 Short Stories: June 24, 2015 Issue [#7064] |
  Short Stories
This week: Making Time Edited by: Jay's debut novel is out now!  
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Making Time
If you want to do this in the long term, you have to make the time for it!
Do you make enough time for your writing-- and why or why not? |
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"Wow, I wish I could find the time to write."
How many times have you heard this line from well-meaning non-writer friends and family members? Do you nod, smile, resist the urge to roll your eyes?
Setting aside those whose job responsibilities and livelihood specifically revolve around their writing, the majority of us here are hobbyists working toward being, at the least, better hobbyists. We write because we have some story burning within us that we want to get onto the page. Since daily life does not, strictly speaking, build "writing time" into the schedule for us, we have to carve that time from somewhere. Having time to write is a choice, a discipline. It can be a sacrifice. Deadlines and obligations clash.
Hey, my life, for example. Things are crazy busy and getting crazy busier by the day. My work schedule has been six-day weeks more often than not in the past month, and it shows no signs of becoming less involved. This whittles away time from other things, and makes my productivity when I'm NOT at work much lower.
About a month ago, I had a deadline for a workshop application looming over me, and I nearly didn't even bother with the application at all, because I convinced myself, Who am I kidding? When will I find the time for this? -- and it took a little persuasion from one of my friends who knows better-- who knows that the time for this stuff isn't something you find, it's something you extract. In between a week-long preparation for a weekend-long conference followed up by jury duty, I squeaked in enough words, enough primping, and enough prodding to generate 8,000 words of a working draft for a story I've been trying to do justice to for years now.
Where'd I find carve up that time?
 Waiting: We do a lot of waiting, in life. Sure, you can jot things down in a notebook between places while you're on the go-- really, that's Writing 101-level butt-in-chair, do-the-work advice. Above and beyond that, though, what about using that time to do things like:
flip through index cards with plot points on them and organize them;
write or embellish outlines for stories you haven't started on yet so that you have something to come back to later;
read existing drafts and mark up things to change when you're home in front of the computer.
Idle Activities: I'll be the first person to admit that I really struggle to pay attention to only one thing at a time-- it's easier for me to multitask than to simply sit and do one activity, so this comes naturally to me where it might not to someone else. Use downtime listening to music or watching a movie, etc., as an opportunity to decompress from your story so that you can see it with fresher eyes faster. Use downtime where you aren't really doing much of anything to do things that give you inspiration or information-- research, nonfiction is great for this...
Forced Butt-in-Chair Time: You thought this was going to be a list of magic beans, right? Nope. Still gotta Do the Work! In my case, I asked my partner to give me a little extra time to myself on one of our weekend days: he went out and saw some friends, and I ... wore out the battery in my wireless keyboard for a few hours to bash out almost a third of the wordcount needed for the draft.
Be honest with yourself! You have the time-- but you have to make that time into writing time. I know you can!
Until Next Month,
Take care and Write on!
~jay
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This issue's picks-- check 'em out!
| | | Nixon [13+] #2045302
A dog has a bone to pick with his owner. 2nd Place Dialog 500 June '15
by Indelible Ink |
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Lots of great feedback for last month's issue: "Making Time"
sarahsbooks writes:
I think this can apply to novels as well, not just short stories. If there's one thing that will make me stop reading a story, it's if every little thing is being described. Just give me a few well-chosen details and let me fill in the rest. Plus if you explain everything to your readers, you are treating them like babies instead of intelligent human beings who are capable of inferring things if you let them. Great newsletter!
Thanks! And yes-- I totally agree, readers want to be treated like their prior experience is relevant, to say the least.
Quick-Quill  writes:
I like setting a scene with minimal info. Give the reader a just enough information to get them into the scene. The gate opened to a burned out forest. Fog swirled around the stumps and an eerie call from an animal no one wants to meet. This gives enough info but leave the time, place and genre to the reader. What comes next is the writer's job.
We have to be careful not to veer too far into cliche with our small cues, though. Original, sharp images do a lot more work in fewer words!
brom21 writes:
I’m writing a story where I vaguely mention the antagonist and the main plot. But sometimes I feel like I am being too cryptic. Like you mentioned, I have a really cool and very abstract idea but I worry the reader will not get my drift. I do fear I may have to chop it a little and make it more “down to Earth.” I want people to feel what I feel and see how things unfold in my works as it goes along. I want to get them inside my head. Practice makes perfect as they say. I got something from this letter. Thanks.
Glad to be of some help! This writer thing ain't easy.
NaNoNette  writes:
I agree with the more "open" style writing where the environment of a story is not explained in excruciating detail. As a writer here on Writing.Com, I've gotten some contradictory feedback on this though. I once got a review for a piece that I felt had a lot of description, and the comment was that the reader didn't have enough. In another story, I included a nature observation that I wanted there for pace and scene setting. The reviewer to that story asked me why I was describing the environment in such detail. Coming from both these reviews, I think in the end it is up to the reader to either fill in some of the blanks or to move on. As a reader myself, I rarely have a problem filling in details or accepting details that the writer gave me.
Hm. While I haven't read that feedback specifically, a tiny amount of it does sound like the kind of thing where someone is groping around to find something to say about a piece to offer suggestions for improvements, but that's me.  and yeah, I totally agree -- either fill in the blanks or don't. As a reader, if there's something you're missing, try to specify what it is if you can, even if it's just one example, so that writers can make a better call about what details are useful to the reader.
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