Starting Back Up

Yeah…eventually it’s going to happen. You’re rolling along and rocking out your story when WHAM, you’re hit with life.

The kids get sick, you get sick, your day job demands overtime. It happens.

Then after a week or so you’re kids get healthy, you get better, your workload lightens back up.

Now what?

You’re staring blankly at your work that just a week before you were pouring your brain into with a realization you’re lost and not sure where to start.

This is what I faced last night. So, I took the time to really think about this, so I could document it here for future use.

My first instinct was to just start from the beginning of the manuscript to “get back in the flow”. So I started reading. After 3 chapters, I felt further behind then before. I stopped to reconsider my approach.

This is what got me started back up…maybe it’ll work for you.

Goal: To zone in from big picture to a manageable “bite”.

1. Scanned the storyboard for that chapter
2. Reviewed last 5 paragraphs written (ignoring editing mistake, which is ripe with distraction potential)
3. Mentally checked off accomplished bullets from the storyboard
4. Then, integrating earlier advice from a commenter here, I started the next big scene in the chapter (worry about transition paragraph later, after the flow has opened back up)

Whoa-la! My creativity is flowing and my story is moving along.

Tags: focus, progress, writing