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What do you do when you’re a slow and inefficient writer? And when you’re not in the mood and you have a deadline to make, and everything that comes out is trash?
My situation: I’m trying to write blog entries (averaging >1,000 words) twice a week, posting after at least three drafts, and I’m having trouble with something that should be so easy.
Yes, problem is I’m not disciplined enough. Overall it’s whether I’m in the mood or not that dictates if I get work done. I’ve tried to get around this by, as said, writing through the bad days anyway (I’ve equated it with “vocalization” or “warm-ups” – maybe I need to write, say 1,000 words, to free the writing muscles, that kind of thing), but with less-than-stellar output. Which I don’t end up posting, if I finish at all. I’ve come to realize that the first draft (or first two, depending on my present mood) can be terrible, but it’s something else when it has barely improved in the fifth, or even tenth, draft.
Second problem is I need a lot of drafts, at least ten, to get anything into good shape – this I realized after being horrified at the quality of every blog post I’ve written so far – and even then, the articles “in good shape” from having had fifteen drafts are only good maybe a few weeks or so after I’ve finished them. Nowadays I wonder what made me think how I could have thought they were decent.
I’ve tried taking breaks, which got me not doing any work for weeks, maybe months, which end up with me getting rusty. Which is why I’ve tried writing through the bad periods, except that it doesn’t seem to be doing wonders for me either. Oh, I know it’s not easy disciplining yourself when you have none
. It’s just that I’ve tried two different solutions and neither have worked, and have no idea, besides quitting writing, if there is a third option. (And I don’t want to quit.)Why have I been making it hard for myself by having a blog? Because I thought it would, if anything, get my writing in shape. And provide samples for a freelance writing business I’ll eventually set up, as a Step 2 (get me writing and make a little money, which may even help with that bratty writing mood). Nowadays it’s just gotten me tired, frustrated, and more disappointed with myself than ever. As I write this it’s becoming clear I, uh, haven’t thought this through at all.
I guess it comes down to what the best way is to discipline yourself.
Quote:My situation: I’m trying to write blog entries (averaging >1,000 words) twice a week, posting after at least three drafts, and I’m having trouble with something that should be so easy.Blogs are actually not easy to write. At least not ones that get people to comment. In fact, they may be harder than other forms of writing. I’ve been blogging for a good five years, changing things up, and it’s still hit or miss.
Quote:Yes, problem is I’m not disciplined enough. Overall it’s whether I’m in the mood or not that dictates if I get work done. I’ve tried to get around this by, as said, writing through the bad days anyway (I’ve equated it with “vocalization” or “warm-ups” – maybe I need to write, say 1,000 words, to free the writing muscles, that kind of thing), but with less-than-stellar output. Which I don’t end up posting, if I finish at all. I’ve come to realize that the first draft (or first two, depending on my present mood) can be terrible, but it’s something else when it has barely improved in the fifth, or even tenth, draft.It might not be the case. It might be that your muse is telling you you’ve got the wrong topics. I took Kristien Lamb’s class on blogging and tried to find my platform. It was tough even keeping up with regular posting. I had trouble coming up with ideas, and it was just plain work. It wasn’t until I read a blog post on ProBlogger that asked the question, “Are you having fun?” and I realized I wasn’t. I was spending so my time selling myself that I wasn’t having any fun doing the writing. So after that, my first criteria was to write posts that I really did enjoy.
Quote:Second problem is I need a lot of drafts, at least ten, to get anything into good shape – this I realized after being horrified at the quality of every blog post I’ve written so far – and even then, the articles “in good shape” from having had fifteen drafts are only good maybe a few weeks or so after I’ve finished them. Nowadays I wonder what made me think how I could have thought they were decent.If your muse is telling you you’ve got the wrong topics, this may be why you can’t get the posts to work even after ten drafts.
So … what do.
First, I’d suggest cutting the post word count down to 500 words. It’s a lot shorter and will take less time to write. This is especially important if you want to freelance, because you cannot spend all your time writing huge posts that cut into your freelancing time.
If you’re trying to keep up with the 3 times a week, then cut back to once or twice a week while you figure out what’s going to work for you. Every time I realized something wasn’t working, I cut back on the posts because I didn’t want to waste the time writing things that weren’t working.
Cut the revision time to two drafts. Draft one is the post. Draft two is cleaning up the typos and making sure everything is clear. One of the things I had to do was stop fussing over trying to make the posts publishable quality. A blog is meant to be more personal, and I was losing my voice by trying to fix it (which also robbed the fun from it). If a post isn’t working, don’t post it.
Don’t think of them as articles. Think of them as journal entries you’re sharing with other people. Use them to communicate your voice, and the things you enjoy.
Also, try to plan the posts out for an entire month. If you know what your topics are, you can think on them for a bit, change them up if need be — before you have to write anything. I’ve been using themes for the month, which is a great way to have a direction of ideas to come up with. This site has monthly blog planners: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/
Not in the mood? Mood’s a thing for cattle and loveplay, not [strike]fighting[/strike] writing!
:blink:
Humor aside, when facing deadlines, I just put butt in chair and twist my own ear while typing with the other hand.
My problem with my fiction is, I don’t have external deadlines. So, when the mood (or drive/motivation, which my usual issue ) isn’t conducive to writing, nothing really helps. Just butt in chair until it becomes a habit. In my case, proper drive will overcome mood. And if I type out crap, I see it as practice.
Since you seem much more disciplined, you are fighting bad habits like me.
Linda Adams wrote:Quote:My situation: I’m trying to write blog entries (averaging >1,000 words) twice a week, posting after at least three drafts, and I’m having trouble with something that should be so easy.Blogs are actually not easy to write. At least not ones that get people to comment. In fact, they may be harder than other forms of writing. I’ve been blogging for a good five years, changing things up, and it’s still hit or miss.
Oh.
I’d gotten the idea that blogs were easy to write because all the blogging advice I’d read online said you have to post everyday, or at least as much as you can, to gather readers. You can start slowing down once you have “enough” content, which is more or less months after you started. My logic went: if a lot of bloggers can keep up with that pace, I’d be pathetic if I can’t. And I can’t, ergo…
Linda Adams wrote:Quote:Yes, problem is I’m not disciplined enough. Overall it’s whether I’m in the mood or not that dictates if I get work done. I’ve tried to get around this by, as said, writing through the bad days anyway (I’ve equated it with “vocalization” or “warm-ups” – maybe I need to write, say 1,000 words, to free the writing muscles, that kind of thing), but with less-than-stellar output. Which I don’t end up posting, if I finish at all. I’ve come to realize that the first draft (or first two, depending on my present mood) can be terrible, but it’s something else when it has barely improved in the fifth, or even tenth, draft.It might not be the case. It might be that your muse is telling you you’ve got the wrong topics. I took Kristien Lamb’s class on blogging and tried to find my platform. It was tough even keeping up with regular posting. I had trouble coming up with ideas, and it was just plain work. It wasn’t until I read a blog post on ProBlogger that asked the question, “Are you having fun?” and I realized I wasn’t. I was spending so my time selling myself that I wasn’t having any fun doing the writing. So after that, my first criteria was to write posts that I really did enjoy.
Quote:Second problem is I need a lot of drafts, at least ten, to get anything into good shape – this I realized after being horrified at the quality of every blog post I’ve written so far – and even then, the articles “in good shape” from having had fifteen drafts are only good maybe a few weeks or so after I’ve finished them. Nowadays I wonder what made me think how I could have thought they were decent.If your muse is telling you you’ve got the wrong topics, this may be why you can’t get the posts to work even after ten drafts.
So … what do.
First, I’d suggest cutting the post word count down to 500 words. It’s a lot shorter and will take less time to write. This is especially important if you want to freelance, because you cannot spend all your time writing huge posts that cut into your freelancing time.
If you’re trying to keep up with the 3 times a week, then cut back to once or twice a week while you figure out what’s going to work for you. Every time I realized something wasn’t working, I cut back on the posts because I didn’t want to waste the time writing things that weren’t working.
Cut the revision time to two drafts. Draft one is the post. Draft two is cleaning up the typos and making sure everything is clear.
But what if the lots-of-drafts routine has always been like that for you? I very rarely have anything that comes out decent-but-needs-polishing in the first draft, and that’s even for topics I’m enthusiastic about (and I had surprisingly decent first drafts for topics I was indifferent about). Most of the time my first drafts of anything belong to the trash bin – for content and prose. If I’m lucky, they start becoming readable when I start polishing. Little by little, from draft to draft.
That I’m also rusty from long periods of not writing doesn’t make it better. I’ve gone through years not writing unless I’m in the mood, meaning hardly ever, since I thought that’s how writers work, because “writers don’t produce trash”, which I regularly do. So I’d been thinking it’s a combination of rustiness and lack of discipline. And yes, as much as I hate to admit it, skill.
500 words? Sounds great, thanks. (Now I feel stupid for not being able to think of something that makes so much sense. :lol:)
Linda Adams wrote:One of the things I had to do was stop fussing over trying to make the posts publishable quality. A blog is meant to be more personal, and I was losing my voice by trying to fix it (which also robbed the fun from it). If a post isn’t working, don’t post it.Don’t think of them as articles. Think of them as journal entries you’re sharing with other people. Use them to communicate your voice, and the things you enjoy.
Also, try to plan the posts out for an entire month. If you know what your topics are, you can think on them for a bit, change them up if need be — before you have to write anything. I’ve been using themes for the month, which is a great way to have a direction of ideas to come up with. This site has monthly blog planners: http://www.productiveflourishing.com/free-planners/
😆 Now here is where I come out with the idiocies. I’m pressured to make publishable-quality blog posts because I was thinking of using my blog as a portfolio for my freelance writing. I have no qualifications whatsoever – no degree, no work on school papers since elementary school, nada. Joining this workshop is the only writing-related thing I’ve done within the past year that I can remember, besides the quiet practicing.
Thanks for setting me straight. And for the free planners, too.
Myrddin wrote:Not in the mood? Mood’s a thing for cattle and loveplay, not [strike]fighting[/strike] writing!:blink:
Humor aside, when facing deadlines, I just put butt in chair and twist my own ear while typing with the other hand.
My problem with my fiction is, I don’t have external deadlines. So, when the mood (or drive/motivation, which my usual issue ) isn’t conducive to writing, nothing really helps. Just butt in chair until it becomes a habit. In my case, proper drive will overcome mood. And if I type out crap, I see it as practice.
Since you seem much more disciplined, you are fighting bad habits like me.
I tried the twisting my own ear until I get work done. Problem is my inner writer is such a brat it’s been fighting with me all the way.
I guess another problem is I get easily discouraged – I’ve come a long way from “everything I write has to be good, even the first draft”, but only until “first draft, and maybe even the second, sucking is okay, but this better shape up nice after a while”.
Disciplined? Moi? Uh, I prefer “guilt-ridden”.
turnipmeatloaf wrote:That I’m also rusty from long periods of not writing doesn’t make it better. I’ve gone through years not writing unless I’m in the mood, meaning hardly ever, since I thought that’s how writers work, because “writers don’t produce trash”, which I regularly do. So I’d been thinking it’s a combination of rustiness and lack of discipline. And yes, as much as I hate to admit it, skill.Writers get better by writing constantly, and it does take discipline. Writing at least a little bit daily is the best way to instill such discipline and gain the skill necessary to be able to cut your drafts down to two or three before posting.
No writer who is serious about writing gets anywhere by writing when only “in the mood.”
Oh, and all writers produce trash, particularly when just starting out and sometimes even after years of writing and gaining the discipline to do it every day and the skill necessary to make it good. They just produce less trash, and there are some writers who insist their first drafts are still trash.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~Ashe wrote:turnipmeatloaf wrote:That I’m also rusty from long periods of not writing doesn’t make it better. I’ve gone through years not writing unless I’m in the mood, meaning hardly ever, since I thought that’s how writers work, because “writers don’t produce trash”, which I regularly do. So I’d been thinking it’s a combination of rustiness and lack of discipline. And yes, as much as I hate to admit it, skill.Writers get better by writing constantly, and it does take discipline. Writing at least a little bit daily is the best way to instill such discipline and gain the skill necessary to be able to cut your drafts down to two or three before posting.
No writer who is serious about writing gets anywhere by writing when only “in the mood.”
Oh, and all writers produce trash, particularly when just starting out and sometimes even after years of writing and gaining the discipline to do it every day and the skill necessary to make it good. They just produce less trash, and there are some writers who insist their first drafts are still trash.
Yeah, it’s only recently I realized that (well, read that somewhere and and got my epiphany). Hence the practicing and the blogging, which has been hard. You want to be good, but it’s hard drilling discipline into your very non-disciplined self. And finding out everything you’re written so far, even from years ago, is bad doesn’t do wonders (“what if you just suck, and will only amount to the Ed Wood of the writing world?” etc.). Uh, I got a bit ranty there, didn’t I? Sorry. :blush:
That’s okay. The thing is not to be too hard on yourself and remember, right at this point, you’re at the beginning of your writing life, so it’s okay to write bad stuff. Eventually, you’ll start writing really good stuff. For some perspective, and ymmv, I started writing in August of ’88 and didn’t really start producing anything even halfway decent until I found this site in its founding year (’97, irrc). It wasn’t until I was able to post stuff for critique and do critiques myself when I began to gain real skill, and, at least for me, giving critiques helped me more than receiving them.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~turnipmeatloaf wrote:Uh, I got a bit ranty there, didn’t I? Sorry. :blush:And the problem with that is….? Readers want you, and possibly your rants as long as they’re not overly introspective.
(Who is this person? What does she think? Who does she think she is? = I’m going to read what she’s written to find out.)
What do many people read? Is it gossip? Sometimes angry gossip.
Ten drafts and you’ve probably killed it dead. Fifteen and it could be murder. You should try reading the Daily Mail. Writing is often awful. It’s one of the top online newspapers.
Quote:But what if the lots-of-drafts routine has always been like that for you? I very rarely have anything that comes out decent-but-needs-polishing in the first draft, and that’s even for topics I’m enthusiastic about (and I had surprisingly decent first drafts for topics I was indifferent about). Most of the time my first drafts of anything belong to the trash bin – for content and prose. If I’m lucky, they start becoming readable when I start polishing. Little by little, from draft to draft.There’s two different issues here. The first is that since you’re relatively new to writing, you might be line editing instead doing actual revision (a lot of writers do this). Line editing is when you go through the manuscript line by line and change sentences to make them shorter, take out an adverb, that kind of stuff. Revision is when you make major changes. For example, you do a post where you make five points on your subject and then you realize that one of the points doesn’t work. So you have to revise it and either strengthen that point or come up with a new one.
The second issue is the amount of revision. If you’re going to be a freelancer where your primary source of income in writing, ten drafts is probably too many. It means you spend longer fixing a piece when you need to get a new one done for more money to come in. A blog post is going to get you some promotion, but unless you’re someone like Mike Hyatt or Chris Brogan, you’re not getting paid for it. So you want to make sure it’s not cutting into your (potential) paying writing time with many drafts.
Quote:Now here is where I come out with the idiocies. I’m pressured to make publishable-quality blog posts because I was thinking of using my blog as a portfolio for my freelance writing. I have no qualifications whatsoever – no degree, no work on school papers since elementary school, nada. Joining this workshop is the only writing-related thing I’ve done within the past year that I can remember, besides the quiet practicing.Not necessarily. Look at any organizations that you belong to. There may be opportunities sitting in there that are open to you because you are a member. An article for a newsletter or the organization’s magazine. Membership there does carry a bit of extra weight and knowledge. I got about 10 articles published in The Toastmaster that way. Freelancers with only knowledge of the magazine and not the organization often came up with generic articles, but as I member, I knew topics that would interest the audience. A blog is not likely to serve as clips unless you’re getting a lot of comments and drawing attention.
turnipmeatloaf wrote:You want to be good, but it’s hard drilling discipline into your very non-disciplined self.It will be with that mentality!
Part of improving upon yourself is giving yourself credit when you do. Calling yourself very non-disciplined will only make a good excuse for when you don’t feel like writing. See yourself as someone who is learning discipline — not perfect, but still putting the effort in. turnipmeatloaf wrote:And finding out everything you’re written so far, even from years ago, is bad doesn’t do wonders (“what if you just suck, and will only amount to the Ed Wood of the writing world?” etc.).Would you rather look at everything you’ve written so far, even from years ago, and think it’s perfect? What would it mean if you did? You’d be ‘finished’. Nothing new to learn. Nothing else to expand upon. You’d essentially stagnate, refusing to learn any more because ‘you have it nailed’. Looking at your stuff from the past and saying ‘that was no good’ is great — it means you’re improving!
turnipmeatloaf wrote:Uh, I got a bit ranty there, didn’t I? Sorry. :blush:No problem, shows you have passion.
Slightly off tangent.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I cannot write when I am depressed. I have to wait the spell out. It’s not a matter of lack of mood, which typically is missing, it is that I can’t. If I try to force something, I spend most of the time staring at a blank page and then get even more depressed at the lack of progress. That is also when I am most likely to trash out anything I have been working on, certain that nothing I put down is worth reading. (I couldn’t even begin to count the number of stories that have been abandoned and posts/comments not made during these spells.)
Two acting as one
Ashe wrote:That’s okay. The thing is not to be too hard on yourself and remember, right at this point, you’re at the beginning of your writing life, so it’s okay to write bad stuff. Eventually, you’ll start writing really good stuff. For some perspective, and ymmv, I started writing in August of ’88 and didn’t really start producing anything even halfway decent until I found this site in its founding year (’97, irrc). It wasn’t until I was able to post stuff for critique and do critiques myself when I began to gain real skill, and, at least for me, giving critiques helped me more than receiving them.MrGrey wrote:turnipmeatloaf wrote:And finding out everything you’re written so far, even from years ago, is bad doesn’t do wonders (“what if you just suck, and will only amount to the Ed Wood of the writing world?” etc.).Would you rather look at everything you’ve written so far, even from years ago, and think it’s perfect? What would it mean if you did? You’d be ‘finished’. Nothing new to learn. Nothing else to expand upon. You’d essentially stagnate, refusing to learn any more because ‘you have it nailed’. Looking at your stuff from the past and saying ‘that was no good’ is great — it means you’re improving!
turnipmeatloaf wrote:Uh, I got a bit ranty there, didn’t I? Sorry. :blush:No problem, shows you have passion.
That’s good to hear, thanks.
I guess it’s just that it’s discouraging seeing all your work throughout the years and not having anything you can be proud of, that reassures you that while you need lots of work you ARE capable, once in a while, even rarely, of producing something worth reading. Even a line.
MrGrey wrote:turnipmeatloaf wrote:You want to be good, but it’s hard drilling discipline into your very non-disciplined self.It will be with that mentality!
Part of improving upon yourself is giving yourself credit when you do. Calling yourself very non-disciplined will only make a good excuse for when you don’t feel like writing. See yourself as someone who is learning discipline — not perfect, but still putting the effort in. Thanks for the tip.
Weird Jim wrote:turnipmeatloaf wrote:Uh, I got a bit ranty there, didn’t I? Sorry. :blush:And the problem with that is….? Readers want you, and possibly your rants as long as they’re not overly introspective.
(Who is this person? What does she think? Who does she think she is? = I’m going to read what she’s written to find out.)
What do many people read? Is it gossip? Sometimes angry gossip.
Ten drafts and you’ve probably killed it dead. Fifteen and it could be murder. You should try reading the Daily Mail. Writing is often awful. It’s one of the top online newspapers.
That’s because I, uh, put my foot in my mouth too often to count.
Oh, I sometimes read the Daily Mail and enjoy it in a so-bad-it’s-good way. :blush: But I DO want to write genuinely good stuff, and…that’s where I come up short.
Linda Adams wrote:Quote:But what if the lots-of-drafts routine has always been like that for you? I very rarely have anything that comes out decent-but-needs-polishing in the first draft, and that’s even for topics I’m enthusiastic about (and I had surprisingly decent first drafts for topics I was indifferent about). Most of the time my first drafts of anything belong to the trash bin – for content and prose. If I’m lucky, they start becoming readable when I start polishing. Little by little, from draft to draft.There’s two different issues here. The first is that since you’re relatively new to writing, you might be line editing instead doing actual revision (a lot of writers do this). Line editing is when you go through the manuscript line by line and change sentences to make them shorter, take out an adverb, that kind of stuff. Revision is when you make major changes. For example, you do a post where you make five points on your subject and then you realize that one of the points doesn’t work. So you have to revise it and either strengthen that point or come up with a new one.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Never knew they were two different things.
Linda Adams wrote:The second issue is the amount of revision. If you’re going to be a freelancer where your primary source of income in writing, ten drafts is probably too many. It means you spend longer fixing a piece when you need to get a new one done for more money to come in. A blog post is going to get you some promotion, but unless you’re someone like Mike Hyatt or Chris Brogan, you’re not getting paid for it. So you want to make sure it’s not cutting into your (potential) paying writing time with many drafts.Oh, I have no delusions I can be someone big in the blogosphere. Just have a blog I can point potential clients to, to show them that this noob can write even without qualifications. Hence me making it harder for myself 😆 , making sure “everything is perfect”, because I don’t have anything else to make up for my lack of qualifications. But yeah, too much is too much.
Linda Adams wrote:Quote:Now here is where I come out with the idiocies. I’m pressured to make publishable-quality blog posts because I was thinking of using my blog as a portfolio for my freelance writing. I have no qualifications whatsoever – no degree, no work on school papers since elementary school, nada. Joining this workshop is the only writing-related thing I’ve done within the past year that I can remember, besides the quiet practicing.Not necessarily. Look at any organizations that you belong to. There may be opportunities sitting in there that are open to you because you are a member. An article for a newsletter or the organization’s magazine. Membership there does carry a bit of extra weight and knowledge. I got about 10 articles published in The Toastmaster that way. Freelancers with only knowledge of the magazine and not the organization often came up with generic articles, but as I member, I knew topics that would interest the audience. A blog is not likely to serve as clips unless you’re getting a lot of comments and drawing attention.
I, uh, don’t belong to any organizations. Better start looking…
Udo wrote:Slightly off tangent.I can’t speak for anyone else, but I cannot write when I am depressed. I have to wait the spell out. It’s not a matter of lack of mood, which typically is missing, it is that I can’t. If I try to force something, I spend most of the time staring at a blank page and then get even more depressed at the lack of progress. That is also when I am most likely to trash out anything I have been working on, certain that nothing I put down is worth reading. (I couldn’t even begin to count the number of stories that have been abandoned and posts/comments not made during these spells.)
Oh. Yeesh. That does suck.
How do these spells of yours end?
Quote:That’s because I, uh, put my foot in my mouth too often to count.Wanna guess why in the eleven or twelve years I’ve been an FM member that I’ve rarely gone into chat? Foot in mouth disease is endemic with writers. I’ve often deleted posts, both here and in other places, but I’m not sure that’s desirable with a blog. Besides, I think there are people who love errors. 😳
Quote:But I DO want to write genuinely good stuff, and…that’s where I come up short.I’m not sure what genuinely good stuff is, and I’m not sure that the writer is the best judge of what’s good and what’s bad. Even so, it’s a matter of progress. You toddle before you walk before you run. As long as the writing is readable and coherent so that people can understand it, it should be passable. Keep learning and you’ll get there. Your initial post was OK.
Quote:I’m not sure what genuinely good stuff is, and I’m not sure that the writer is the best judge of what’s good and what’s bad. Even so, it’s a matter of progress. You toddle before you walk before you run. As long as the writing is readable and coherent so that people can understand it, it should be passable. Keep learning and you’ll get there. Your initial post was OK.So true. I’ve seen some pieces posted for critique that were so bad they were unreadable.
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