I have a problem this week.
I'm not really sure how to get into it, how to correctly identify it, or even if I should share it. But I've felt a little off all week, and I'm wondering how much of it is from an adjusting schedule.
Scheduling, more so now than at any other point in my life, is very important. I've tried numerous types of scheduling techniques, apps, reminders, both digital & analog. Yet I still revert to writing out my schedule with pen & paper in 7 to 14 day increments before adding them to any type of planner. I'm sure from the outside it looks like an unorganized mess with more steps to the process than necessary. But in an ironic twist, I like to take my time when it comes to scheduling. It's important that I get it right the first time, because I already know things are going to change throughout the week and I have to be flexible. I don't do well with change, and I don't do well with flexibility. These are things that I've had to struggle to accept and learn how to deal with. Which, I think personally, while I'm not perfect, I have made incredible progress.
I also won't lie about being lucky this summer. I've fallen into the opportunity to stretch my creative wings a bit, and haven't had any real time consuming responsibilities save the ones I make for myself. It's given me the chance to work on this comic, Dream Story. It's given me time to focus on a Kickstarter for an audio show, start a Let's Play YouTube channel with a friend, and more consistently attend my writer's group (except for this week, sorry guys). It's given me time to read through books and graphic novels I just didn't have time for beforehand. And while it's given me time to think and adjust things with my current podcast, Comic Conclusion, my partner on that project has been a bit busier than usual (as well as me having my own minor emergencies) which has prevented us from releasing on our usual weekly basis. I've even had time to lose ten pound, but that's a completely different story.
When it comes to Dream Story, it's specifically given me time to think. Last week, I brought up the idea of what I was trying to say. I've had the time to ponder this question and come up with a somewhat abstract answer, but it's an answer nonetheless. I've had time to learn about the characters and their motivations. I've had time to flesh out the plot. There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm proud already at the amount of progress I've made on that story. Also, I'm still lucky enough that if I keep the momentum up, I'll be finished with the script before the fall. But honestly, even with all the extra free time, I owe what I've completed this far to sticking to a rigorous scheduling format. And I think for most people, when it involves writing, that's a very difficult thing to do.
Listening to Victor Dandridge, Genese Davis and Richard Kadrey (and many, many others) at Wizard World this summer talk about how important it is to find the time to write; the passion strikes a chord with me. But I never gave myself the opportunity to talk to any of them specifically about scheduling, and that's something I regret. It seems like a silly idea, I'm sure. But making a schedule is only half the battle, you still have to stick to it, which takes motivation, just as much as it takes motivation to actually write. I cannot stress enough how important it is to just stick to the plan. How it helps you build good habits. How you get to start seeing the progress as you go along, which inspires you to keep going. How setting a deadline forces you to expend that last bit of energy to finish the marathon right at that last leg of the race...
I can't even tell you how many times the words, "writing is a marathon, not a sprint," were said at Wizard World. And in a marathon, there are mile markers as you go, letting you know that you've made it this far and you only have so much farther to go. This is what scheduling does for me. It gives me those mile markers so I can check my progress. It gives me an idea about how much of the race is left. It helps me map out a route, gives me direction, it even lets me know when to stop and take a breather. And those things are important.
But just like any other sporting event, you have to practice. You have to work yourself up to running a marathon. You can't just plug a bunch of things into a calendar and expect you're suddenly going to hit all of your marks. It's just not reasonable. You have to start small. You have to give yourself realistic goals and work your way up. Yes, tell yourself a generalization, "I'm going to write this novel." Then put that in the background, and say "I'm going to find 2 hours this week to work on it." And be even less ambitious that first week. Don't sit and do it all at once. Do 15 minutes here, a half hour there. But hit that two hour mark in seven days, and then tell yourself, "I did it. I'm capable of at least two hours of writing a week." And then reevaluate. Make the decision, is 2 hours going to work for you? Can you do more? Should you be doing less? Are you satisfied with what you accomplished in two hours? And adjust. And adjust. And adjust. But never stop running the marathon. Never stop writing. Eventually, you'll find a schedule that you're happy with. You'll build habits you won't be able to break. You'll look behind you and realize you're half way there, and you can be proud that you've made it this far, and excited to keep on going.
Scheduling starts out as an abstract thing. It takes time to build the skill set associated with it. But if you take a realistic look at what scheduling is, and how it can fit into your life, it slowly becomes what makes or breaks your writing habits. I write every day now. Sometimes it's journaling, or letters to friends & family, or blogging, sometimes it's music or poetry or actual stories. But I make it a point to write every day, and I don't limit what I consider "writing" to just what I put into a singe project. It all counts for something. Eventually, I'll get to explaining how each one of these things is it's own art form. Today, it's just trying to convince you, you're capable of running the race. You're capable of finishing the race. But today, let's just start with a step. Your story is a marathon, not a sprint. Treat it like one.
Come the third week of August, I'll be working part time as an intern at my local junior college and attending 3/4 time as well. There's a giant fear I have that I'll have to put down most of my creative endeavors once that time comes around and work by someone else's schedule, both to further my education and get some cash flowing again. That problem looming over my shoulders right now is the sad idea that I'm not capable of scheduling that much work into a single week, so some things will be stretched out and other things will be put on hiatus altogether. I'm torn between responsibility and creativity, and that's a rough place for anyone to be. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet or how I'm going to handle such an abrupt change. The realization this week threw me off more than I expected. I still hit the majority of my goals, but the normal sense of pride and accomplishment wasn't there. In all honesty, these are good problems to have, but it doesn't negate the feelings I have about them. And at this point all I can really do is wait and see. At any rate, getting this out will hopefully help me shake the feels and get back on track.
After last week, it became apparent that I needed to really flesh out some aspects of the plot and get some dots connected. I know how it ends, and I have a really good intro to the whole thing, but there were plenty of loose strings and missing segments in the middle. So I did some free-writing for about 3 days, which added up to around 3,700 words specifically related to Dream Story. Word counts are nice, but they don't really tell you anything about what you're writing except how long it is, and free-writing word counts don't even do that. The technique behind free-writing differs from one person to the next, but the most general description I've heard people use is just sitting and writing for a certain amount of time and letting whatever's in your head come out. The hope in all of this is that something will hit the page that will be of some use toward the story. I've never really liked writing this way because I get lost in my own thoughts and never focus on the story at hand. So I've augmented the technique to suit me better. I spend 30-40 minutes journaling before free-writing to get all of my thoughts and emotions cleared out. Then I spend approximately an hour free-writing with a specific focus, allowing myself to more clearly exert ideas that would be beneficial to the story. This worked extremely well in this instance.
Most of that unconnected and missing stuff has been tied down and filled out. There are one or two things concerning the (familial) relationship between two characters that isn't there yet, but I'll come back to that in a moment. The ins and outs of the story are almost complete. Except since it all came out in free writing, they're completely out of order and are flanked by lesser ideas that need to be weeded out. So on the 4th day I sat and made a very simple scene list. It's just a numbered list, each section only a few words long to remind me what I want the structure to be. It's basic, but it tells me a lot of information really fast. I know the order of events, where each scene takes place, who is in each scene, and how the scenes run together. Very simple phrases, like "the accident," or "the first night at the hotel." I don't need to add a lot of description to the list because the point is to let it act as a placeholder for all the ideas in the free-writing. I just have to play a sort of association game, reading through the free-writing and moving things into the list where I think they should go. I haven't done that part yet.
I haven't done it yet because it was on that fourth day that the scheduling thing started getting to me, and I decided I should take a break. After I go through and organize that list the best I can, the next step will be physically writing the first draft. I wanted a chance to clear my head before the first draft. For me, completing a first draft seems to be the hardest part of the process. I get started and stop, revise, start and stop again, revise, etc. I talked before about how important it is for me on this story to just get it all out before revising it. So I'm allowing myself three days to prepare for that. It may not have been the best idea, because the abrupt change in scheduling jarred me a bit. In the future I'll have to adjust the way I prepare for similar things, but for now it is what it is. Tomorrow I start sifting through the free-writing, and hopefully in a few days I'll be prepared for the first draft. The point of doing this is to both look at the project with somewhat fresh eyes and build the confidence in knowing the story is complete, I just have to write it. We'll see how this system works next week.
On the relationship of those two characters, I believe this is what's going to make or break this story. There is a lot of potential for loopholes with this part of the story, so making sure it makes sense is important to me. I clearly have no idea how I'm going to rectify this, and it will be a major point of contention both filing out that list and during the first draft. I expect it will have to be rewritten and I'll be asking for a lot of advice from my writer's group about it. The good thing is I've identified it as a potential problem early. This will give me the opportunity to put more focus on it when the time comes and hopefully it'll end up adding to the story overall.
That's it this week. Go write something.
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