Ask the Author: Carol Madison
Answered Questions (2)
Carol Madison
Sharing the characters in my imagination with other readers who might find them interesting.
Carol Madison
For most of my life I didn't deal with it, I just suffered from it, and even worse than writer's block was simple procrastination. What turned both of those around for me was advice from a friend who has become my unofficial writing coach. He had a lot of suggestions over time, and I tried them and tried variations of them and told him what worked a little and what didn't work at all.
The big idea that finally worked well for me was to start my day with a tiny, easy, and routine writing-related task. It had to be something I'd always need to do more of, and something I could do without having to get in the mood. The task I found is this: Re-read one paragraph of my current writing project. That's it, that's all.
How could that help? First, I could make myself do that, at least on most days, and that was probably the most important factor. Second, it started my day with a writing success. It was the tiniest of successes, but it was a success nonetheless, and that tiny success has worked magic for me.
Each morning, and now many other times when I have time to write but don't "feel" like it, I sit down and re-read one paragraph. The magic happens when that act leads me to other acts: I think of a better way to phrase a sentence, so I make the change, then another... then I almost automatically go on to the next paragraph, and quite often that *puts* me in the mood to write.
Another benefit of starting my day with that simple success, even when I don't have time to write much, is that it puts my story in my mind while I'm doing other things, so my imagination is working on my story when I'm driving or doing other things that keep me away from the keyboard. But it all starts with my first-of-the-day simple-success task of re-reading one paragraph.
The big idea that finally worked well for me was to start my day with a tiny, easy, and routine writing-related task. It had to be something I'd always need to do more of, and something I could do without having to get in the mood. The task I found is this: Re-read one paragraph of my current writing project. That's it, that's all.
How could that help? First, I could make myself do that, at least on most days, and that was probably the most important factor. Second, it started my day with a writing success. It was the tiniest of successes, but it was a success nonetheless, and that tiny success has worked magic for me.
Each morning, and now many other times when I have time to write but don't "feel" like it, I sit down and re-read one paragraph. The magic happens when that act leads me to other acts: I think of a better way to phrase a sentence, so I make the change, then another... then I almost automatically go on to the next paragraph, and quite often that *puts* me in the mood to write.
Another benefit of starting my day with that simple success, even when I don't have time to write much, is that it puts my story in my mind while I'm doing other things, so my imagination is working on my story when I'm driving or doing other things that keep me away from the keyboard. But it all starts with my first-of-the-day simple-success task of re-reading one paragraph.
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