The Process Shall Set Your Writing Free

Process sounds antithetical to the creative process. What  could be more bruising to creativity than rules and required steps? And yet, most professional writers have developed detailed, regular routines, and, chances are, your favorite stories were created within an organized framework. (To see an example for process, take a look at Rewrite 3 - Structure, Structure, Structure.) Some of the rewards of using established processes provides are:

• Commitment to regular practice - A fundamental aspect of writing routines is putting the time in, day after day. Not only do these minutes and hours add up, but they keep your tools sharpened. No one would expect a musician to take a week off from practicing and return immediately to concert quality. Writers are just as vulnerable to getting out of shape if they skip their sessions.
• Bite-sized chunks - When you have a process, you can break it down into pieces that are small enough to avoid being overwhelmed.
• Paths to mastery - You can only master a writing approach if you 1) specify it and 2) evaluate it.
•  Reference points for experimentation - You can only break up your routine if you have one. And you can only get future value from trying something new if the new approach can be evaluated against a standard and then integrated into your routine.
• Freedom from dithering - In July I wrote about how dithering wrecks productivity (and its solutions, such as choosing your task the day before and understanding why you dither). Established process point toward the exact work you should be doing the next day, so they help you move from dithering to deciding.

Now, I am the first to admit that you don't mess with what's working. If your muse sits down next to you and begins dictating an extraordinary story, it is not the time to say, "Excuse me, I'm doing the grammar check on chapter five today. Could you come back tomorrow?" (Although, I probably would get to that grammar check as soon as the muse slipped away.) But structure, once all the grumbling and resistance is over with, usually enhances a creative endeavor.

I'll go further and say documented processes, which obviously can help productivity, provided permission and direction for creative work by distracting and satisfying the critic in your head. In my next post, I'll provide some suggestions on how to document your approaches in a way that provides focus, while helping you to innovate and improve.

What are your go-to processes for writing?

Does structure inhibit or free your imagination?

Guest Post - Write Faster with Scrivener

It's my delight to welcome Gwen Hernandez as the first HTWF Guest Blogger. Gwen is the author of Scrivener For Dummies (Aug 2012, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.), and the teacher of popular online Scrivener classes for Mac and Windows. Before she started using Scrivener to tap her right brain for tales of romance and suspense, she worked as a computer programmer, business school instructor, and manufacturing engineer. Learn more about her book or classes, and get free Scrivener tips, at www.gwenhernandez.com.


Looking for ways to be a more productive writer? Consider Scrivener. This writing software—available for both Mac and PC—not only lets you write the way that works best for you, it also provides some handy features for motoring through your manuscript at top speed.
What do you do when you’re in the writing flow and you suddenly realize you need to change something two chapters back, or you have a great new idea for the ending twist? Don’t stop your momentum by going off to work on those other sections.

I create a file within my project that I call Change Log. When inspiration strikes, I jot a few notes in the Change Log and then get back to what I was working on. Not only does this keep me moving forward, but I find that many times I end up changing my mind about the “great idea” later, so waiting to make the change saves me even more time since I don’t have to undo it if a better idea comes along.

If you come to a section of your story and realize you don’t have the information you need, or you just can’t seem to get the words right, don’t stare at it for three hours. Add an annotation—a colored bubble of text that stores notes and reminders right within the text—and move on. Alternatively, you can add a comment, which creates a colored link to a word or phrase, and shows up in the Inspector instead of embedded in the text. You can use the Formatting Finder to easily search for annotations later.

Are you trying to meet a specific word count goal for your manuscript? Do you need daily goals to keep you on track? Scrivener has you covered with project and session targets. Just enter your manuscript goal and your daily goal. Scrivener tracks your progress and provides a colored bar to show you how you’re doing.

To track your progress within a single document, use a document target. This is handy if you have a minimum scene length, or are working on an article or story with a specified word count requirement.
Do you find the main Scrivener interface distracting? Try working in Composition mode (called Full Screen in the Windows version). Not only does this calming view block out the busy-ness, you can choose your favorite background color, and (currently on Mac only) even add a background image.

Scrivener can also help you keep your research at your fingertips. No more searching through stacks of printouts or trying to find the right Internet bookmark. Simply import documents you refer to regularly into the Research folder in your project. For websites that you frequent while writing, you can add a Reference so you can quickly open the site when you need it.

Those are just a few of the many ways Scrivener can increase your writing productivity. Got questions? Ask away. I’ll check in throughout the day to answer them. Thanks to Peter for having me today!

If You Can't Do the Time, Do You Do the Crime?

Words or the clock? If you want to be a productive writer, you need to make a commitment. In my experience, half of the working writers I know set aside a specific block of time each day for writing and half give themselves word quotas. If you have already made the choice for yourself and it's working, you know which is best for you. If not–or if you are headed into a new writing situation–here are some things to consider.

First, if you are under contract with a deadline (even if you have set your own deadline), your ultimate measure is finished copy. Your editors and publishers really don't care whether you have dedicated 100 hours or 1,000 hours to your manuscript. They care about what you put into their hands on time. So, even if that draft that led to “the call” from an agent or an editor came as the result of setting a timer each day and getting to work, you need to set some goals for completed drafts, rewrites, and final edits that add up to meeting your commitments.

This is not to say that you should throw your timer away when a contract arrives in the mail. All the rituals you have developed as a writer will help to keep you writing in changed circumstances. But you do need to add a regular way of tracking your progress.

I found that the best way for to track progress is not day-to-day. My own rhythms as a writer are not so consistent, and that daily charting sometimes can make me feel anxious. For me, hitting my goals over the course of three-day periods feels about right. For others, that daily tracking or recording progress once a week may be more appropriate.

I've also found that pages of draft per day do not equal pages of rewriting or editing. The same measures do not carry over. The biggest part of revision for me is determining the full shape of the story after it has been drafted. This involves outlining, rearranging, discovering holes, clarifying the theme, and sorting out the subplots. I don't write many words during this stage. And it always takes longer than I think it should. So I put aside a big chunk of time for this work. But, each evening, I define which piece will be completed in the following one to three days.

For all the specificity of the later stages of writing and of working under contract, my preference for drafting is a set period of time each day. When I twist the dial or push the button on the timer, it's like hearing the starting gun. And, if I have done nothing by the end of the time period, I walk away with no guilt. However, in the vast majority of cases I never hear the timer go off. By the time my designated minutes are completed, I am totally lost in the writing.

Ultimately, I think how productivity is best measured depends upon both personality and external factors. If I look at the way I have worked in the past, even back when I was a student in grammar school, I have always used a mix of time and goals. So you may have the answer on what is best for you already at hand.

What about you? Have you arrived at the perfect productivity measures for yourself? And if so, what made you choose them? If you still are not using measures, you have questions or concerns? Do you worry such measures will harm your creativity?