I am working on my first book......

[NRaleighLiberal]

No formal contract - verbal offer to submit the proposal to Rodale. Going to be non-fiction, on the world wide, all volunteer tomato breeding project I've co led for the past 5 years.

I've got about 20K words down already, but am finding it tough in terms of discipline....

So I may have lots of questions for anyone here who has been through this, or is going through it. Glad to have found this group!

[Pab Sungenis]

1. The real secret?

Give yourself permission to write a shitty first draft. The main goal of the first draft is simply to get everything in your brain on paper; it doesn't have to be perfect.

Then take a week off, rest, and only then go back read what you wrote, then start polishing, rewriting, and revising.

And realize it's going to take a long time. My first novel (see the link in my sig) took six years from first draft through the seven drafts it took before it was ready to go to print.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Thanks for the advice.....

I tend to be a perfectionist, so that is something I am going to have to allow myself....

But it has a great niche (really no other project like it!), involved lots of great people, ended up as a success - just gotta make it something people will want to read!

[Chan790]

3. Create a time and space to write in your routine and stick with it.

It's advice from Stephen King's On Writing which is this really great book about writing, specifically the process of writing...not what goes on the page (there is admittedly some of that) but how he gets into the mindset to write, how he finds his writing space, a funny anecdote about how he bought this big honking desk and the fancy-assed chair to stick in an office only to find he was creatively-stunted by it (he ends up sitting in the corner instead.), how he tackles writer's block. It ends with him explaining how his need to write saved his life after the hit-and-run accident.

I highly recommend it. It's one of those books that if you can't find in the library, you can almost certainly find at your local used-bookstore for around $1 in hardcover, I've worn-out 3 of them already. Given away two more.

But back to what I was saying. Find a place you're comfortable to write. Set aside the time for it daily, tune out the distractions, stick to your schedule. Even if you feel blocked or like you can't write, move on to something else, just write...a page that read "I can't write, I have nothing to write about, I'm so blocked,..." was the genesis of The Shining supposedly.

Mine:
Every morning from 8-11, I sit on my exercise ball in front of my crappy old desk and write. Notes, brainstorming, outlines or research by-hand, prose on the computer. Rain, snow, Armageddon, the promise of sex if I just come back to bed, medical emergency...I'm there or I'm writing where I am. I have a simple mantra handwritten on a piece of paper stuck to the ceiling over the bed for when I don't want to get up to write. It reads "A writer writes." Not "writes well." or "writes commercially-successfully." just "writes." As long as I get up and write, I feel justified in telling people I'm a writer. When I finish something, I take a vacation. I allow myself a few days off...and most of the time, I end up writing because I feel clogged-up and tense if I don't.

I'm not really a fan of King's work, but as a potential writing instructor/guru he's a lot less bullshit than some people working in that field.

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. thanks so much. We actually listened to it on CD. Loved it.

I think as a basically undisciplined person, the challenge is the discipline! got a zillion hobbies, but also some upheaval in our life. also need to align it with my most productive time of the day (usually AM, just after coffee).

I am going to enjoy this group!

[HopeHoops]

5. Ballpark minimum is 50K words. The trick is to keep a steno pad by the bed with a good pen.

When you wake up at 3 in the morning thinking - "Oh, shit, I HAVE to include THAT!" - scribble it down and it will be illegible by morning. But you might find enough you can decipher to recall the original thought.

I keep a mini (5.4" screen) by the bed and a steno pad. It really helps. I do most of the editing on the mini. It doesn't weigh much (SSD, no hard drive) and it is "on" as soon as I open the lid. My 17" laptop weighs about 150 lbs (seems like it) and isn't a good option for bed work.