Random Thoughts

Posted By Warren on July 27, 2010

After reading this article today, I started thinking how these ten things effect me. What are my personal pitfalls? Actually I think the list in the article pretty much sums up my own pits that need to be filled in.

1. Unclear big-picture vision.

This is why I started making outlines for longer pieces of fiction. Sure I am still working on the novel, but it isn’t because I don’t know the big-picture. (It is because I let life distract me…but that is another story.) For those that don’t know, I use wikidpad to lay everything out. I Like it, it is a small personal wiki.

2. Lack of short-term goals

This is also something I started addressing earlier this year. I decided I wanted a word count of about 100,000 words. I split up my book in to 30 chapters, so that means each chapter would have about 3,333 words incorporated in to it. Using that, I could break it further down in to daily goals: If I could hit 3,000 words a day, that means I could do a chapter a day.

It didn’t quite work out like that (I’m aiming at about 1000 words a day) but it is nice to have it all split up and in bite sized chunks.

3. Fear..

Fear is something I am still dealing with. However, being without a job and no visible means of support tends to cute right through that fear. Right now I’m at a point where I have to put up or shut up. Either I make it as a writer, or I go back to work as a wage slave.

I really don’t want that.

That is helping my writing tremendously. I am taking risks I wouldn’t have before, or risks I would have agonized over. I now have a column with examiner.com and am working on a game review for an online gaming mag. Those are baby steps, but steps I am not sure I would’ve made previously.

4. Trying to force productivity.

Ever try to write when you are plum tuckered out? When you can barely stare at the screen, or the pad, or the keyboard without nodding off? Or how about when you know you should be doing something else (Like fixing dinner for the family…) It is essential that a writer get in to a groove, find that place where they feel the most comofortable but still productive. Learn to shut the door, work during a time you are not needed else where…

Something I am still working on. I am getting there… I now shut the door when I am writing and don’t answer it unless something big is happening. I am also exercising so that I am not dead tired. Even 5 minutes of walking helps me, much to my surprise…

5. Shabby systems.

Basically: How you file and extract what you write.

This one I am working on. I am very bad at organization. I love to be organized. Yet I have rarely been organized in my life.

…I am getting there. This is going to be a post in itself in the future. Basically I am working on getting my computer organized and backed up, so I know what stories I have, where I have sent them, what articles are being worked on, etc etc etc. I really need to get on the ball with this. I am constantly looking for ideas and such I know I’ve written down, but I don’t know where.

Have you ever tried looking through 500 gigs or more of information to try to find something you wrote last year? Man…

There are five more on this list. I’ll get to the rest tomorrow.

Categories: Random Post
Tags: Pitfall