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| My cluttered desk and laptop. |
Today will mark the first day of summer break that didn't involve me having to work. Monday was supposed to be my first day, but I had to attend a Title 1 training. Yesterday, I had to finish an essay for the IPT Masters program to which I have applied.
So how do I get to spend my first day off? I am going to get poked and prodded for Part 2 of my annual physical exam. I don't know why I do this to myself every year. I have about two weeks between the time school ends for the summer and when the debate institute I work at begins. For those two weeks, I try to cram in all the doctor visits I have put off. I sprinkle in a few honey-do's and the two weeks are done.
I hope to spend the last half of the day outlining part of the story for the book I am finishing this summer. I might even spend some time developing some character back stories to help them come alive for me. Both of these will be new approaches for me as I normally just sit down and start writing.
Stacey will tell you the worst part of my writing process is that I can labor over a sentence or even a word choice for hours. In all my years of writing for school, work or pleasure, I have never started with an outline. In fact, when I was required to turn in an outline in school, I would write the paper and then fabricate an outline to go with it. I also don't do too much rewriting (in the traditional sense) because I spend a great deal of time editing as I go. This slows me down.
This summer I am going to scrap my old way of writing and try a few new things. First, I am going to try using some minor outlining in my process. Secondly, I am going to set a daily goal word count (2,500/day) and not worry about editing until later.
I figure the old ways have not led to a complete novel so change is in order. Wasn't it Einstein who said doing the same thing over and over again and expecting new results is insanity?
