Skip to main content

"Overpowering Your Writing Goal"--Todd Stone

Morning Folks,

Well, it's awfully yucky outside. Gray, dark, thunder, lightning and rain, rain, rain. Splat, splat, splat against the window panes (I suddenly feel very Dr. Seuss-ish LOL...Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You? anybody know that book?)

In any case, in the fine tradition of continuing a theme, I'm gonna give you some of the pointers I learned from the Todd Stone's Novelist Boot Camp.

Todd Stone told us "Never fight fair" (and re-emphasized this at different times in the workshop). What he means is, if your goals are 5-10 pages a day and you're struggling to get it out, don't tell yourself "I have to do this!" And get all frustrated, consider lowering your daily goal until you get your rhythm. (even if this means you're writing 1-3 SENTENCES per day).

His point? When you break your writing down to simpler goals, then your creativity has room to grow.

Who knows, you could be up to 5-10 pages before the end of 2 weeks!

Todd Stone calls this "overpowering your writing goal" (hence the name of this post).

He says when you're writing a draft "You can't write anything bad because you're going to make it better."

I don't know about you, but when I learned about lowering my personal goals for my writing I felt much better about the whole creativity process. It felt like, "Wow, I could really get a lot done." Finding a rhythm is something all writers have to do.

Todd Stone says: "Writing should be fun work."

There's way more information about all this on his site (in particularly in his book) so be sure to look that up (I provided the links in an earlier post, titled "Boot Camp Kicks Butt!").

Happy Writing!

Have A Marvelous Monday!



Comments

Regina Quentin said…
I actually just felt major relief while reading this. Some of my goals need to be lowered for a time and as you said, they may increase again. I was stressing myself out a little by trying to still meet goals that are unreasonable with what I'm going through right now (I'll explain more to you later when I e-mail back your chapter, which is what I'm looking at now).
Bethany said…
Regina,

Yeah, I felt a sense of relief knowing that until I'm published I can have smaller goals. That way I'm able to get my first novel in "ship-shape" before querying. This way I'll learn methods that can help me with the rest of my writing and other novels. Looking forward to hearing what you say about Chapter 1. I'm thinking I'll probably keep it at first person present tense unless you tell me it really doesn't work. When I make the 7 Revision Passes I'm sure I'll be able to make it even better :-)

Popular posts from this blog

Spotlight On Author: Loretta Wheeler

Happy Tuesday Everyone, There's a gem of an author I've had the privilege of coming across...I'm talking about my friend, Loretta Wheeler. She's a sweetheart and very talented author. I enjoyed her YA Paranormal novella, The Pan Man immensely. And, she also writes Romance. So without further ado, come into my parlor and meet Loretta Wheeler: Me:  In your YA novelette, The Pan Man , you mention Pan's looking for his long lost soul mate. What made you choose Pan out of all the Greek/Roman gods and goddesses? Loretta:  I chose the Greek god Pan, because of the connection with the music. I found later on in the story, (my stories take over and write themselves usually) it applied even more than I realized because of the band's name. I won't mention the name of the band in here, because it's part of the surprise ending. Me:  You're mostly known for your Romance stories. How would you describe your writing style? Hot, suspenseful, sensual, sw...

It's Worth A Fortune

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Does anyone remember the song If I Had A Million Dollars by Barenaked Ladies ? I can't remember when or how I was first introduced to this song, but it's a fun song. So, how about if you had a million dollars? What would you do with it? Of course there's the responsible things to do with a million dollars--pay off debts, and such like that. Then there's the question of whether or not you give to charities, and how much. But, suppose you answered all those questions and you still had quite a lot left; what would you do with it? Maybe I'd go to Disney World. I've wanted to go, and I've never been able to. Or, perhaps I'd go to Germany and England, and Belgium (three of the countries my ancestors are from). Travel around seeing family and friends I don't see often. There's all kinds of possibilities. So, what about you? What would you do with a million dollars? Have A Tremendous Tuesday!

Spotlight On Author: Christie Craig

Happy Tuesday Everyone, Sorry about the delay in getting Christie Craig's email interview up. Normally I can just copy and paste interviews from my email into my blog, but this time my blog would NOT let me paste the interview! So everything has to be done manually, which takes longer. Anyway, let me introduce you to Christie Craig: I met her through the NWHRWA , which we're both members of. She's a real sweetheart. Funny, fun, and makes you feel comfortable (you don't feel shy or uncomfortable because she has a very hospitable presence about her). She's also very helpful, offers great advice and encouragement (I know this from experience, she's been very encouraging to me). Christie is a multi-published author of both fiction and nonfiction. Her works include things like Divorced, Desperate & Delicious and her up-coming non-fiction (with elements of fiction) work, Wild, Wicked And Wanton: 101 Ways To Love Like You're In A Romance Novel ...due out this ...