Play Dates With Story

Once again, I spent so long leaving a comment on another site that I ran out of time to finish the post I had in mind for my own blog. But, I like what I wrote in that comment better anyway and thought I would share it here and use the opportunity to send you over to Write Stuff again and to introduce you to another talented writer and her blog.

Divine is a regular poster on Write Stuff where I have guest posted a few times and she has her own blog called Divine Calm where she showcases her writing and her photography. In her post ‘Blanked Out’ on Write Stuff today, she talks about adjusting to a new job that involves writing and being frustrated to find herself lacking the energy to work on her personal writing goals. She asks: How do I recharge and write when I don’t feel like it because I have been doing it all day at work?

This is the part of my comment I feel is worth sharing here:

Treat it like play. Fiction writing is 90% dreaming of the story. I'm not
belittling that 10% elbow grease that gets the words onto paper or any other
sharable format but true progress isn't measured only by word count.

So my advice is to have a play date with your story. Go on adventures with its
characters, becoming intimate with them like best friends or enemies. Go into
the dream of your story as you would into a novel or movie. Do that regularly
enough and the very thought of joining them will energize you and you will begin
to anticipate rather than dread the writing sessions.