Three R’s – Resolution, Research, Recreation

Happy New Year!

Now that it’s 2013 while most have resolved to lose weight, quit smoking or ease up on the mid-week wines – I have opted to simply have more fun. It’s not that I don’t have fun but it’s more about creating the downtime to make it happen. I have set myself the task of getting two more books out there in 2013 (in eBook form at the very least) and provided that happens then there should be time to do those things that the nine-to-fivers can only dream of. First though, I have some editing to do. It’s been a while since I commented on the writing process so here’s another observation.

I have talked about the phases that I have been through and pointed to some of the afters of the writing process (‘the re-write’ in particular). Depending on the disarray of that rough draft you could have any number of tasks ahead of you before you have a readable first draft and that is what I am confronted with now.

I am a two-finger typist – using four fingers may give me more downtime.

There are two key things to remember which help you not to stutter during the writing process: The first is that you don’t keep reviewing pages as you write them. What you must remember is that you have likely remained true to your outlined story whether or not you are happy with your narrative voice or wording. There is no reason to spend hours along the way checking and re-checking what you have written. You will slow yourself far too much with that level of scrutiny. You must have faith that everything will eventually be seen to in the re-write.

The second is not to research too much during the writing of the book. It sounds reckless I know but what you should be doing is a fundamental level of research at the point where you dive in – essentially the base knowledge required to get you started and keep you going. Once you have this, leave your research and reference exercises until the forming of the first draft. Again the idea is not to bog yourself down in every little fact. You simply need to move the story. It may well stand on its own without excessive detail and when it comes time to refine you can pick and choose the level of detail you want. If you were to add every fact in accurate detail at the rough draft stage you would find that you would throw out a lot of that painstaking research upon revisiting. Essentially you will have wasted a lot of time. I will give you a prime example of why detailed research should be left until the end:

As I wrote my latest work I resolved to add one line of factual information to the beginning of each chapter and make sure it was, in part, related to the chapter it was attached to. This seemed simple enough. If there were to be thirty chapters then it would just be a matter of adding thirty more lines of text at the end or approximately 300-500 words. But it’s just not the case. To find an appropriate line for each chapter took a considerable amount of time and a substantial bibliography of websites visited. Sometimes it took two hours to find an appropriate fact for a chapter. It was probably ten hours of research pulling together those thirty lines. In ten hours I can write 10-15 pages of rough draft or approximately 5000-8000 words. I understand that writing isn’t an exact science but make sure you have the basis of a story before you embark on this finessing. It can take time and if you haven’t yet worked through the story you may begin to feel as if you have come to a halt. It is something to bear in mind especially if you are a two-finger typist like me.

It always comes back to science and maths and the application of those principles to the writing process with me. I could well be accused of not being an artist but rather a scientist who loves to write but I would rather have a two hundred page story in front of me than a fifty page, eloquent road to nowhere. I would want anyone in that same position of struggle to try a new method and see the results.

Now, that’s the resolution and the research taken care of…time for some recreation.