I’m not a planner. I used to write one scene a day, so around 1500 words. At that pace, it’s more or less possible to write a full book in two months. I have in my mind what the beginning mess is going to be once the world has been introduced, the bit in the middle that will change everything the main character thought they knew an then have a rush to the end where all the pieces fall in place.

The more I wrote, though, the easier knowing how the next bit of story would fit into the whole. It used to take the rest of the day/best thinking time at night to come up with everything I needed to know about the world to continue. Now I just take a break between scenes and I can write 2-3 scenes a day. When I’m stuck, though, I am really, really stuck.

 

When I can’t write, there’s a flaw in my matrix. Writing is supposed to be fun. I write for my beta/ideal reader and my wife who get a kick out of the stuff I do, but above both of them, I write to make me happy. If I find myself trying to impress other writers and not myself, I’m probably off on a tangent that stopped being fun a while ago.

 

I write about some pretty dark topics, but survivors know if we aren’t laughing, we would all be sobbing. It’s hard, but if you’re stuck and the magic is gone, I always go back to the last place where the magic was and start cutting away. It’s brutal if effective. I have done that enough times that now, just when my writing is just starting to drift off into boring land exit, I stop myself before I get too far from the free-way of fun.