when you begin to write how do you keep it flowing especially the next day?? I am going to church soon and then I'm going to wrap up the evening cause I gotta go to work tommorrow morning. I got the basics down and kept the story going but I am afraid that tommorrow I will screw it all up by editing and rewriting it. How do I keep it together tommorrow when I lost the momentum?? I spent three hours of this day putting the down on paper this and I am afraid that it was all a waste if I start editing it and rewriting it.
I read that some writers often stop writing mid sentence so that when they start writing again they are able to pick it up mid thought and keep the flow going rather than have to start a new train of thought.
The worst thing you can do during a first draft is to edit. to do so stifles the imagination and restricts the flow. The key to free flowing writing and being able to write effortlessly is not in plotting but in develping character. You should not be writing only when you are sat in front of your pc but when you are in the bath, standing in the shop queue, wating for the kettle to boil... Alway spend time with your characters. And in every situation consider how they will respond to what you are experiencing. Free write. Write whatver comes to you according to a defined game plan. Don't get hung up on doing it write the first time...this is why there are first drafts..second drafts ...third etc. It's about refining and trimming little by little over time.
I've heard the advice DvnMrtn cites, and I think that has interesting possibilities. I certainly agree that there is no writing that's a "waste," assuming what you've written has stimulated your imagination or enhanced your writerly approach. I know many writers also follow Coldu's advice never to edit and rewrite until the story's all on paper. I expect that works really well for plot-driven stories, so that the writer can approach the rewrite with some confidence that his storyline is complete (and so can pay more attention to character development and other details). I do edit and rewrite as I go, because doing so gives me new ideas that help with other things including storyline (my characters almost always drive my stories and not vice versa). But I've also had success with previously unfinished stories by starting over with a random story element that simply comes to mind when I sit down to write. Nothing wrong with trying something (anything, really) that works for another writer. But what works for you will probably depend upon what and how you write best, which is likely to be unique to you alone. I do think it's important to discover somehow that you can rely upon your own imagination to give rise to something new--even if the story you started yesterday no longer carries the same draw it did when you began it--or even if the story's been entirely lost. My theory is whatever happened yesterday builds who you are today--including what you wrote and did or did not finish. When a fiction writer creates a story, I think it's who he is at the moment that he does so, which gives his story its distinctly fresh and energetic quality. If that quality captures your notice (your own reader's imagination) when you pick up where you left off, then go with it; if not, then fiddle with it till it does.
(Write whatver comes to you according to a defined game plan. Don't get hung up on doing it write the first time...this is why there are first drafts..second drafts ...third etc. It's about refining and trimming little by little over time.) Thank you for the advice...I needed to know that. I did not know that I was always trying to rewrite the draft. I could not finish whatever I had started and it used to frustrate me so so I gave up or forgot about it. I must'a started at least 7-10 stories and didn't finish them.
There's much truth in the idea of not editing until the draft is done, but it's not how I work usually. I do separate the writing (the flow) and the editing (corrections), but often I'll write in the morning and then do any necessary fixes and editing later in the afternoon. Otherwise there's a good chance that each day's writing is building on a broken foundation. I might not worry about typos and surface things, but I will probably pay attention to the deeper story-related things and make sure I haven't screwed that up. In other words, don't let perfectionism get in, just fix the important stuff. No need to check spelling etc until later. You just kinda have to be intuitive about what constitutes important fixes. Often after writing the day's stuff you can see a better way to approach it, or you realize that you painted yourself into a corner. Don't let that stuff sit, change it. It's like a constant ongoing re-evaluation of how it's working, with little fixes where needed. It allows the idea to grow organically, but prevents some of the major problems you can run into with 'don't edit until the final draft'.
