Mine was… mixed. On the plus side I did slightly more writing than I did last year. On the minus side, I only did slightly more writing than last year. And I can’t say that I properly finished anything. Boo!

Of course, I know this because of my stats that I’ve been keeping every week. I’ve only just got round to reviewing them (is it a bit late? It is, isn’t it), and in doing so, I’ve also reviewed the list of goals I keep down the side of my numbers.

Yes, I went for the obvious, cheesy image. Not the first time, won't be the last. Image from Swen-Peter Ekkebus.

In doing so, I realised something. I am one unobservant SOB. Okay, I knew that already, but this is really bad – I put number into that stat sheet nearly every day, and this is the first time in months that I’ve even glanced at my goals for the year!

So, what did I discover about my writing success? Some of my goals had shifted over the year, leaving a number of the targets on my sheet irrelevant. About half the information on that list is useless then. But out of the remaining goals, I had actually completed a few of them – go me! But, this is both good and bad.

I had actually completed some early on in the year – good! Had I reviewed this much earlier I could have set some new goals and reached further, but I didn’t – bad!

Also, I came very close to one of my goals, but it looks like I fell at the last hurdle. Again, a review of my targets could have seen me reach that little bit more and put another cross in a box.

The end result of all this? Missed opportunities. Obviously I don’t want this to happen again, so the first change I’ve made to my spreadsheet this year is to have an extra tickbox at the end of every month (I say “month”, but what I mean is four-week period, not calendar months). This is for my regular goal review, and it’s sitting neatly under every four-week block. It should serve as a reminder to check on my targets every month.

Plus, it’s another thing to tick off. We have to take every bit of gratification we can get!

And as a quick checklist, my review will ask the following questions:

• Have I completed any of my goals?
• Am I close to completing any more?
• Have any goals become irrelevant?
• What new goals have become relevant to my writing?

Okay, so that’s a good start anyway, if a little overdue. I might have said this at the end of my last post, but here’s to a good writing year! Stay focussed, peeps!

I won’t deny that I have experienced a slump in my will to write over the past few, years, let’s be honest. But these last few months particularly I have found it difficult to sit down and write.

Not Tron or Deus Ex, but a brillian cyberpunk image by Torley. Click to view more.

But it wasn’t just the inspiration of seeing both the film and the trailer that got me, it was the realisation of the maturity of my processing. I started writing my book ten years ago. Another project that I have on the back burner I originally developed the idea for when I was about 12. Now, back then, obviously, I wasn’t very worldly wise; I was brash and immature and, well, a male hitting puberty. So obviously my writing involved a lot of hot scantily dressed chicks either being in need of rescue, or wanting to get it on with the male lead (which at that point I obviously pictured as myself).

But my recent ‘thought draft’ (That’s the redraft you do in your head, without actually writing anything down. You know, lazy writing) of the project made me realise that the few ‘immature’ elements that I had in this project really need to be dropped. Not only because they’re lame, but they hold the story back. I have spoken before about needing to be unafraid of cutting huge swathes of material out of your writing in order to help it to progress. So out went the assassin who was in hiding as a stripper, and in comes the far more ‘acceptable’ agent (conveniently) in play at the location where the action takes place.

The Danger of Working in Genre

The other thing about Tron which dawned on me was just how troubling it is working in the genre of science fiction. I’m not talking about space opera here, but more the ‘real world’, cyberpunky kind of sci-fi. As I mentioned, I started writing my novel ten years ago, and while I finished my first draft rather quickly, I have been in editing hell for the past other years. The thing is though, the world has progressed greatly in that time and ideas that I had, which I thought were cool and cutting edge, seem rather antiquated.

Look at a film like Back to the Future Part 2. That is set in the year 2015. Granted, set 25 years after it was shot, in that future, they have flying cars, plastic clothes, hoverboards and lame 3D holographic movies. I really doubt we’re going to be seeing a lot of flying cars in four years time. Or hoverboards or plastic clothes for that matter. 3D movies may be all the rage now, but holographics are still a way off. And yet, there wasn’t a cellphone in sight. No personal computers either, no laptops, and no frigging iPods.

So what is my point? It is very difficult to get a correct balance with genre fiction, especially when you set it in the near future. Obviously it is impossible to accurately predict where technology will develop (unless you’re Orwell or Jules Verne), and if you play fast and loose, then you’re in danger of it becoming too unbelievable. Play it safe and you run the risk of looking antiquated.

The main issue I have with my novel is the idea of a virtual keyboard. At the time, the idea seemed kinda far out and cool, cutting edge, but now ten years later, when we have net books and iPads and other similar technology, the idea seems almost quaint. I still have characters using pc towers and mice for gods sake (both of which will be obsolete within the next ten years, yet alone a hundred, when the book is set.) So how can you counter this, without rewriting the book every ten years to keep up with the times? I’m not sure I have the answer. Obviously keep up to date with the latest in technology, and see what is happening in currently released sci-fi. And then write it better.

Resolutions

Happy new year everyone! Image courtesy of ginnerobot.

I suppose writing is a lot like any other resolution. It looks good in theory, giving up drinking, stop eating chocolate (twelve years and counting people), get to the gym, do more writing, but the actual practise is a little more difficult.

I am going to resolve to do this though, this year. I’m going to try my best to spend less time playing PS3, and more time writing. I’ve proven this year – with this serialised online fiction thing that I wrote that unfortunately didn’t pan out – that I can write what amounts to a full length novel in a little over seven weeks, if I dedicate myself to it.

So this is going to be my plan for next year, to write. To sit at this keyboard (which is thankfully not virtual yet), each day and try to blast through more of this book. At the rate that I’ve proven I can write this year, I should be able to get the first draft finished by March. I hope you set similar goals for yourselves, and make progress.

Wish me luck!

Such has been the problem for the last couple of weeks. I recently smashed my records for the most words written in a month and in a week. Woohoo! Unfortunately, rather than spur me on to even greater things, this has had the opposite effect. Something went click in my brain and suddenly I felt like I’d earned a break.

Well, no actually Matt, you didn’t.

This break was not a conscious decision. It was more like an attitude that seeped in. Of course, I should have confronted this head on when I felt this insidious seepage, but alas, I just carried on doing trickles of writing and feeling guilty. The result is that not a lot of writing gets done, and there is now a general lack of motivation. Bad! Bad! Bad! Two steps forward, one step back (at least).

So, what should I have done? I’ve prepared a short list that I think will help me in future:

• Set out your next goals. Let’s keep that motivation going. You (and I, too. Everybody!) should take a look at the stats and decide what you should be chasing next. What’s the next goal? Play about with it. If this goal is achieved, what does that mean, and what else might be achieved? These are the motivating questions that ensured the last milestone was reached, so they should not be ignored now.
• And if you must take it easy… Then decide to take it easy! Don’t leave it to chance, don’t lose control. Set the boundaries. Are you going to do nothing for a set amount of days, or have a smaller wordcount target this week? What are the exact numbers? Stick to it! And now that you’ve decided on the conditions of your rest, don’t forget to set some goals for afterwards so you’re not left languishing!
• Pay attention! Are you having an unscheduled break? Is your wordcount dipping below acceptable levels? Feeling demotivated? Don’t ignore it! Confront it! Set some new goals or schedule a break, but again, make the decision!

Hopefully I’ll be able to practice what I preach! Motivation is pretty much everything when you’re working on something alone, so it’s important to be aware and to take control! Now let’s get to it!

1. Before you start – pick your reviewers carefully

For a start, you don’t want too much feedback, so I think it’s a good idea to limit your number of critics to 5 well thought out selections. Be careful, and honest with yourself about your choice. You want people who:

• will be honest with you and not just say nice things
• Can communicate what they think about your writing
• Read often

You might also want people who are familiar with the genre you are writing in, but that might depend on what your aims are for the piece.

2. Don’t argue.

There will be a temptation to defend your writing when receiving criticism. This is fair enough, but as soon as you start arguing your case, you’ve closed the doors. Instead, force yourself to be quiet when receiving criticism. Don’t reply, other than to thank them (this includes replying in writing). Not arguing forces you to carefully consider what has been said. That does not mean you have to agree. As long as you have taken it in, if you still don’t agree, that’s fine.

3. Weigh up the responses.

You have to decide how much a particular criticism is worth and whether you will take it on. Again, be honest; it can be very easy to find reasons to dismiss all criticism. But if you’ve selected your critics carefully it’s almost certainly not the best option.

Having said that, there may be perfectly good reasons to give greater weight to some people’s comments over others. One person, unfamiliar with the genre, could find one passage confusing, whereas an aficionado in that genre might sail through it without comment or give it particular praise. Now, depending on how accessible you want the piece to be, you could change it to suit one person or the other.

Also, numbers make a difference. A comment that comes up more than once within a group of five people, certainly warrants your attention.

4. Let them know what you expect.

If you are after something specific, tell them. If you want them to just give general comments, tell them that. Give them the list of tips for giving feedback from this website if you like especially if they are not used to giving feedback.

Making sure they know what you are expecting adds value to the comments you get. Otherwise you risk getting something back that you can’t use.

5. Remember, it’s your writing.

You can’t please all the people all the time. There will come a time (numerous times, in fact) when, having considered the comments made against your writing, you simply can’t change it. You just don’t agree with the point being made. And anyway, you know that later in the story, this and this will happen, clearing up the confusion in that exchange and explaining just why the banana ended up there in the first place.

So, you make an executive decision, and you don’t change it. Or you change it in another way entirely. The point is, never relinquish control. This is your piece, and in the end, it’s down to you, and not them.

That’s your lot! I hope that is of some use. But if not, let me know what tips you would give. I welcome any feedback in the comments. Come on, I can take it

The blog

First though, a quick look at the blog itself. Let’s say that number again – 51 blog entries! That’s one a week since we started (well, almost – I had a week off last week. Okay, I’m sorry. I’m a bad person). Now I know that in the grand scheme of blogs, that’s no great achievement, but it was for me! Of course I had some help, and you can see my thankyous in my Christmas message (I feel like the Queen), but I’m genuinely proud of that achievement. And it does seem to have been helping. I have at least done some writing this year, and the posts I write have at times been a great tool for reviewing what I have learnt.

It has not been as successful as I would have liked however. Of course, that is my fault. I know the days of, “build it and they will come”, have long since passed, but in truth I have hardly done anything to promote this site. Again, that is largely to do with time (isn’t everything?) but I will just have to build it into my routine. So, that will form the basis for my goals on the blog.

The writing

Way back in May, I wrote about measuring improvement in writing. I have been gathering these stats ever since, so I now have a good half a year of figures to pour over.

Looking at it overall, I can see that I hit my productivity peak during September. This was when I was approaching the end of a story I was working on. However, after that it drops right down. I started a new piece of work then, and I must confess, I have been rather timid with it. This is of course, not the way to behave when approaching a new piece of work. The best way will always be to take the bull by the horns and go for it! Whatever it is I’m afraid of can be fixed later!

I have been rather down on myself about how much writing I have done this year. I have always had the impression that I was not trying hard enough, and not knuckling down. I was right – there is a huge difference between my best week and my average week. This shows the difference between the potential of my current routine, and the reality of not sticking to it. Still, it is encouraging to know how much writing can be done, even in short bursts. When I total up each month, then the year, it is shocking how much can be achieved. I said that I wanted to see how small improvements can accumulate into big gains when I set up this method of measuring, and I can certainly see that!

I wasn’t writing in 2008, that’s the thing. So, as much as I rightly berate myself for not doing more, I am doing a hell of a lot more than nothing! This in itself is an achievement, but before I pat myself on the back too much (let’s not get carried away now), I have also taken a look at how my best week would look over a whole year. What a difference! I took my best week, multiplied that by 52, and was amazed. I knew that my best week was over double my average (meaning I’m not even reaching half the potential that my routine offers me), bit it is still an eye-opener to see the full number there.

Once again, I must recommend keeping some kind of stats on your writing. If you are doing everything electronically anyway, getting a word count is normally a snap, and it only takes a couple of minutes to add that to a spreadsheet. Seeing the effect of small changes to my habits over time is a real inspiration. And being able to extrapolate from that gives further motivation. If you’re not trying it already, I urge you to give it a go.

I would very much like to hear from anyone who has been measuring their writing over the past year and what hey think of the results. Or if this is part of your new year resolution, please let me know, too. And I would really really like to know if you visited getmewriting last year and found it helpful. All feedback in the coments section below, please.

No big drama here; no tragedy in my life (thankfully); no excuse. I simply fell off the wagon for a week. And at the beginning of a new project, too! It’s true that I have been particularly tired and grumpy this week, but the sad fact is that when I got on the train I just couldn’t (wouldn’t, rather) be bothered.

Not wanting to analyse it too much, there are a couple more contributing factors. I’ve been working on the principle that writing begets more writing. I think that’s true. The more practice you get; the more you keep to a routine, the easier it becomes to just fall into that rythm. But I also think that not writing begets… more not writing (there is, undoubtedly, a better way of saying that).

It’s that old formula of, “the longer you leave it, the harder it becomes,” in microcosm. Simply put, if I don’t knuckle down and do something on Monday, I greatly reduce the chances that I’ll do something on Tuesday. And so on.

Of course, the only cure is to just get on and bloody do it. And perhaps it is worth remembering that how I start the week is just as important as how I finish it.

The second problem is to do with the fact that I am starting something new. I have some anxieties about starting something from scratch without knowing precisely where it’s going. On the other hand, meticulous planning saps some of the joy out of writing, so I thought I’d give the more improvisational approach a go. Craig has written a bit about this, and I’ve added some comments if you want to read more.

So, I’ve written a grand total of two scenes for a new novel, and already the anxiety of not knowing has got to me! They’re good scenes, too. The problem here is not that I don’t know what’s coming next (that’s kind of the point, after all), but that each new section is like starting all over again (I want to use the microcosm word again) – a little journey into the unknown.

The way to make this easier, I’ve decided is not to stop writing when I finish a scene (section, chapter, whatever). The pause I take in between makes that first step look much more daunting. Instead, when I finish a section I must plough on, straight into the next one, and stop at a point where I already know what’s coming next; even if I only know as far as the next paragraph. The point is I can start writing as soon as I next sit down and get straight into a flow. I have even seen some writers recommend stopping mid-sentence, just to keep that sense of flow going, and that sounds like a great idea to me.

So here’s a list of notes-to-self to go with this little review:

• Just bloody do it.
• Work hard right at the beginning of the week and I’ll find it easier to continue
• If I do fall off the horse, get straight back on! Don’t let the cycle build.
• Face the fear and anxiety (then kick it in the nuts)!
• Stop mid-scene
• Stop mid-sentence

I hope these tips for keeping writing will help others as well. I’ll stick to these and let you know how it goes. Any other tips are of course very welcome in the comments.

Okay, so your first draft is done. You have written your masterpiece. You’re aware that now begins the honing and chipping to get everything just so. But you’ve read it over and read it over again, and apart from a few tweaks it seems fine. But is it really?

One thing teachers and my mother always told me when it came to editing – leave it for a bit. Of course, then it mostly applied to schoolwork – essays and their ilk, so it was not always practical to leave the work and not look at it for a while, especially if it was a last minute job! But it does help to file it away somewhere for a couple of weeks; a month if you can, and let it simmer.

The problem is you’ve had your head right in it for weeks (or months for longer projects), and you’ve completely lost your objectivity. Ideally you should be coming at it as if it’s someone else’s work (I don’tknow about you, but I always find it easier to edit someone else’s efforts), as if you are reading it for the first time. Now, it may be impossible to reach that ideal, but you can get pretty close. You will find a lot more things to change and it will be a better piece of work because of it.

I reckon the best time to do it is when you think the work is finished. Do a quick round of editing perhaps, to pick up anything obvious, and when it feels like you’re just about done, put it away. It’s not like you’re going to be twiddling your thumbs for the next month – start a new project. Keep reading, keep writing. This may go on for several rounds. I like to do one extra round just in case anyway, but if you’ve made sweeping changes, re-written whole pages, you might want to check that they still ring true after another month.

Who amongst us does something similar? How long do you leave your work for, and do you show people before or after you’ve finished editing? Are there any other ways you can think of to get that objectivity back?

The Dip

The dip itself is the moment where your hard work stops giving you rewards. Any venture, says Seth, begins with a period of enthusiasm that rewards your efforts. Learning something new is the simplest example. Soon though, this honeymoon period wears off, praise from your peers peters out, and your efforts seem to go unnoticed. Sound familiar? This is the dip.

The good news is though, that getting through this period leads to great success and benefits. The rewards far out way those you started out experiencing. This is because getting through the dip on the big issues in your life makes you a rarity, and makes you valuable.

By way of illustration, let’s look at J. K Rowling. She is the perfect example of someone who struggled through a dip that lasted years while she created her world and tried to convince someone that others would want to read her stories about a boy wizard. Now look at her. In this case, getting through the dip, and not quitting, led to huge rewards.

The other side of the coin is that quitting is actually allowed, and required. Sure, our example author didn’t quit writing Harry Potter, but she quit an awful lot of other things in order to do it. Seth Godin’s book advocates strategic quitting in order to become the best in the world at something. After all, you can’t be the best in the world at everything.

What use is it?

So, with the nutshell description and example out of the way, how does it actually read? Well, it’s short. But even that doesn’t save it from waffle. The basic concept takes barely a page to explain, after all. After that there is some useful, practical advice about half-way through, and again at the end, but in between it’s a bit woolly. The problem is there’s very little structure, so the middle of the book feels like a series of flash cards, held up in no particular order. Seth seesaws between advocating quitting and sticking, rather than take them in turn. This makes it hard to pick out words of wisdom.

Where it is useful is as a consciousness raiser. He rightly points out that you know these things already, but by making sure that you recognise dips (and potential cul-de-sacs and cliffs), you can learn to react appropriately and with intent.
For example, after reading, you’ll realise
- the dip won’t last forever
- the dip is malleable, and working harder might get you through it quicker
- the rewards will be waiting
- if you’re in a Dip, you are likely on the right track
- working through the dip is actually the shortcut you’ve been looking for

More importantly, you’re more likely to recognise these things whilst in the dip, encouraging you not to quit, or before you start a new writing project if you realise you are not going to see it through. And if you’re not sure, the book is short enough that you can pick it up and give it a good read every now and then to keep you aware of what you are facing and why it is worth it.

And dips are everywhere in writing (and in life I guess). There is likely a dip in each project you do (writing a novel seems like a slog after your enthusiasm for the idea wears off); there is a dip in getting published, or in getting enough copies out there if you’re self-publishing; there is even a dip in just getting a writing routine going.

My experience of The Dip

I had my good writing experiences in primary school, and then later in secondary school. In primary school my stories always took longer than anyone else’s because I loved writing them. In secondary school I rediscovered my talent for it as a young adult, enjoying writing and getting praise for it from teachers.

But, I never got into the habit of writing, and the moments of inspiration, where I felt I had got something right, became fewer as I progressed through university. From then on, any time I started to have a go at writing, I was already starting in The Dip.

So, you can say that when I started this blog, I was already sold on the dip concept. That is the reason I started writing this in the first place – as a means to chip away at the dip of simply getting myself to write regularly. At the time though, I hadn’t read the book and would not have put it that way. Still, like my other recent attempts to motivate myself, this serves to reinforce my reasoning and attack the problem with renewed gusto. For that, I have to recommend it.

I’d like to know how many other writers have read this book. What did you think? Was it useful? Any other books in a similar vein that you can recommend?

A while back, I wrote about reviewing your writing plan. I have also written about keeping motivated in your writing endeavors recently. I mentioned I should remember that although I have not stuck rigidly to my plan, I am doing more than I was at the beginning of the year.

But you can only really use that once or twice. In a month’s time, I will find it difficult to know if I am doing a little better than I am now. And with my free time the way it is (i.e. limited), I’ve got to move forward by degrees. How can I give myself that emotional lift if I don’t know I’m doing any better? How can I find motivation to push on and get better when I don’t know what better is?

So I thought about it, and it’s got to be down to numbers. If I had a bunch of stats to judge my performance, I can compare and see improvement. So I’ve decided to go for weekly word count, and time spent writing. The aim is to increase both every week. Adding that up over four weeks gives me totals for the month, so I can see the small improvements adding up to bigger changes.

I’ll keep it all on one spreadsheet so it’s easy as a quick reference, and I am not discouraged from looking at it. And that will do for now. All I want to see at the moment is that I am gradually putting more time in, and getting more done. At some point time may run out, but I’ll still be interested to see if I am being more productive with that time.

Is this useful to anyone else? Can anyone think of other ways to measure progress early on? Leave your comments below.

Such adjustments are a natural consequence of discovering how much you can do each month, and maybe trying to improve on that as well. But it could pay to take a closer look, and examine why exactly things went awry, or  why they went particularly well. As an example, I’ve just been planning my March tasks. I’m a little behind, which is disappointing considering how conservative I’d been with my goals, but I definitely feel like I can improve. The general feeling I’ve had is one of a lack of focus, and there will be small things I can do about it. I set out my tasks under several headings – write novel, write blog entries, write short story, yadda yadda, and so on. So, I’m on the train home, I take out the laptop, I look at my task list. I tended to pick the tasks I felt like doing at the time, regardless of what heading they were under.

As well as showing a distinct lack of priority for my most valued tasks, this leads to a bit of um-ing and ah-ing before I actually get started. But perhaps the worst effect is a lack of focus over the week. There’s is more of an effort made in getting into it (whatever ‘it’ I have chosen) each time. All of these things waste time, and likely produce poorer results. Time, as I may have mentioned, is precious for me, and I simply cannot afford to waste it on procrastination and a woolly-headed approach.

So, Each week, I pick one of my headed projects, and will concentrate on those tasks for the whole week. This should ensure I can get straight on with it, and that I am more likely to be in the right ‘headspace’. Simple? Yes. Am I stupid for not realising this sooner? Probably. Should I be embarrassed at my idiot mistake? I refuse! That won’t do anyone any good! No one should be afraid of admitting to even the slightest of mistakes and learning from them.

And with that in mind, I’d like to open up the floor to anyone else who has learnt something from having a plan and looking at how they have worked towards it. From reviewing, in other words.