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Parking Downhill while Writing

I had read a post somewhere here talking about the "parking on a downhill slope" idea, or leaving yourself a good starting point when you quit a longer task so it's easy to pick up the next day, so I decided to try it out as I work on my master's thesis.

As I'm sure many other writers here will attest from their own procrastination battles, the hardest part about writing for me is actually sitting down at the keyboard and starting to type. Usually, once I get one or two sentences out, it picks up momentum and I have a pretty good session. So in order to park on that downhill slope, now when I quit for the day I stop in mid-sentence, sometimes leaving an open quotation mark or an ugly grammatical mistake on purpose. Before, I used to wrap up nice neat paragraphs or section breaks, then when I started the next time I'd stare at it and fumble around with how to begin. Now, I jump right on the little mess I left for myself, and before I know it I'm writing away.

I just wanted share this little trick because it's been so helpful. My page count has shot up since I've started doing it, relieving all kinds of stress over missing deadlines and guilt about not working enough. It's a cheap trick maybe, but I need every little advantage I can get.

TOPICS: Hacer
pooks's picture

I've read this suggestion before...

I've read this suggestion before and I know it works for a lot of people, whether they're writing fiction or nonfiction.

In my case, I write fiction (novels and screenplays) and I find it doesn't help me at all. If I get interrupted while writing, sometimes I lose my total train of thought, the mood, the "presence" of the world I'm writing about, and don't get it back for a long time. So stopping w/o finishing accomplishes the same difficulty -- on purpose.

For me, "writing on a downhill slope" might best be described as creating a Pavlov's dog/music state. I discovered this first when I was writing a script that all takes place on Christmas Eve. Whether it was December, February or July I could put on headphones and pop in a Christmas CD and my world would suddenly be there.

Since then I've tried to find a particular type of music to recreate the world I'm writing about, or even a "soundtrack" in my head, so that when I put on a certain song I feel the mood of a certain scene or character.

 
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