A Writer's Dozen - Archive

Twelve Ways to 'Plot' Your Year
List compiled by Lorraine First posted September 2005
September is finally here! January might bring the New Year – but, for me, September is the month of new beginnings. Maybe I spent too many years in school, but the chill in the morning air, the frost in the night, the trees with yellow dangling leaves… all bring a little skip of joy to my heart. On that note, I was trying to decide what to choose as my Writers’ Dozen topic. Office supplies? What better time of year to get in on the action and excitement of new beginnings than to brave the office supply stores right now? But then I decided probably not everyone shared my view of colourful sticky notes, colourful gel pens, and colourful duo tangs as essential writing supplies. So then I thought that perhaps, like January 1st, September 1st ought to be a time when we chart out the year ahead. September 1st, after all, does coincide with the start of the new membership year at ARWA. With that in mind, then, here are a Writers’ Dozen on plotting your year and some ideas on how to stay focused on your writing goal, whether it is to practice the craft of writing, finish a project, or send a manuscript out. Identify your procrastination pitfalls. For me, distractions are a big thing: I can whittle away hours and hours watching television, playing Spider Solitaire on the computer, checking my email, picking cat hair off the couch… So, if you are anything like me, choose what your biggest distraction is (recognizing your problem is the first step, right?), then decide what you can do to make it less intrusive to your writing schedule. I’m not ready to erase Spider Solitaire from my computer… yet. I’m sure I can discipline myself (spoken like a true addict) but I’ve decided that I need to limit my playing time – just play until I win a game and then move on. (It is probably good I never took up gambling). What is the procrastination thorn in your side? Find it, then go and pull it out! Find your happy writing place. Where and when do you write best? Do you need a comfortable chair or a blank wall to stare at? Does your head clear after you brush your teeth in the morning or do you need to see a black sky outside your window? Try different places and times in your house or neighbourhood. Maybe the local fast food joint is the best place for you… maybe the community library. Find your spot and claim it! Define your writing goals So you’ve figured out your distractions and found a place to go, now you need to figure out what you are going to do there. How much time can you devote to writing? How much do you want to accomplish each time you sit down to write? What do you want to see at the end of the week or month? Do you want to write a 340 page manuscript in a year? How many pages will you have to write each time you sit down to arrive at that goal? Some people find it helpful to count their success by pages written or by hours worked. Figure out what will work for you and make a commitment. Know what your goal is – write it out and stick to it. Sign a contract with yourself – and put it somewhere where you’ll see it daily. Do what you need to to make this happen. Plan how you are going to get back on the horse. Undoubtedly, if you are like everyone else in the world, there will be a few blips that arrive unexpectedly on your radar screen. Your friends throw you a surprise birthday party on your writing night (and it’s the night you were going to tackle that critical scene you finally figured out) or your cat throws up on your computer keyboard… you know, the things that happen in life. Accept that these things will happen and don’t let them throw you off. How are you going to make sure that this blip doesn’t turn into a week or a month or half a years’ worth of non-production? Do you sit back and wait for inspiration to come back to you or do you have your writing so clearly defined as important, critical, non-negotiable time in your schedule that you know that you exactly when the next writing session will be? Know your reward. Just the process of writing is rewarding… sometimes. But it can also be frustrating and tiresome and sometimes you are so sick of your characters you’d wish they’d just get over themselves and be done with it. How are you going to reward yourself for sticking to it? What is your dangling carrot? Is it being able to write in your Christmas card that you finally submitted something somewhere? Is it being able to make the payment for your new laptop with a clear conscience? Or maybe they are smaller rewards, like allowing yourself to buy that pack of gel pens. Know what your reward is and type it up. Print it out in a nice big fancy font – and stick it somewhere that you’ll see it. Accept you aren’t going to be brilliant all the time. Sometimes you are going to write a trite little scene with some trite little dialogue. You know you can do better – and you know you’ll have to come back and fix it. And hey! That’s just fine. Get those words out of your head and on paper or in your computer. It is better to have written a lousy bit that you can scribble over later than to keep the page blank and not move forward. Know where to find inspiration. Sometimes I read something and think: “That is such a fantastic way of putting that idea.” It could be intense, unexpected, charming or funny … something that makes me think I know a character or scene better. I’ve framed a few of these little gems and hung them up in my office. When I think I could be doing something different in my own writing, I’ll get up and read them. It helps clear my head and step back from what I’m working on. Then I usually find that I can think about my own writing in a new light – maybe finding the opportunity for my characters or scenes to be intense, unexpected, charming or funny too. (Okay – you may have started to suspect that my goal is to have you tape up paper all over your house, but it isn’t – I swear). Put together a good resource library. Having writing or research resources at your finger tips makes things go much more smoothly. For example, if you are writing historical fiction, you probably have started to acquire historical monographs by respected researchers, original accounts or writings from that time period and thick coffee table books with big glossy pictures. More than research material, though, you’ll also want to have a good dictionary, grammar book and style book. Another area of your personal library should include books written by people on how to write. A good ‘how to’ book, for example, can help you through a tricky scene or figure out how to write a stronger first sentence. You don’t need to spend a lot of money – check used book stores both online and in the city, or go to the sale bins at the local library. You’ll be surprised at what you can find. Join a writing group. One of the best ways to help you with your writing is to meet other writers. These people won’t raise their eyebrows with concern when you tell them that one of your characters has to die, they won’t think it is strange when you tell them that your characters took over the scene messing up your neat little outline and they won’t think it is the least bit odd that you had to buy a bigger purse in order to tote around your coil scribbler. These are kindred spirits – you can sit with them and feel a sense of belonging. They can help you over the writing hiccups and humps, and you may be able to help someone else too. Even if you are in a remote area, there is a wide array of writing groups online. Writing is a solitary pursuit – but there is no need to go through it alone. Don’t be a coward. This one is particularly challenging for me. I can write merrily one thing after the next after the next… but at some point it is important to share your precious little creations with someone besides your cat. Find someone you trust and who’ll be honest in a kind way. And it probably shouldn’t be a non-writing friend – those non-writing folk will just be amazed at the fact that you started writing something and probably won’t know how to offer you useful feedback. Don’t let your manuscript be a spoiled brat. This one goes hand in hand with #10. Of course your work is brilliant, wonderful, insightful, unique and compelling – but it isn’t perfect. Accept your critique with hat in hand. Know your work and your goals well enough to evaluate the comments you receive. You may not agree with all of the comments you get back and that is fine. But consider what is told to you, mull it over and decide what is important to change in your manuscript and what you want to stick to your guns about. The person who has offered you comments will hopefully have done so out of their good intentions to help you and they will have spent their valuable time to do it. They may not always be right, but consider what they say carefully before dismissing their opinions and the time they spent. After all, you trusted them enough to seek their opinion in the first place. However, if you think their comments weren’t helpful or constructive, get a second opinion. This is your brainchild after all – discipline it, take good care of it and help it stand out strong and tall amongst its peers. Remember why you are doing this. You like to write, right? If you didn’t like to write, you wouldn’t be writing. There is a joy in writing that is hard to explain to a non-writer. Don’t make writing a tedious and undesirable way to spend your spare time. Write because it makes your heart happy. If you are stuck on a work in progress and can’t seem to find the joy in it, step back from it. Go out to a coffee shop with your coil notebook. Write about the people around you. What quirky phrases are they using? Speculate about the dynamics of their relationships. Who has the deep dark secret? What do you think it is? Or, look out the window and write about the wonderful fall day that has the chill in the morning air, the frost in the night and the trees with yellow dangling leaves.

September 2005