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A few people have asked me how to do this in the comments, so: a thread!
(Disclaimer that no writing process advice works identically for everyone.)
Producing large quantities of words in a session AT ALL was never my problem. Doing so ON COMMAND was what I needed to learn.
It sounds obnoxious, but the best way to not flounder when you sit down, or to not avoid writing because you don't know what to do, is to... know what to do. And WANT to do it. 🤷♀️
So the short answer is: I learned how to write Very Extensive outlines.
(Wait, don't panic yet!)
To make writing easier, you have to understand first what your barriers are.
I trained myself writing weekly serial novels. I HAD to be able to produce a chapter every week to keep up, and I could only budget one day each week for the long writing session that works best for me.
For the serial, I was only writing a few chapters ahead of when I posted. I couldn't decide I had the story wrong and go back and change it--it had to basically work from the first.
Tailor your process solution to the problem you actually need to solve. Mine required outlines.
That said, I am by nature both a binge writer and a discovery writer. Neither is ideal for consistency!
I cannot write every day, and there will always be parts of the story I HAVE to figure out when I get there.
HOWEVER, I have learned which parts will cause me to bog down.
(Disclaimer that no writing process advice works identically for everyone.)
Producing large quantities of words in a session AT ALL was never my problem. Doing so ON COMMAND was what I needed to learn.
a cool thing about training myself to reliably write 4k in a single day is that now that i have more limited brain capacity, writing 2k in a day is still pretty doable.
— Casey Blair is mostly not here right now (@CaseyLBlair) January 17, 2021
which isn't too shabby of a clip in any case! still gets the books written, which is ultimately what matters.
It sounds obnoxious, but the best way to not flounder when you sit down, or to not avoid writing because you don't know what to do, is to... know what to do. And WANT to do it. 🤷♀️
So the short answer is: I learned how to write Very Extensive outlines.
(Wait, don't panic yet!)
To make writing easier, you have to understand first what your barriers are.
I trained myself writing weekly serial novels. I HAD to be able to produce a chapter every week to keep up, and I could only budget one day each week for the long writing session that works best for me.
For the serial, I was only writing a few chapters ahead of when I posted. I couldn't decide I had the story wrong and go back and change it--it had to basically work from the first.
Tailor your process solution to the problem you actually need to solve. Mine required outlines.
That said, I am by nature both a binge writer and a discovery writer. Neither is ideal for consistency!
I cannot write every day, and there will always be parts of the story I HAVE to figure out when I get there.
HOWEVER, I have learned which parts will cause me to bog down.