1. Unexpected bonus
If your writing is quite crap to begin with, editing is even more fun, because it's really easy to make tangible improvements in the editing process.
2. Plateau
The first chapter is way easier than the second, because you have all your cards in your hand. It's easier to create suspense and arouse curiosity. Continuing is harder, so it's just good to know that in advance so it doesn't feel like a drag when it comes to it.
3. Ship's log
Keeping a little graph notching up your hours (just like notching up your word count in Novel-writing November) really helps.
4. Jigsaw-pieces of time
Two half-hours make an hour. So grab really small bits of time in the knowledge that, like budgeting, it all adds up. Put your headphones on, take a deep breath, and go underwater
5. Continuity
Don't leave more than two days without doing any, or you'll waste a whole session just rereading back up to where you've got to. Do it every day, and you'll not forget where you are and what you were part-way through.
5 & 1/2. Zoom in, zoom out
Having said that, if you do have a couple of days off, your technical eye sharpens considerably. You can suddenly see clearly that a character is too negative, or that you need to string along a mystery better, or plant the seeds of an upcoming storyline.
If your writing is quite crap to begin with, editing is even more fun, because it's really easy to make tangible improvements in the editing process.
2. Plateau
The first chapter is way easier than the second, because you have all your cards in your hand. It's easier to create suspense and arouse curiosity. Continuing is harder, so it's just good to know that in advance so it doesn't feel like a drag when it comes to it.
3. Ship's log
Keeping a little graph notching up your hours (just like notching up your word count in Novel-writing November) really helps.
4. Jigsaw-pieces of time
Two half-hours make an hour. So grab really small bits of time in the knowledge that, like budgeting, it all adds up. Put your headphones on, take a deep breath, and go underwater
5. Continuity
Don't leave more than two days without doing any, or you'll waste a whole session just rereading back up to where you've got to. Do it every day, and you'll not forget where you are and what you were part-way through.
5 & 1/2. Zoom in, zoom out
Having said that, if you do have a couple of days off, your technical eye sharpens considerably. You can suddenly see clearly that a character is too negative, or that you need to string along a mystery better, or plant the seeds of an upcoming storyline.