Wednesday, March 2, 2011

WICKED WEDNESDAYS


Practice makes perfect....

I don't know how many times I heard that phrase growing up. Practice makes perfect. Half-an-hour of music each day, practice your cursive writing, arithmetic tables, reading skills, table manners, ice skating...it's what we're told to do in order to get ahead.

Some of it paid off. And for that, I thank my parents. Although I still grumble that I didn't get to take ballet at an earlier age. Or piano. Or join the basketball team. Grumble, grumble.

These days, the same tenet still holds. Practice makes perfect (a state still being sought and slightly out of reach in most, okay, all instances.) But I try to get a half hour of practicing my choir music in every day; I practice tidying the house as I go along rather than leaving it all to one day; ditto for doing the filing.

It's also important with writing. For some reason, book number two in my mystery book club series, is harder to write. I just am having a more difficult time getting into it...or my character's head. I'm not really sure what that's all about. But I do know that if I practice writing each day -- at least 15 minutes -- it helps.

I know the end product will be more disjointed than I'd like. But that's what second drafts are for. I enjoy the process of reading through and adding the details, fleshing out the southern Alabama town and the lives of the book club members. Of being 30-something Lizzie Turner and seeing the world through her eyes. There is hope. I know I'll get back into the groove. She's waiting there for me in that second draft.

I'd heard about the 15-minute rule before but it had to be a thousand words or nothing for me. And that demand one makes on oneself can be debilitating. My advice to self is, back off, visit with Lizzie and friends for at least 15 minutes a day (it can be done even with a busy schedule), make time for friends.

Practice can lead to a day like Tuesday when I glanced at the clock mid-afternoon, not quite sure what day it was, and noticed my 15 minutes had morphed into 10 pages.

What advice do you give yourself when writing?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
MURDER BY THE BOOK, first in the mystery book club series
Berkley Prime Crime (April, 2012)

4 comments:

  1. HI Linda,

    "Just do it" is my motto. Some days the writing is harder to get into, and like you, I just force myself to try. Every single time I have always found that I am further ahead than when I began.

    Good luck! I'm getting my head back into my third book and I know the feeling.

    Pam

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  2. I had trouble getting into my villain's head for book two. My villain then wrote me a 3-page letter. Very helpful, if a bit. . . um . . . weird.

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  3. Thanks, Pam. That's also my motto. I love it when some days just click and the pages fly.

    Janet -- what an interesting idea. I may try it or a spin on it. Thanks!

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  4. I plan for a thousand words, but I take what I can get. Some words are more of a struggle than others. And when you get to second draft state, there are just fewer words to write. I've just come out of that state with my latest book, and I spent most of my time untangling plot knots rather than writing, shifting things around, taking words out (That's plays havoc with your word count.)

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