Kootenai River in NW Montana, near Canadian Border

Kootenai River in NW Montana, near Canadian Border
photo by Gene Tunick of Eureka, Montana

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Tip O'Day for Writers #68

Guest blogger Toby Tate says “Don’t let time steal your muse.”

Letting too much time pass between writing chapters in your book, scenes in your story, or paragraphs in your magazine article can put a serious damper on your enthusiasm. Trust me, I speak from experience. I have taken long breaks from stories only to come back later and have no motivation to finish what I started.

Taking breaks is good in short doses. A couple of days to think about plotlines or character development can be a positive thing because it allows you to rework parts of your prose that may not be panning out. On the other hand, getting lazy and just saying, "I don't feel like racking my brain anymore" can be detrimental to the whole creative process by putting too much time between you and your story.

No one said writing was easy, but you have to follow through until you finally type "the end." That's when it's time to put down the book or the story and give yourself a breather, then you can go back and look at it with fresh eyes.

Toby Tate is a freelance writer and the author of DIABLERO and SHADOWLAND.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the opportunity to be on your blog site, Dixon, I appreciate it!

    ReplyDelete