About Choosing Stress

Post 676:

            Straight up process talk today. Disclaimer. Here we go then. I like having a date to get a manuscript done. Let me rephrase: It’s useful to have a date to get a manuscript done. I’m currently working with a pretty hard deadline. This adds stress, but sometimes stress is just what a book needs. I’ll be more specific toward my situation; I have a month to get a finished manuscript to an editor.

            So, here’s how I’m doing it this time. I have three novels that I’ve been working on for the last five or six months, and the one I get finished with first and sucks the least will be the one I go with. Never done it this way, but why not? Evolving your time management is just as important as evolving your vocabulary and toolkit.

            Figure when you’re stressed, add more stress.

            To be a creative writer, sometimes you have to let the stories completely take you over. We all have something in the back of our minds telling us we’re capable of more—it’s cool when you get to see how hard you can push it.

            Also, it’s not the worst thing in the world to cut a few corners, story-wise. Most of us can’t help but write too much. We love ourselves. Try putting your project in a corner, let it take some punches, get it out on its feet. Make yourself a little bit sick with work. It happens anyway, if you give a crap. This is a weird post, but creative no-accounts like myself will get it. Also, it’s weird because I have to get back to these damn novels. A lot of damn writing, that is. So there’s that.

            Cheers. See you after.