Progress, But Not Writing

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Written by Kodi Wolf at 2:49 PM

How do you measure progress? Is it only the number of new words added to a story? Or can it also be the part where you're spending time figuring out the story?

Spending time brainstorming is still one of those things I have a hard time justifying, like I'm goofing off or something, but I'm learning that it's absolutely essential to my writing process.

For some reason, I have this idea that I'm just supposed to know how to do something or what to do or when to do it without ever taking the time to actually figure it out. I seem to think I should just be able to sit down at my computer and start typing out a scene, even though I don't know which scene to write or what should go in it because I haven't finished outlining the story because I haven't finished organizing my notes because they're scattered in dozens of different places and files.

I want to start at step 10 (writing my story) when I haven't gone through steps 1-9 (organizing, brainstorming, outlining, planning, etc.).

So, even though the workaholic, hypercritical part of me wants to put me down because I haven't written much actual story text the past couple weeks, the truth is I've made phenomenal progress on getting Lights of Life organized and outlined in preparation for actual writing. I still have plenty more to do, but I'm getting there.

I'm also learning the fine art of "enough," so I think I'll stop for now.