Today’s tip isn’t earth-shattering by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I’m sure you’ve heard it no less than a dozen or so times. Here it is:
Right? You’ve heard that one before? I know I had, and my reaction to it was always the same: CODSWALLOP! (Because that is a very fun word to say). And so I’d ignore it, keep writing, tidy up the scene and bring it to a conclusion. And then the same thing would happen day in and day out. The next time I sat down to write, I would stare at a blank screen for half an hour. I’d start to type a sentence, only to delete it. I’d try another one, then delete that too. I only get two hours a day to write if I’m lucky, so the amount of time I wasted trying to jumpstart my writing was getting frustrating.
So I tried that trick above, just once. I made myself walk away in the middle of a scene. And you guys. It totally did the trick. I was itching to start writing the next day, and I was able to jump back in and hit the ground running, so to speak. I finished the scene, then launched into the next, stopping in the mid-way point. And I’ve been doing the same thing ever since. I haven’t had a single day since where I stare at a blank screen for half an hour, trying to figure out where to go from here. It’s magic, I tell you. Magic.
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