Writing programs and distractability

I have ADD, so I'm fully aware of my tendency to both hyperfocus and to be easily distracted, and distracted by non-important things.

I use Wordperfect for the most part, because it has a fullscreen mode, and because it is just such a great piece of software for writing and writers. I can easily switch from project to project, and even split my screens into two. If I had a dual-screen setup for writing, I'd probably put my outline on one screen and my WIP on the other, but WP lets me split one screen just fine.

If I didn't use or have WP and liked using fullscreen mode all the time, I'd probably use FocusWriter, a full-screen word processor, or Open/Libre Office. Back to FW. FW is both free and customizable, and actually works.

That said, I've tried FW, but I default to WP and don't write in fullscreen mode much. Yep, I write in a small screen of text, sometimes as small as possible (see "Write or Die").

I need *some* distraction and pressure, but not too much, and not too little, and putting "writing in the center" (ref. Stephen King's massive desk in the center of the room) makes it seem way too important, which triggers my critical voice. It has to be "good" and "clean" and all this other stuff, instead of "whee! look at the scenery fly by as the story engine blazes along!" and a refuge from life, a secret and safe place to let my imagination fly free.


This guy feels the same way: FocusWriter and why I now despise Writeroom

Have I mentioned that WP is cheap and FocusWriter is free? I paid $10 for Write or Die (no affiliation) and don't really use it, and come back to WP and FW more than WoD.


My last thoughts on writing in full-screen are: for the ultimate in full-screen writing, get unplugged.

If I want to be absolutely undistracted, I go quiet, and I unplug. No computer, no internet, no people. Just me, a pen, paper, and words on the page.

You can't get much more full-screen and distraction-free than that.

Critical voice, creative voice, and writing

I should be writing...but I'm taking an internet break for getting a lot done today.

Drive-by thoughts on getting yourself into creative voice:

1. Write before your critical voice wakes up, aka first thing on waking.

2. Write after exhausting your critical voice *on something not related to writing*. e.g. weed a garden, weed through your closet, garage, or basement, go clean out your spice rack, clean the house, do stuff in the yard.


Most writers default to doing #2 and find it easy to write *just* before they fall asleep, when they're in that half-dreaming state between being awake enough to move your body and asleep enough to have your critical voice out of the way.

But you don't have to wait until you're sleep-deprived to write. Just write after your *critical voice* is worn out, and see if you can't get your writing quota accomplished.

What works for you to get your critical voice worn out will take some experimenting, but it's well worth finding out. Once you've got it, remember it, and pull it out often and early.

3) Other tips for creative voice writing:
a) write longhand if you're used to keyboard writing. Flip to fit.
b) make lists of at least twenty. Pick one and write a story.
c) collage/scrap-book 5-10 interesting images and write a story about them.
d) pick ONE writing-craft goal and write a story focusing on that.
e) do timed writing sessions that, like "Write or Die", force you to both finish a story and do it in very tight time constraints.

That's it for now. What works for you?

Neil Gaiman's Commencement Speech

Here is Neil Gaiman's wonderful speech on working in the arts and living the artistic life.

Video and transcript here: (link)


h/t to Dean Wesley Smith for the heads-up.

Choice excerpts:

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.

...

You have the ability to make art.

And for me, and for so many of the people I have known, that's been a lifesaver. The ultimate lifesaver. It gets you through good times and it gets you through the other ones.

Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do.

Make good art.
...

And Fifthly, while you are at it, make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do.

...the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself. That's the moment you may be starting to get it right.



...

When I agreed to give this address, I started trying to think what the best advice I'd been given over the years was.
And it came from Stephen King twenty years ago, at the height of the success of Sandman. I was writing a comic that people loved and were taking seriously. King had liked Sandman and my novel with Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, and he saw the madness, the long signing lines, all that, and his advice was this:

“This is really great. You should enjoy it.”

...

That was the hardest lesson for me, I think: to let go and enjoy the ride, because the ride takes you to some remarkable and unexpected places.

...

To all today's graduates: I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work, and the more wisely you work, the luckier you get. But there is luck, and it helps.

...

The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are.
So make up your own rules.

...

So be wise, because the world needs more wisdom, and if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise, and then just behave like they would.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

(edited to add links. Oops!)

In Media Res...

Time for a progress report!

Current stories I'm actively putting pages on:

1 - 30 pages and counting, and I think I just hit the middle of the story. That means...60, 70 pages total.

*30-some pages to go.

2 - 16 pages, and yep, in the middle again. If I can bring this one in under 30 pages, I'll be happy. (I was aiming for this to be fun, quick, and short, as in 20 pages. Sigh.)


*15 pages to go.

3 - 37 pages and I think I'm still in the beginning. This may be my next novel(la), or in the queue to be written.

*?? pages to go.


Candace Havens's latest FAST DRAFT workshop is on right now, so I'm going to see if I can't catch a bit of the energy to write a novel for May in the meantime...

Dean Wesley Smith's Advice for Beginning Writers

You wanted to know what I tell beginning writers? I tell them to write a lot of books and stories as quickly as possible, never rewrite (because they don’t know how yet), either indie publish or get in the mail to editors, and keep learning as much and as fast as possible. I tell them to read every how-to-write book they can find, listen to every old pro they can listen to, study business and then study small business. And not get in a hurry. Expect the process to take as long as getting a graduate degree would take. Six to ten years. If they work hard at it. If they don’t, it will take longer or maybe never happen.

Oh, how the times have changed: agents

"My agent at the time did not care for the story, but—as she said in her note at the time—her job was to sell it, not to like it."

-Shirley Jackson

Wordpress bloggers, a question

I don't get it. It's either a background update that changed settings and people don't know, or they all switched over to registered comments, but it's really, really annoying. I can't post a comment without registering and it's not like I can do a verification code to do it, so those of you with Wordpress blogs, what's going on?