Best and Worst Writing advice I’ve ever received.
Best advice, and hardest, I’ve ever received : “Do your thinking on the page.” I go over things far too many times before turning on the computer, so put down far too little. If it’s there in my head, I don’t realize it never made it to the page. When you do it all on paper, yeah, you ramble. You have to go back later and delete that shopping list. But some of your musings will remain as interior dialogue for your characters, some may spark other stories, and some will just make you laugh when you stumble over them later
Worst advice: Choose one project to concentrate on, perhaps the one furthest along or the one with the most commercial potential, and put the others aside.
Result: the worst block ever!
Since then I learned of Asimov’s method of avoiding writers’ block, a system that propelled him into prolific status. He kept 5 projects going, before computers he had a different typewriter devoted to each project, and if the words stopped on one project, he’d just proceed to the next.
Outliner vs. Pantster
The first sounds professional, the second invokes images of toddlers stepping out of their training pants.
Outliners know a lot of what they will write before they begin. Pantsters write by the seat of their pants, and discover where the story is going along with the reader. I have attempted outlines, and will continue to do so, they seem so productive! But don’t hold your breath, the works I have outlines for were all finished before their outlines came to be
What about you, what advice works for you?
Let us know,
Write on
Kathy
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Beginning Write 