This may be more like it. It's Jay Lake's "one story a week" rules. In short:
1) Write a story every week.
2) Finish everything you start.
3) Don't self-critique while you're writing.
4) Work on one thing at a time.
The only thing that may not work for me is "Work on one story at a time." I like to punish stories that aren't working by making them stand in the corner while I work on another one. On the other hand, he probably does have a point about slogging through them making you a better writer. Hmm.
I already follow his shadow rule: Keep stories in the mail. I'm firmly against letting them hang around the house drinking all my beer. I try to turn them around in 24 hours or less.
Posted by Katherine Mankiller at October 15, 2005 9:03 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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"3) Don't self-critique while you're writing."
Oh, that's a toughie! (For me at least)
Michelle
Posted by: Michelle, October 16, 2005 2:04 PM
Oh, me too. I usually start the day's writing with a bit of editing what went before, to get my head back into the story.
Posted by: Katherine Mankiller, October 16, 2005 2:07 PM