Phoenix Living

Once again my friends page brings me inspiration for today’s post. A friend doing their first NaNoWriMo just discovered on their very own a Very Important “Writer Rule” (where we understand “rule” in this case to mean “really good suggestion”):

Never stop at a logical stopping place in your writing.

That means avoid stopping your writing sessions at the end of a scene, chapter, etc, wherever possible. Even if you only write one sentence of the next scene before you stop for the day, do that. Even if that sentence is crap and you ritually delete it and rewrite it at the start of the next session, do it anyway. Psychologically, for many many writers, it is ever so much easier to pick up the story threads if you left off “in medias res” in your writing. If you stop at the end of a scene or chapter, it seems as if there is a much higher chance of a “block” or more difficulty in continuing the story.

I think that so far this has certainly been true of most of my work. While sometimes a break is necessary to reassess something in the story, when I’m trying to get a certain amount done or setting myself a writing goal, it’s much easier to give myself that teaser line to jump off from in my next writing session, and it’s easier to get started each session if I have an obvious starting point rather than a blank page.

So hats off to my friend for being a Smart Writer and paying attention to the lessons they’re getting along the way, AND for figuring out the clever and obvious solution to this issue (write a bit of the next part before you stop).

Are there analogies to this method in other art forms? Has anyone else found a stumbling point that they’d like to see discussed?