Writing is Like Shining Shoes

 As weird as it may seem, the other day it occurred to me that writing is a lot like shining shoes. You have your shoes, the polish, and brushes and rags. 

Think of your idea as a pair of shoes that you have to shine up. Whether it’s a brand new idea or one you’ve hidden in a drawer or old file somewhere, it’s sitting waiting for you to take it out. 

So you take it out and look it over. Like a good comfortable pair of shoes, you’re not ready to get rid of it, but it could use some polishing up. So you break out the polish and get to work on every inch. Once you think you’ve put enough on it, you break out the brush or rag and begin working hard to make it shine. 

Once it shines, you look it over and touch it up. When you’re satisfied with the touch-up, you look it over then decide if you’re finished. 

If you’re not satisfied, then you do the whole thing over or touch it up until you’re ready to show the world. 

Let Your Story Take Control but Not Take Over

 When I started writing my science fiction book, I began with a mental image of a story I had been incubating in my mind for a few years. Now that I’ve actually begun to write it, I’m seeing it take on a life of its own. 

As I write, I see things I didn’t see before. As I flesh out my characters, I hear them tell me who they are. As the story unfolds, I see the reasons for why things are happening and how those things are affecting the evolutionary development of my characters. 

The book has taken on a life of its own and is dictating to me how it wants to be told. What I find hard is listening to how it wants to be told or how I want it to be told. At the moment, the ending I envisioned doesn’t look like it’s headed in the direction I planned. 

I asked my fellow writers on Twitter recently whether they let the creative process dictate a different ending from the one they had planned. Everyone who responded said they did. 

My dilemma? I’m afraid that if I do that, particularly with the way the story is going, I’ll end up with a bloated storyline. I don’t want my story to end up taking control to the point where I don’t recognize it anymore and it stops making sense or is no longer entertaining for my readers. 

So I am currently in the process of negotiating with my own story trying to seek a workable compromise. Right now, my story has the upper hand in the negotiation process. 

Finding the Right Time for Write Time

 One thing I found hard to do was finding a right time for writing my book. Between working a full-time job and managing personal duties like home maintenance, doctors visits, and family time, finding the time to write was taking up time. 

Sometimes I’ll be at work when I’m inspired by a “brilliant” idea. Unfortunately, I don’t always have the luxury of stopping what I’m doing to write down my magnificent prose. And sometimes in the evenings, I’m so tired that I can’t keep my eyes open long enough or my thought process clear enough to focus on writing before I fall asleep.

Then, of course, there’s the quality TV time I spend with my wife. Can’t let anything interfere with that. And then there are my cats who insist on coming between me and my computer screen. So I’ve begun to do a few things depending on the situation.

I’m using the voice recording feature on my smartphone to dictate quick ideas that I can work on later. I’m using a text editor on my phone so I can jot down notes or clever quotes I know I won’t remember  later. And I’ve set aside time each evening to devote to writing. The best part is I can do it in bed. 

I’ve picked a time convenient for me to get the creative juices flowing before I’m sandbagged by the sandman. 

It seems to be working. I’m getting more writing done an hour before bedtime than I do all day. 

Whatever You Write, Make Sure You Back It Up and Not Make the Mistake I Made

 I had a problem this week with saving my work in progress. I lost three chapters. 

I’ve been working with Microsoft OneNote to write my book on my smartphone. This week I discovered just how problematic that can be when I tried to highlight text in my document to edit. 

What I ended up doing was inadvertently deleting three entire chapters and I couldn’t get them back because the latest edit was saved and I couldn’t figure out how to retrieve it from my phone  

I ended up having to recreate the chapters. I’m glad it was just three chapters and not the entire document.

I discovered that just because my edits are made in the cloud, doesn’t mean they’re safety backed up. Since the app interface is different on my phone than it is on my computer, I didn’t have the ability to retrieve my previously saved version. Then I became concerned that if I continued to make edits on my phone, I’d lose my entire document because of another blunder and end up back at square one. 

So I used my ridiculously slow laptop to get the functionality I wanted and made a copy of the full document. 

I’m still composing my work on my smartphone, but now, I’m highlighting and copying only my new edits and pasting them to the backup copy one chapter at a time.

I’m still working in the cloud, but I’m doing it more prudently.