I have an idea for a novel. I am utterly confident that it's writable and mostly confident that it's saleable. I started writing a prologue and it wasn't working right, and when I realized I was going to have to start over suddenly I started finding reasons not to work on it.

Your story might need more development before you're ready to write it. For the novel I'm writing right now I have character sheets for all the main characters, all the main plot points planned out, world history and current events, including some things that will probably never even be mentioned in the book.

Now my problem at the moment is just getting my behind in the chair and sitting still. A little while back my daily routine was disrupted. Sigh. The set routine is a mixed bag, but I'm going to describe it anyway because I think, once it's set, it's got more good points than bad.

Find some time every day, the same time, to write. Write whether you want to or not. Write whether it's good or not. You might not even want to start with your novel. Eventually what happens is you start to make that your writing time. Your body and mind become poised and ready to write then, and you will churn out your best stuff then.

The biggest problem with the routine is the hectic life. I don't have kids yet, for example, and I don't know how they will effect things. All I know is that once I can get this sytem in place it works, and people who study these things say it works.

If you wanted to be a top ranked pianist, would you be able to get there by practicing only when you felt like it? If you wanted to win the Tour de France would you train only by riding your bike on weekends, taking off weekends when it was too hot or too cold or too damp?

I read an interview with Harry Turtledove where he said he writes 800,000 words a year. Personally, I doubt I could ever achieve this goal. So, I've set myself a goal I consider more "realistic." I want to write 300,000 words a year. This is actually not a tough goal by most measures. Its just 1000 words a day, with 65 days during the year to rest. Alas, I've never made it. I would say 120K words is the best I've achieved to date. My problem is that I tend to write furiously until I complete a project, then rest for weeks while I think about my next project. I'm hoping to break the cycle this year by finishing my present novel project by August 30 and then immediately starting on my next novel and completing it by October 30. Right now, learning to think about my next project while also thinking about my current one, I feel like I'm finally developing a skill most pros take for granted. I look forward to the day when I can have three or four projects in my head at once.

I also try to write, or at least spend time planning something writing related, everyday. But the truth is that real life does have a nasty habit of interfering in that. There are days that, due to work or other life problems, I simply don’t have anything left to give when I set down the computer. I haven’t found a way around that, other than to try to at least think about getting back to writing, and putting that thought into action as soon as I can. Careful use of mood music, before or during writing depending on your preferences, can be helpful as well.

1: Do you really need more than one shower a week? Your readers can't tell how you smell.

2: Shaving your head cuts down on time wasted combing your hair in the mornings.

3: Always eat your meals while driving.

4: Have your yard paved over. Wasting time mowing grass is sinful. Alternative solution: Goats.

5: Who needs sleep?

6: On long drives you can get a surprising amount of writing done with your laptop propped on the steering wheel. Be sure your car has airbags.

7: Develop a surly, snarly, wild-eyed personality so that people fear interupting you.

8: Christmas can eat up two whole months of spare time if you let it. Consider volcano worship as alternative faith. Very few formal rituals to attend to and only one simple prayer to memorize. "Oh Great Volcano, please don't rain great flaming balls of molten crap on me again today."

9: Don't waste valuable time writing top ten lists. Oops.

I suppose the biggest puzzler is that a few years ago, I wrote a long story (not sure of the length for various reasons) and got it put online. The standards were not high so I did not worry too awful much about making sure everything was perfect, but I enjoyed almost every minute of it. I even set out to write a couple of sequels, which for various life reasons I never finished. I rewrote the thing three or four times and even transferred nearly half of it laboriously onto computer after writing it out on paper. (I HATE rewriting things without any changes; the repetition drives me crazy.)

As to a goal that is the best way to get "motivated." The only thing you can do is to do it.

Sit down and if you have to write crap. If the idea went south--well go south and find it again or try going north to look for a new one.

Forget the --hey if I write this it will sell until you have learned the craft and you have trained yourself to write when you place hind end in chair and turn on computer. I agree with James here--the ones that make are the ones that can write at the drop of a hat.

When you get to the point of an editor or agent saying ok rewrites are needed--oh and I need you to rewrite the entire novel in two weeks--you can no longer say "sigh" I just don't feel motivated right now. Think once you have an agent or editor you are done with that story --guess again.

You will hate the story so much that you will feel ill when you open the file. Talk about no motivation.

So you must train yourself to write.

for what it's worth,
Shawn

back to rewrites. OH and I added up how many words I wrote last year--non-fic and fiction, articles and novels--700,000 rounded down a bit. The year before was about 500,000. The year before that was 300,000. The year before less than 100,000

That's your key. We hear it all the time, just write it and edit later. I find that when I'm staring at the screen, and I know what is supposed to happen next but am not starting, if I just put something down knowing it will be crap that it gets me over the hump.

I also work best with a deadline. So I set myself to write a serial at a rate of a chapter a week. I fired it off via e-mail to folks every Tuesday. Golly. 22 weeks later I have a novel. Okay- it was actually a little longer than that and folks would occasionally get the same chapter twice still- I've got a first draft and the rewrites are much, much easier than the first draft.

Second: Yeah, life can bite sometimes. Mine has sucked too, in some of the ways that you've mentioned, even! Half blind for a year? Heck, I went half blind when I was seventeen and am still stuck with it!

One motivational technique that works for me is to link your entertainment budget to the amount of work you do. So grab a pot and put it somewhere prominent. Figure out how much work you want to do, how much money you spend on entertainment, divide one by the other and come up with a rule along the lines of 'every 200 words I write I put £1 in the pot' (replacing with suitable target and currency for you).

I did quit my day job (middle school special needs teacher) I still work for WCP--and that is a great deal of work. Right now I have slacked (yes I am a slacker ) off a bit due to the rewrites I am doing on my novel.

I write 7 days a week for the most part--always 6. I write on holidays. Going camping--I handwrite. On a trip I use a tape recorder in the car. After I completed the Medicine Man I started on a the second book almost right of way.

It didn't want to go anywhere--there were days I wrote 3,000 words and the next day dumped them--a lot of days that way. Then when I hit the right path I wrote 72,000 words in 32 days. I did 6 days a week. So 2225 words a day. A lot of days I did more than that. Some days I was lucky to get 500 words out.

I do work about 6-9 hrs a day writing or editing.

The 700,000 words last year are first draft--no idea how many rewrites and edits I did as well. I type very fast--like 120 WPM, I don't worry about the first draft--spell check I turn off. I have also gotten to where when I sit at my desk crank the tunes--headphones to protect others from the insanity of the same songs repeated and to block out distracting noise from others in the house. My office in this house has three walls and a large archway that opens into the family room.

I truly believe that it is about habit. Yes the muse is nice—but like any pet you have to train it to come when you call and once you do that with persistence and a armored hide you can do it.

If you want to be a professional writer whose sole income is from writing, you'd best start the programs James Maxey and srhowen outlined. Words are cheap, so you'd better write a whole lot of them if you want to live off of them.

Also, as James pointed out, you won't be the best writer you can be if you don't do it every day, even on days when you don't want to do it. You'll never be able to play Stravinsky if you don't practice on the piano every day.

But, on the other hand, some people don't want to play Stravinsky. (Some people don't even like to listen to his works! ) Being able to play a few show tunes is sufficient for them. They still would be better off practicing every day, but if they don't, it may not matter. They may still be able to do a passable job when they want to.

So the question you have to ask yourself is: how much do you want to write? Is completing a short story every four or five months good enough for you? Is getting published every year or two good enough? If so, then you can allow yourself to be moved by the muse and by opportunity, and write when you can.

But if not, you need to set a schedule and stick to it.

Now don't dismiss the "story every five months" schedule off-hand. Because having a regular schedule and sticking to it takes sacrifices. You may have to sacrifice other entertainment, or time with your family, or sleep. Hopefully, you won't have to sacrifice showers as James suggested (although, if you have children, you sometimes have to sacrifice that anyway. Yes, this is a warning, Christine ). But there will always be something you'd rather do than writing. Otherwise, you are letting the muse move you.

So, once again, how much do you want to write? Are you willing to give up a few movies and dinners with your sweetie? Are you willing to forego a bit of sleep to get a few more paragraphs done? Are you willing to sit and write crap for two hours because you know you have to write something to "stay in shape?" Are you willing to forego other things you like, and to put yourself through some misery, to write?

For myself, I am willing to take the first, easier course right now. I simply don't have the time to write everyday. It would sacrifice too much time with my family for me to do it right now. So, my output is miniscule. I have written probably less than 200,000 words in the last fifteen years, and published only a handful of stories, mainly in a local computer magazine. A pitiful record.

But I'm not willing to put myself through the misery of fighting for writing time every night. It would be too great a burden for me and my family at this time.

And you know what? It's OK for me, right now. After all, most writers don't become great or famous (perhaps because most writers are like me and give up too easily ). I am extremely proud of the few works that I have had published. Although it may not be glamorous, it is acceptable for me.

I realize I'm not giving you any advice on how to write more, mainly because I don't have any. If you want to write and can't work on this story, write something else for a while. Write some letters that you've been neglecting. You could even write on some SF author's bulletin board (which, of course, would be a complete waste of time, but still could be fun). It won't get you closer to the story, but you'll still be writing.

Or, just write the story, regardless of how crappy it is. In the last story I completed, I had to fool myself into writing the first draft. I told myself that Dwain Rodgers was writing it, and (between you and me), he's a pretty lousy author. But it got me through the first draft, and I was able to revise it into something better.

The bottom line, though, is how much you really want to write. The best writers are the ones who find complete joy in writing and can do it for hours a day. But for you and me, we have to figure out how much we are willing to work at it.

Because the only person who can keep yourself from writing is yourself.

800,000 words a year?!?

Can anybody say carpal tunnel?

She sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat...

Maybe I'll write a spoof, "Once upon a typewriter"