Most importantly - Don't stop. Don't ever stop. Then...
1) Have more than one project on the go. Always, always, always have
a wide slate of projects in front of you that are in progress or ready to
jump into. Everyone has a first novel, sure. Everyone has the novel they
really want to work on right now. But none of that stops you from
digging into the second novel, or thinking about where you want an
overall series to go, or working on the short story idea that some bit of
research into your current novel inspired.
2) Watch out for the all-consuming projects. You have a novel, a
screenplay, an epic poem that is the Most Important Thing you’ve ever
conceived or will ever work on. But it’s an unfortunately short walk from
the Most Important Thing You’ll Ever Work On to the Only Thing You’ll
Ever Work On Over Fifteen Successive Drafts. And if you’re only working
on one thing, you leave yourself open to stop working on it at some point.
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| By Felix Girard |
And while you do:
3) Stay passionate. No matter what you’re working on, no matter how
easy or difficult the writing gets at any particular time, try to stay in a place
mentally and emotionally where you can remind yourself why you love
what you’re working on.
4) Watch out for research, outlining, and editing. Be very wary if your love
of outlining and research, or your process of editing and revision on a
previous work, becomes so central to your creativity that it’s keeping you
from actually writing your new work.
5) BONUS POINT! Kick writer’s block in the ass. The reason this is a
BONUS POINT! is that if you do all the above, you’ve already kicked
writer’s block in the ass. Because here’s a secret, gleaned from long years
of painful experience: Ideas are generated at the interface between the
writer and the work, and so writer’s block is about being unable to engage
with the work in a way that lets the ideas come to you.
Read the entire piece at Tonya Kappes blog.
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