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| Photo Mitchell County Historical Society |
Ford engine...body, mind, fingers...they're all the same.
If you get the old brain cranked like a Model-T Ford, and run it for a while, spitting out all the bad backfire exhaust, aka writer fears and doubt, that writer mind will happily keep on running...
This is my convoluted way of saying that once you get into a daily writing rhythm, your mind and body will happily oblige, realizing that nothing scary comes from the repeated effort, so away you do go, without a thought or a care, plunking more words down on your WIP than you've ever saw plunked down before.
Like writer's flow where your mind is in that story bubble so strongly your fingers can't keep up, so can the same kind of flow be achieved for your daily writing sessions... once you get that old jalopy of a fearful mind chugging right along, and your creative juices are flowing like viscus oil on eight cylinders.
Okay, I have cars on my mind. I can't always defend my way of thinking. (Okay, I can rarely defend my way of thinking.)
The Key: the getting going, the cranking of the shaft, the sparking of that old, idle-too-long mind engine.
It may take you a few tries, maybe a week or so of going through the motions:
- walking to the desk
- opening the notebook or laptop
- sitting down
- gathering your scene cards
- and beginning to plunk words down on the next scene.
There's every chance you won't like what's spewing out, initially, but don't be a perfectionist right now. We need you revving your mind and finger engine, not entering your jalopy into NASCAR.
But with every writing session completed of every day, you'll soon sense that creation automation kicking in. And when it does, don't stop it now. Don't rest on your production laurels. Now is NOT the time to skip a session to celebrate. Keep that momentum going. And the longer you do, the easier it'll be, and the more permanent the habit. As I've said in a prior post, try and keep that momentum going for 42 days. Your mind and body need time to kick that act into an automatic overdrive.
As you enter into this writing flow:
- Don't word count.
- Don't word analyze.
- Just write, one word, then another, and another...
- Scene, after scene, after scene...
It's not about your story right now.
It's about your mind and body being primed and pumped to reach high and sustained RPMs to keep those creative juices flowing. The story quality will come later. Let's practice the doing first. Baby steps, peeps. Baby steps. One speed bump at a time...
HOMEWORK: It's Saturday tomorrow. If you're off work, get the engine crank out, turn that sucker, ignite your mind, prime your fingers, and get your perpetual prose engine purring!
And in the comments below, let us know how your crank shaft turned over... ;-)
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