Monday, May 6, 2019

Good Writing Habits: Read, Research, Write, Edit - In One Day!

Let’s face it, writing non stop for a whole day would require a remarkable level of concentration, purpose of mind I do not have! So I try to mix a lot of different skills in one day, starting with the creative part first. I’m a morning person, so I try to write then, be it new pages in my next novel, SENTIENT, or new blogs. I think Hemingway had it right when he said “write drunk, edit sober.” I wear two hats in a day. The creative, colourful hat for the morning work on that first draft, free to explore and imagine.

That session completed I change hats, so that I may soberly go about the process of refining. Editing is a painstaking process, so always look out for common pitfalls, such as getting too close to your work. When that happens, you can easily waste time by not editing your work properly, which invariably leads to having to re-edit the same work! I try to edit smaller sections over short periods of time, usually no more than an hour. Be happy with that, then reward yourself!

Watch a movie, good tv series, read a book, or even better, have a night! I attended a book launch from A C Grayling, where he eloquently communicated difficult concepts in an entertaining way. I left with a new found motivation to write and communicate my own interpretation of the times we live in tomorrow.

All this in one day!

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