"Write Every Day" and all that jazz

A few years ago I read a book about becoming a writer that basically said if you cannot sit down and write something - anything - once a day, you frankly don't have what it takes to be a writer. I think I set down the book after that and mumbled something resembling pshaw. It's not that I thought writing regularly wasn't important, I just didn't buy that if there was a day where you managed to get zero words on the page, you'd never succeed.

We hear all the time of the importance of writing every day. After all, if you write even ten words every day, eventually you will have a finished draft. It might take a while, but it will happen. But if you write 2,000 words, then go out of town for the weekend and write none, well... that's still considerable progress.

Over the past few months I've been doing a lot of revisions, so the new WIP I began in December was very neglected. I was still active in my writing, just not in that project. And as the weeks of revisions for the other project passed, I started wondering if my new WIP was really striking my fancy after all. I opened it up when I had the chance and tried to make some progress on it, but I just kept filling in little scenes I already knew would happen. I struggled to really get going on it, or brainstorm any new scenes or components.

When I finally finished the revisions, I reread everything I'd already written in the WIP to reacquaint myself. Then I wrote some. And the next day I wrote some more. Finally, I was able to focus on it, and as a result I'd get random ideas and inspiration while I walked to work or when I was taking my shower - times when I wasn't even thinking about it intentionally.

I just had finals and all the craziness that finals create, and there were days when I didn't have the chance to write. But because I was writing that book more days than not, it was on my mind even on the days I couldn't put any words on the page. Essentially, I made progress just by having the work engaged in my mind.

That, I think, is the true benefit of writing every day. It's not the number of words on the page, it's the motivation and inspiration that comes from having the story in the front of your mind rather than the back. It is so much easier to sit down and write now than when I only had a chance to look at it once a week, because I'm not sitting down trying to remember where I left off and what happened last in a certain sub-plot. I'm accidentally solving sub-plot issues when I'm doing other things, like watching TV, merely because writing nearly every day leaves me engaged with the story every day.

Do you write every day? What are your feelings on the "Write Every Day" mantra?

There Are No Rules!

I read two books in the past week that successfully pulled off things that are traditionally very difficult, which made me consider how the authors accomplished it.

From www.goodreads.com

First up is Beautiful Malice, by Rebecca James. The story is told in three different time periods, and, unless I'm mistaken, two are in the present tense. What is surprising is that I was never confused as to what place in time I was in each time it switched. I think this is partially because each time period had a distinct set of characters that didn't overlap, and the subject matter of each was very focused. The middle time period covered the most ground in terms of length, while the past and present portions were very focused.

Also, despite all of the changing in time I never felt overwhelmed by backstory. The past was told when it was necessary to inform the rest of the story, and always just enough to move it forward but little enough that the persisting questions kept me hooked.

From www.elizabethnoblebooks.com

Then I read Things I Want My Daughters to Know, by Elizabeth Noble. This novel was told from five different close-third person point of views, and in any given paragraph the point of view changed a few times. Each section was titled with the name of the character that would be focused on the most, which was helpful, but the narration certainly didn't stick with that character.

I think that this easily could have made what was a great concept and good writing unapproachable, but it worked. In my opinion, namely because the novel didn't belong to any one character. I wasn't more attached to one sister over the other, and each of their independent stories strengthened the common, unifying plot line - life after the death of a mom/wife.

Now I don't know that I'm going to be trying to do either of these any time soon, but as I read these books back-to-back I was reminded of something that is both an incredible and frightening aspect of writing - there are no rules!


This fits in well with a quote I just re-read:

Imagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help with Paradise Lost, or Kafka enduring the seminar in which his classmates inform him that, frankly, they just don't believe the part about the guy waking up one morning to find he's a giant bug. - From Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose

Just because something is difficult, rarely done, and advised against doesn't mean it is impossible to do well, which is why I think it's helpful to consider how it has worked in other writing. Now I don't think we should all go crazy and have ten narrators in a single story, but I think we should follow our instincts.  Get creative. Take a risk every once in awhile.

What's the biggest risk you've ever taken in your writing? What books have you read that successfully did something risky?