just writing for writing's sake? Fine. We are still trying to establish a daily rhythm. So get writing!

With 2 weeks to go, have you found your writing time yet? Get after it!

The writing is starting to feel automatic, what about you? It seems that all it took was 14 straight days of writing to settle into a groove and I hope you are starting to settle into your own rhythm, too.