Is your work-in-progress turning into a project-in
-futility? Just like our bodies become accustomed
to routine exercise, so can our minds. I find
as I write that I hit spurts and lulls, and, depending
on the demands of my day job, waffle between zero
to extreme productivity. My tight schedule overwhelmed
me until I remembered an acronym drilled into
my head during my undergraduate Kinesiology days
– FITT.
The principles behind shaking up my metabolism
could just as easily shake up my brain. Changing
the frequency, intensity, time, and/or type of
writing sessions could be the difference between
work-in-progress and work-in-print.
F: Frequency – Just as
increasing the frequency of your workouts can
bring results, so can increasing the frequency
of your writing blocks. Having trouble getting
a manuscript completed? Normally write for an
hour three times a week? Add one more hour-long
session, and you’ve increased your writing
time by 33%. Thirty-three percent more manuscript
pages would definitely get you to your goal faster.
Of course, not everyone has extra time to commit
to writing. If you’re struggling to commit
enough time to writing already, you may find increasing
your intensity works.
I: Intensity – If you’re
anything like me, a typical one- to three-hour
long session of writing involves phone calls,
e-mail, research, and family interruptions. Remove
all the distractions and write, write, write for
as many minutes as you can manage. Also, if you
have multiple WIPs in progress, give yourself
permission to put all but one in a drawer, and
work more intensely on one project.
Then there are those of us who do write frequently,
and intensely. Perhaps for you, the following
change would be better.
T: Time – you need to
keep your butt in your chair for longer periods
of time to give your words time to percolate and
appear. It doesn’t have to be forever. Just
keep track of how long it usually takes you to
get on a roll, how long you are able to keep on
that roll, and make sure you allot yourself that
amount of time to write. Finally, if you can’t
spare any more time, your brain is already bursting
from focusing, and you’re still hit with
a plateau, consider taking a few hours to write
something completely different.
T: Type – Just as delving
into a new genre as a reader can stimulate our
creativity, so can trying a new genre as a writer.
Struggling with fiction? Try a travel writing
piece about your family trip to Disneyland. Stifled
with non-fiction? Give poetry a shot. Uninspired
by suspense? Give children’s lit a try.
Not forever (though you may discover a gift you
never knew you had) but just long enough to lift
the brick currently pinning your muse down.
Finally, combining parts of FITT can work too.
You may find that in increasing the time spent
per writing session you get more accomplished
and can actually decrease the frequency of your
sessions. Whatever it takes to get you up the
hill. If you’re finding yourself on the
same plateau as I am, welcome, but let’s
not enjoy the view. I’ll race you to the
top.
References: The FITT Principle
(exercise-centred) can be found at www.actnowbc.ca/EN/everyone/physical_activity_guidelines:_f.i.t.t./.
A member of RWA-GVC, when Merilee Larson isn't
juggling writing contemporary category romance
and her day job, she's busy with her family or
with bending herself into a Bikram Yoga pretzel.
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