Writer friends! If you're having a tough time focusing on your novel right now, try doing some writing off-draft, in a separate document. Here are three Small Assignments you can try to keep working, even when it's hard to focus: 1/4
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The best advice I’ve heard that works for everything is “Just do something.” That small something usually breaks the paralysis and leads to a shocking amount of productivity. Worked great for our game design and cleaning my room.
I do this stuff all the time but "How can you make it worse" has never occurred to me before, that's really good lol. The most bitter tragedy is always self inflicted
Small Assignment #1 to keep writing when it’s tough to focus: Set a 20-minute timer & write about your character’s bedroom. What’s on the walls? In the dresser? On the bed? On the nightstand? What’s shoved under the bed? On the high shelf in the closet? You can learn secrets about your MC this way.
Small Assignment #2 to keep writing when it’s tough to focus: Set a 5-minute timer & brainstorm all the ways your MC might be able to make their own situation worse. (Conflict is elevated when your MC has contributed to their own problems, rather than having them caused only by outside forces.)
Small Assignment #3 to keep writing when it’s tough to focus: Choose a scene & go back to see what vivid sensory language you can add. Set a timer for 2 minutes, and read through, looking for places you might add sounds. Then do the same for smell, touch. Add the most specific details to your draft.
One last thing! At the end of your writing session, finish this sentence:
Tomorrow, when I sit down to write, I will…
Give yourself One Small Job. Make it bite-sized and specific. When you feel unfocused tomorrow, that One Small Job will serve as your invitation to sit down with the work again.
I’m not working on a novel, but when I write for my newsletter or newspaper these assignments will definitely be of help. I struggle at times when working on my stories or articles. Thank you!
Ooh, these are great ideas. I’ve definitely felt super out of focus since the election, so I’m gonna dive into a few of these and see what comes up. Thanks for sharing! 🖤
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These assignments are great, will definitely try them. Thank you!
Assignment 2 in particular got me thinking. 🤓
Write three paragraphs about a character discovering something unexpected.
Write three paragraphs about something that caused a character intense emotions.
Then continue each story.
Tomorrow, when I sit down to write, I will…
Give yourself One Small Job. Make it bite-sized and specific. When you feel unfocused tomorrow, that One Small Job will serve as your invitation to sit down with the work again.
but its mostly 🤬🤬🤬🤯🤬
my therapist says i’m getting through it 😕