2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love

It also creates an invaluable sense of progress and motion that is directly opposed to the usual nightmarish, running-in-place lethargy that editing can evoke.

always because there's something I don't know about the characters or the world or why this event is actually happening. Once I figure it out, I can unstick even the most stubborn plot. So, when I get really, seriously stuck, I let the plot go and start working out other things.

You can absolutely make yourself sick of your world before you've even started writing, if you're not careful.

If you are not having fun putting your world, characters, and plot together, you need to go back to Step 0 and seriously reconsider if this is the book you should be writing.

If a scene map is a visual guide to your book, a time line is a fault-finding device for your plot.

So if you don't have a publishing deadline yet, set one for yourself.

That’s what Step 0 is about. You don't need to have a plot or characters or even an ending at this point, but you do need a certainty that the idea floating in your head is something that will not only hold your interest not only through the time it takes to write, edit, and polish a manuscript, but will, once finished, do whatever it is you want t

if I rely on others to spot my problems for me, then I'm not growing as an editor or a writer.

I'm not doing detailed character sheets yet. I'm just getting down the basics: names, motivations, and the general sense I have of them as a character.