Recognizing the difference between working and "working"

I’ve been stuck for some time on a particular plot point in Book 2. Normally when I’m stuck for too long, I step back and work on a different part of the story. Or tackle some research, or edit, or go through my notes for inspiration. Or I step away entirely for awhile, lest I make the block worse by forcing it.

All of these are part of the process of writing. When I say I spend at least two hours every day writing, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m actually putting words down on electronic paper for two hours. (Although I surely do love the days when that’s what i’m doing!) It may mean the business of writing, or even just spending some good quality time thinking about the story, dedicating some mental energy to this character or that story arc. Writing is work like any other, where you spend time doing things that aren’t actually the task itself, but are necessary to complete the task.

It can be a fine line between the business of writing and procrastination, however, and not easy to recognize when it’s happening. Getting sidetracked on the internet is an obvious clue, of course, but other things, like starting a story wiki (OMG MY NEW FAVORITE THING) or learning about ancient pole weapons for your new character (who you already decided an hour ago wields a naginata, but then got sidetracked by all the exciting varieties of deadly blades attached to long sticks) blur the line between “necessary to continuing work” and “avoidance”.

Still, I think I can safely say the 30 minutes I just spent building a series of flow charts in Excel for the aforementioned plot point that prompted this post falls in the “necessary to continuing work” category. As I struggled yet again with that damn chapter a little while ago, I realized I was just too fuzzy about how everything fit together and I needed to see it. A bunch of circles and arrows later, and I feel like I’ve finally got the thing sorted and am ready to tackle the chapter again.

Of course, the additional 10 minutes I spent prettying up the flow charts with 3-D shading effects and color-coordinated text probably wasn’t entirely necessary….