Motivation: Get the right mind-set; dive, but not too deep.

I had it easy in a way when I wrote Remember When. I had something happen that triggered a cascade of motivations to tell that story, and it was one that altered my entire mind-set for a period of time. I had an overarching concept, a character story to tell, and lots of pieces of the story that inspired parts of the fiction to draw upon...

... and then I went into a near Fugue-state for twenty hours.

I surfaced only long enough to deal with human needs in my life, then went back in with a bit more of a conscious plan about what was needed to finish it. About three days total, 16k words told the novella-length story in a really rough first draft.

"Easy", lucky in a way, but also impractical.

Certainly not practical for a larger work. Which is what I'm working on now.

Keys to what I'm doing now:

Planning and writing to plan. Adjusting the plan to story needs as they become apparent.

Do something every day. A paragraph. Frame what will be needed in a later chapter. Something.

Settle my own damn hash. If there are issues, deal with them. I've had some recently, personal. Made them a priority. Had great help, support and in the case that mattered most, acceptance of me.

Know the mind-set. This might be "find your Muse" or "think like a writer" for you. For me, it's all about remembering how I thought then, or there, or in some place and time that's source material for the fiction.

Trigger that mind-set. For me, that's music, or a picture, or a little piece of something physical. For you it might be anything if you are writing about experiences of your own or witnessed... or some key cultural element of the fiction you are imagining. But it has to be something that "gets you there".

Dive. Big caveat here; don't dive too deep. You probably don't have three days to blackout from your real life obligations, and it's not healthy to do even if you could. I'm considering actually limiting blocks of time for mini-dives of two or three hours, as those seem to be manageable so far.

Just get the words down. Dives are all about streaming out the story that is inside you. Re-read later for continuity and to catch dumb mistakes that would make your Editor scream at you. During Dive Time, it's all about words.

And with that, see you on Sunday. I have two slots of time to dive into the new novel these next few days and I intend to use them.