Writers: How to Accomplish More by Writing Less
By: August Birch
Tags: Writing Tips, Productivity, Creativity, Fiction, Writing

The struggle is real

So, why did I think this was a good idea to struggle twice as much, or ten times more?

Our conscious mind can only process one project at a time, nothing more. There’s no such thing as multitasking — only dilution of our efforts. Writing multiple books at once might feel productive and faster, but the net effect was horribly slow. Three years slow.

The process of writing brings a flood of creativity along with it. Whether you write fiction of non-fiction, the world looks different while you’re in writing mode. You pay attention to little details more. You look at language differently and everything around you is fair-game for a story.

The problem: the universe will try and conspire against you with everything she has.

Most people who start books don’t finish them. These are called drawer novels, because they sit in a proverbial drawer (digital or physical) somewhere. Of the people who do finish novels, most of those first books will be terrible (and should stay in the drawer). This is OK. The bad, first book is part of the process. We’ve got to get it out of our bodies, like the flu.

So, it makes sense when a new idea comes to you, and you feel it’s brilliant, that you’d wan’t to act on it immediately. I mean, if we’ve got to write a terrible first book, why not write the bad book and the next book simultaneously?

Don’t. It’s a terrible idea. This was my thinking and it took me ten times longer to finish my first book.

I wish I’d listened to Stephen King earlier. King takes the extreme stance that writers’ notebooks are the worst idea ever — that the best ideas will rise to the stop and stick in your mind. The ideas you can’t let shake are the ones you should write. The ideas you forget were forgettable.

I don’t fully agree with King, but I understand his intention. When I started writing I thought I had all these amazing ideas. I’d write them in giant notebooks and spent more time generating new ideas than I did on the writing itself. I’d get ideas for novel after novel and I’d start each book.

When I got to the point where I had to pick a story I couldn’t choose just one. They all sounded so good. I figured I could peck-away at a couple novels simultaneously. How hard could it be?

Two books became three.

Three became four.

Then, I added unfinished short stories to the never-ending conveyor belt of non-productivity. The ideas would come in. I’d stop what I was writing and pick up the new project. I thought I was a genius and wondered why other authors didn’t write this way… I’d get so many more books done at once!

The process was brutal and unfulfilling. I’d lose track of storylines and put details in one book that belonged elsewhere. I thought I was working smart. I was a lunatic. Being new to fiction writing the process was so exciting I didn’t recognize the madness. It’s embarrassing to type this now.

I hope you won’t follow in my footsteps.

I wrote seven manuscripts in a year and none were salvageable, due to this writing process. I had to send myself to personal writing rehab and completely re-think my process. If I had continued with my treadmill writing I never would’ve finished a single project.