It starts with technical difficulties, as so many of my chats do. This time, the problem was that things Jean and I had set up previously that didn’t work because of software limitations we did not discover until we went live. REALLY big fun.
But the chat picks up speed a couple minutes in. I have a live workshop in the middle. There were some great questions.
You can get the workshop download, watch the replay, and get the free course I recommend all from this link:
How To Think Sideways Q&A Live Chat #5
No login required.
I also have a link on the page for folks who discover they can’t reach the Flash Fiction course from new accounts. (This is an “old account breaks new account” issue, and I have to fix it from my end.)
First of all I want to say terrific blog! I had a quick question in which
I’d like to ask if you don’t mind. I was interested to find out how you
center yourself and clear your thoughts prior to writing.
I’ve had a hard time clearing my thoughts in getting my ideas
out there. I do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes
are wasted simply just trying to figure out how to begin. Any ideas
or tips? Thanks!
I wrote with two kids in diapers, and had to fit writing time in between naps. There was no time to clear my head, or center, or anything else. Now, amazingly, I have even less time.
So I set a timer for ten minutes, and write as many words as I can in that ten minutes. I don’t reread, don’t correct, don’t stop to fix spelling or typos or anything else. When the timer goes off, I either reset it, or go get some water and then come back and reset it. I write in as many ten-minute increments as I need to get my word-count for the day.
The next day, I’ll do a brief re-read of the LAST page I wrote the previous day, just to get the voice back in my head, and in my first ten minutes I’ll do a little fixing of that. And then I move on to new pages and words.
I do this until I’ve completed my first draft. I don’t do ANY revision (aside from that one warm-up page per day) until the story is finished.
Hi Holly,
I want to let you know that the Replay link I received via email isn’t working, but I managed to reach the webinar through the link you posted here.
Can’t wait to watch it.