Research and write in batches of time if you want to increase your writing diversity and become prolific. This means choose a weekly slot of time (I batch on a Wednesday 8am to lunch) and place multiple documents on the screen, an article, poem, manuscript, blog, script, whatever you’re working on, and shift between them all. Without stopping. I mean it, no stopping, except for coffee or a wee. Momentum is the magic key to batch writing. I know it sounds counterintuitive and slightly bonkers, but I think of it as circuit training for my creativity. It keeps you fit, supple, and strong. I also use this exercise to research. You can’t write a novel without research and to write the fruits of your research down, outside of your novel, is a really helpful way to digest it. Plus, sometimes, we get stuck in one writerly pursuit that can really stifle us with a certain heaviness. So, instead of thinking, “I’m sitting down to write my novel,” try “I’m sitting down to write,” which doesn’t stop your novel from being central to your practice, au contraire, it widens your reach. You could be writing an article about your novel’s subject, a blog about writing, a poem about one of your characters, whatever, the point of batch writing is to generate dexterity and a multiplicity of content. It is not a deep dive into compelling writing, editing (go back and do that later), or an idea spawn. However, word to the wise, keep a notepad handy because ideas tend to arise when they don’t feel constrained. Why is this important? I mean, you’re writing a book, right? This is true. And content writing should never take time away from you novel writing, but it’s smart to let your research double up, because the people that are interested in your research will be the people most interested in your novel. And, as a modern writer, like it or not, you need content and dexterity, if you want your work to connect with an audience and publishers. Don’t expect to just traipse through the daffodils with pen and paper or hug an urn to get noticed! Those days are dead as a doornail, but if you want to Keats and Wordsworth yourself into bulb planting frenzy or urn worship, knock yourself out, just blog it. There will be others like you (egads, just kidding, (kinda)) which is why you need to think of content and connectivity as other characters in your frame, as friends. Not your pub friends, but your career friends who can, on occasion, become your pub friends.
In summary, research/write in batches and think of this exercise as content building. Honestly, I need to take my own advice. Hope this is helpful to you wherever you are on your creative crossing. Let me know how you get on…
Love and be well friends,
Gret x
(All my besties subscribe // wink, wink.)
Gret Heffernan is the Editor-in-Chief of www.backlashpress.com and author of The Sculptor and Dark Ansley, Book One and Book Two
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