Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Kick-starting Yourself

Did you stop writing over the holidays? Yeah, and now you can't get your foot high enough off the ground to kick yourself in the butt with a good jolt of motivation, right? Join the club. I usually hit a slump long about this time of year and then kick into overdrive during the spring and summer months. But this year I have a problem - there's a deadline looming for a short story I promised an editor.

I have pages of notes for the story, but couldn't seem to find the right starting place. Four files with four different starts? There's definitely a problem. Then I read a post over at Alexandra Sokoloff's Dark Salon blog where she gives some great advice:

"If you write five minutes a day, you will write more than five minutes a day most days."

Sounds weird, doesn't it, but hey, it worked for me today. I sat down at the computer several times today and did the five minutes and each time I kept going for about fifteen minutes more. Doesn't sound like much does it? But I have almost a thousand words and a place to pick up the story tomorrow.

Give it a try, what do you have to lose? Five minutes of your day?

4 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

I generally don't take long breaks (or any break) unless we are away. But many days I am non-productive anyway and figuring out where a story starts is a key issue. Or whose story it is. And right now I have a finished story that doesn't seem to fit any genre so I am spending huge amounts of time looking at markets, which always feels like a waste of time. I had hope EQMM take it, so I kept it fairly light and breezy. Big mistake.

sandra seamans said...

Yes, this time of year I seem to have more unproductive days. I have files full of thoughts and ideas but can't seem to roll them out into a story.

I gave up on EQMM and AH a long time ago, Patti. I know it's the place to be, but it really doesn't seem worth the aggrivation of waiting six months for a rejection. And like you, I spend too much time looking for another market to place it in or rewriting it for a darker market.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Well, EQMM is very quick now--which is almost worse. You submit online. I had my rejection in three weeks and that was over Christmas!

sandra seamans said...

Slipped my mind that they had gone to electronic submissions, Patti. Glad to know that they're faster.