Books I have GOT to finish writing something...

[DaGaffer]

I have no less than five unfinished novels on my PC. Two are quite a way down the line, two are outlines and one is a no more than an opening chapter. How the hell do I buckle down and finish at least one of them? I kind of don't care if its crap at this stage, but twice in the last fortnight I've seen the synopsis for new TV shows coming out and thought..."that looks really familiar". One even had the same title (which may just prove I'm a completely unoriginal hack, I have no idea).

At the moment I get an hour or two a day after the kids have gone to bed and I can barely summon up the energy to use the remote control. I need a strategy to get working and concentrate and God help me, I'm asking you lot. Any ideas?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Know the feeling, was planning a game and then yesterday noticed that almost an exact copy is on steam. What you need to realise is that every story/idea is pretty much done, but -your- story isn't. So write whatever you want, be it sparkly vampires or hitchhiking around the cosmos, dun matter if its been done

On "how to do it"; just do it. Make it part of your actual work, not just a hobby. Everything treated as a hobby often becomes as important, or there lack of. Also remember to tell everyone in your life that "during 7pm-8pm i am at work" etc.

 

[georgie]

Know the feeling, was planning a game and then yesterday noticed that almost an exact copy is on steam. What you need to realise is that every story/idea is pretty much done, but -your- story isn't. So write whatever you want, be it sparkly vampires or hitchhiking around the cosmos, dun matter if its been done

On "how to do it"; just do it. Make it part of your actual work, not just a hobby. Everything treated as a hobby often becomes as important, or there lack of. Also remember to tell everyone in your life that "during 7pm-8pm i am at work" etc.

Fuck me, Toht.

A sensible post with actual good advice!

 

[Gumbo]

Do it in the morning. Get up early. That way you can't get to the end of the day and decide that you're too tired to bother. It's what I do now for my workout and it works wonders.

 

[DaGaffer]

Do it in the morning. Get up early. That way you can't get to the end of the day and decide that you're too tired to bother. It's what I do now for my workout and it works wonders.

I get up at 6 as it is...

 

[Chilly]

I live with a writer. She recently went from 4.5 days a week non-writing to 3 days. Before she had more time, used to do most of her writing on a Sunday as it allowed her the most time to unwind from the working week. She is generally incapable of writing if she's been doing her paid (shit) job that day.

Perhaps try something similar - allocate a spot of time on a given day furthest from the most stressful part of your working week and try and focus hard on writing then. Give it a good few hours - 1 or 2 isn't enough to get much of consequence done, really.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Those who write for a living make about 8 pages /day(around those parts if i remember correctly), so also think about that when you feel you haven't "done sh*t". If you write a page a day with only 1-2h on it, it's still a moderate pace.

 

[Wij]

Unplug the internet.

 

[Gumbo]

I get up at 6 as it is...

Then get up at 5:15, make a coffee and get 30 minutes writing done. Try it for a week.

 

[Cerb]

I've had the idea for a screenplay for an animated short (think pixar shorts before movies) for almost a year now and still haven't got around to even penning a beat sheet. When you figure out how to do this, let me know!

 

[Wij]

One wank per day max.

 

[Lakih]

@DaGaffer Fuse them into one book! Just slap on the first chapter of the 2nd book at the last chapter of the first book and have the main character from the 2nd book wake up and dreamt the whole first part... repeat for the rest of the books until you have a normal sized novel. Think Inception or something similar
Also, when you win the literature Nobel prize i want half that shit!

 

[Syri]

Personally, I find it handy to have a separate document or notebook with character profiles and chapter plans/summaries, so that you can keep track of who does what, what's happened and what happens next, without having to re-read everything you've already written each time you come to write some more.
Also, when I sit down to write, I set myself two word counts to reach, one that I need to get to for that session, and one that'd be nice to hit. Usually I only get the first one, but even so, I've ended up with a decent amount written before the week is done. Having two limits to go for seems to help me at least hit the lower one though, more so than just having a low limit and no other.

 

[Roo Stercogburn]

Fuck me, Toht.

Careful, he may oblige.