Preparation 3: How to Sit Down Part 1 - Will Power

The hardest part of writing, for me, is sitting down. It shouldn't be, I know. I've been practising how to sit for years now. I also seem to do it reasonably well for my day job, I sit there for hours on end (possibly not perfectly as I keep getting headaches, but enough for the general purpose). Yet when it comes to writing, bringing myself to sit down with my laptop is often much more of a struggle than it should be.

So, I'm going to dedicate this post to looking at half of the equation for overcoming this. I thought I would start with the hard half: will power. Simply put, will power is that stuff that makes you do what you think you should when you don't feel like it. Some people appear to have amazing amounts of it and can just make themselves do whatever needs to be done. Other people appear to have none at all. I'm usually somewhere in the middle.

It appears to be a bit like fitness. If you exercise a little bit frequently, you get fitter. If you never do any exercise, anything you try to do appears amazingly hard. Therefore, I don't know about you but I want to be the person that has an ever increasing amount of will power. Maybe one day if I work at it enough I will be able to bend the world to my will, which would be sort of cool. But for now I'd be happy with the ability to just sit down and churn out 10,000 words everyday.

You might also have noticed, however, that even given your general level of will power, it seems to fluctuate greatly. Some days you can float through life saying no to any temptation, while others days it is like you are magnetically drawn to all chocolate. This, my dear friends, means you have stretched, strained, used up, dried up, and nullified your stock of will power. Yes, unfortunately it is a limited resource, and on a daily basis you can suck dry your reservoirs.

So, let us look together at ways to turn off the pumps emptying our dams in order that when we sit down to write there is a cool refreshing spring just waiting to help us. Being a theologian, I've neatly summarised it into a three point sermon. Please forgive me.

The first step is to look at the super powered pumps, those things that can empty a tank in less time than it takes for a Cadbury's ad to make you start drooling. It is the big three, like the four riders of the apocalypse, but without the horses and they appear to have eaten Death: Hunger, Stress and Sleep Deprivation. Didn't your mother ever tell you not to go shopping when you're hungry? How many times have you apologised for snapping at someone just because you were stressed or tired? Nothing kills your will power faster than these three, and so often they happen to strike all at once. To fight back is futile. The only method is pre-emptive attack! Food, sleep, relaxation. If you want will-power, you need to fit these in. (Luckily for me I've got food and sleep covered, and am working on the relaxation.)

The second step is to look at your command centre and see exactly where you are distributing your supplies. What do I mean? Prioritising, baby. You want a body like Miranda Kerr's, to be able to run a marathon, as well as being able to speak French fluently in your spare time to writing? Good luck. Unless you have the will power of Buddhist monks and are prepared to resist all temptation, it's just not going to happen. Time to look at what is sucking up your will power and decide if it is worth it.

I was reading John Maxwell's Talent Is Never Enough, that the secret to success is to work out the cost, and then just decide to pay it (and keep paying it). This is sort of part of that. To have enough will power to make myself sit down and write 10,000 words a day, I'm going to have to choose to not have other things because I can't afford the spare will power (you might also have noticed that the moment you set something as a priority, the desire to do other things even if they were themselves previously a chore is so much stronger).

I'm giving up my chance at Miranda Kerr's body, will be puffed out by walking up the stairs and I won't be turning heads of any hot French guys with my super fluent pick up lines. But I'm sort of fine with that, as long as I get to write. Though, over the next few months you will see how well I stick with that.

The final step is to stop leaks. Those things which suck away at your reservoir which don't really give you any added benefit. To give them their true name: temptations. Will power is used to overcome temptation, so obviously, reduce your temptations = increase the supply of will power. Simples.

When it comes to sitting down to write, there are plenty of temptations. The temptation to watch TV instead. The temptation to go for a walk and come back and do it later, or to have a nap, or to read, or to go do the laundry. The more things you can think of to do, the harder it will be to actually sit down and write. But you can once again take pre-emptive action against these temptations.

I've worked out my top five, and created an attack plan:

1. No TV/Movies on work nights. I've set the rule, and I'm enforcing it by not having a TV and am helped by the fact my sister very kindly accidentally wiped my portable hard drive with all the TV series and movies I wanted to watch (blessing in disguise? Good disguise!).

1. Can eat whatever chocolate I like but only while I type. Yes, possibly a recipe for diabetes, but getting up and getting something to eat etc. is no longer a temptation.

1. I've got a cleaning lady. No more thinking: hmm, maybe I'll just clean the bathroom before I sit down to type. Nupe, Lilly does it for me. She comes once a fortnight for just two hours, but for my little place that's enough.

1. No internet. I only have internet through my phone, so have to physically set it up when I want it, and it appears to turn itself off automatically if I leave it too long, so no emails popping up, etc.

1. Live by myself. I know this is not really something most people can actually choose, but when I get home, I put the chain across my door, and know that for the rest of the evening, I'm not going to have people asking if I want to go to the movies, etc. (Previously I lived as a residential tutor at one of Melbourne Uni's colleges, and was forever being tempted away from my room. Moving out by myself was one of the best things I've done for my writing. Killed my social life, but once again: price to pay.)

And I have to admit, this system works pretty damn well. Especially compared to right now. I'm at my parents, and I know that there are about 5 TV shows I want to watch waiting, and there is also the possibility of just snoozing, or going into town and shopping. My brothers are coming up with great ideas of things we could do, and Mum would really like me to do the washing up now.

I really struggled to sit down and write today's blog. It has been much harder than all the other days at my place. Tis sad, but true. Becoming a hermit is the best way to become a writer.

So, will power secrets for those interested in any sort of success:

1. Stop killing your will power: don't let yourself get hungry, sleep deprived or stressed.

1. Prioritise what you want to spend your will power on to get the maximum effect.

1. Reduce temptation to increase your stores.

Next entry I will look at the flip side of the coin: motivation.

Preparation 2: Creating the Flow.

There is a secret place that some writers go, a place of wonder and of mystery. It is the place of the Flow. As readers we have all experienced this magical place, where we are unconscious of the words, or even turning the page, the bed we lie on or the world around us. Instead, our minds see only what is happening before them in the story.

Imagine if your writing could be like that. Not focusing on which words to choose, or the key strokes you must take. Instead, all you see is your story unfolding before your mind's eye, and you race to record all that is happening. You feel elated by the rush of inspiration flooding through you, and are so close to your characters, desperately wondering what will happen to them, how will they be saved.

This is the writer's paradise, this is the Flow.

In order to be able to write 10,000 words a day, I will need to be able to enter the flow whenever I sit down. It is the difference between writing 1,000 words an hour and 3,000.

I had experienced this type of writing before, but had never fully identified what it was. Then just a few weeks ago I attended a writers' workshop, and if I had learned nothing else but this secret, it would have been worth it (though I ended up learning a lot of other useful stuff, and meeting some really great people). 

The theory is Kate Forsyth's, so I give all credit to her (I feel it is only fair that since I'm stealing her idea, I put in a plug for her work, check out her website). She's an Australian fantasy writer, and I have to admit to my shame I have not read her work, but after hearing her speak I'm eager to because she was amazing. If you ever get the chance to do a workshop with Kate, do it. That's all I can say.

Kate has published around 25 books so far. She writes full time, and she credits a lot of her success to being able to harness the Flow. In her workshop she very kindly shared with us her fool-proof method of entering into the flow (though, I am hoping not to turn out to be 'the better fool'.) I record for you her words of wisdom.

How to Master the Flow:

1. Create the perfect workspace.


2. Do light exercise before you start.


3. Eat something sensible before you start (she has a banana).


4. Define a clear goal and make it difficult (such as 'in this session I'm going to write 5,000 words').


5. Allocate a committed block of time, preferable between 2-4 hours.


6. Unplug your phone, internet, anything that will distract.


7. Some people play music with a slow rhythm to encourage alpha waves (Kate has no music).


8. Approach the work with a sense of anticipation.

And that's it. That is the secret to the Flow.

So I have started to experiment and test this theory. 

Last week I finished work at 6pm, and admittedly felt shocking (bad headache from stress and staring at a screen too much). All the same, I came home and immediately went out to the gym.

Having been a fitness bunny in the past (though the last few months have not reflected that at all), I have come to conclude that for my body, the best way for me to get a runner's high, but not follow it by a crash or chance going to far and exhausting myself, is to stick to cardio heart rate exercise. For me, this means roughly keeping my heart rate between 145-160 bpm, which is reasonably light exercise. I start to sweat and get a bit breathless, but should never be sore or feel pushed. Note that I'm working on heart rate, which might not always equal the same speed on the treadmill if I'm sick or stressed etc. 
 

30 minutes of this followed by a really good stretching session got out all the kinks from the day and made me feel great. I came back and had a simple dinner and put some washing on, then jumped into a nice hot shower. By 8pm I was in bed with my laptop. (you will be able to tell that I live by myself, and understand that most people can't just jump into bed as soon as they get home. But hey, there has to be some advantage to being an old cat lady, minus the cats.) 

I have a giant four poster bed, with lanterns strung across it, which makes a really nice, calm environment. I had a cup of tea, and plenty of chocolate, so was all ready to write. I had no idea what to write, so just started by describing an image I'd had before drifting off to sleep about one of my characters. 
 

After half an hour I had to take out the washing and hang it up, but then jumped back into bed and continued. In just over an hour, I had written 3,000 words, and it was an easy, joyful three thousand.

I was super impressed. So tried to copy it a few nights later.

Did my exercise, didn't feel as great but still not bad. Came back had a shower and then ate dinner in bed before starting to write. I did get through 2,500 words, but it wasn't quite the same. I kept stopping, having minor panic attacks about what I was writing, and fighting the constant urge to get up and watch TV.

Honestly, I'm not 100% sure what the difference was. I think not having dinner in bed, and giving it some time to digest while having a shower might have helped. Also, I didn't really have a goal as Kate suggests. The other thing I didn't really work on was building up anticipation. I wasn't looking forward to my writing, I really just wanted to sleep and get the day over and done with. Am going to cover this more when I look at motivation, and will work on practices which help build the anticipation throughout the day.

Having said all that, 2,500 words is still 2,500 words. I know that for a lot of writers if they did that in a day they would be very happy. And I can't complain that sometimes writing is going to feel like work. I'm accepting that this is a job, a job I love, but still there are always going to be times when I'll want to be doing something else.

I also want to test out the music theory. I've downloaded an app for my phone which supposedly has different settings to create different brainwave patterns through using beats underlying music. I'm not totally convinced at the moment, but am prepared to be scientific about it. Will report back.

As always, if anyone has any suggestions on how to improve writing sessions, all advice gratefully received! 

As to my preparations for the challenge, spent Day 2 of Prep week getting a facial (very important), searching through an opp shop for any books that could be useful to me, or I just wanted (7 books for $25, bargain!), and typing up my routine and schedule. I've planned out the first 12 books which will take me to the week before Christmas.

I'm also currently editing my brother's book, which he's going to be self publishing as an e-book. If you like Matthew Reilly type books, where the action speaks louder than the language, I think you will like it. I'm doing my best to fix up the worst of the clichés, but since that never worried Matthew Reilly readers, probably won't worry Dave's readers either. When I get to the end of the book, will give it a better review. Though in general I'm promoting buying it, as it will keep my brother off the streets, and you never know, I might get a royalty for editing it. I'll let you know if/when he releases it. 

That's all for today.

Buffy.