Not so much tips, as observations....
1) My house gets cleaner when I revise. I feel the need to straighten my outside world as I work on the interior one of the manuscript. I used to view cleaning as procrastination, but now I see it as a) thinking/processing time and b) the only way certain cleaning tasks will ever get done. My baseboards aren't gleaming, but they sure are happy that I noticed that they exist.
2) Negative thinking has its place---for about a week. I can growl, feel sick, whine, and think the worst of myself. Then I have no time for it. None.
3) The Dog Whisperer is a great show for writers. Cesar says to visualize what you what to happen and then make it so. (Sounds flaky until you see him do it, time after time after time.) He's also great at psychology and character motivation. It's never the dog; it's always the owner. Training a dog changes the trainer; revising a novel changes the writer. Why else would I be doing this?
Oh I agree with #1-- there's nothing like vacuuming to get me into a concentrated thinking mode.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you're posting these tips, Sara!
My house gets messier when I am revising because I just want to climb deeper inside the story. But it gets really clean when I am in the early stages of a book, like now, because making those baseboards sparkle is a great way to procrastinate!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Susan... I clean everything at the early stages and then the house goes straight down the tubes.
ReplyDeleteWhat baseboards????
"It's never the dog; it's always the owner. Training a dog changes the trainer" At the risk of sounding like a terrible parent I must say I think this is brilliant parenting wisdom too. If only I could get myself in shape my mothering would be so much more gentle, wise, loving and effective.
ReplyDelete