Anyone who knows me at all will know that I write a lot. Writing at least one novel a year– for NaNoWriMo— is standard for me, and this year I decided to bump it up a notch and write TWO novels, so before November hits this year I am plinking along in Camp NaNoWriMo.
Between odd work schedules, the possibility of moving (again) and the way writers’ block loves to time itself so it hits when I actually have time to write, it’s been slow going. I’m a good five thousand words behind or so– not a thoroughly insurmountable gap, but still a sizable one. Anyways, I was really having a lot of trouble motivating myself to do anything, but then I hit upon a brilliant plan. Basically, I’d force myself to write a good sized paragraph (or the equivalent of it, should I be writing dialogue or something), and then I’d reward myself with ten turns of Civ.
…I was not expecting this plan to work as well as it did.
I think I’ve written more in my current book since implementing this plan than before I did, and I just started doing this a few days ago. I’m knocking out a thousand words an hour– a very high rate for me– and that includes spending a good chunk of time in game.
The best part is that once I really get going with writing, I don’t have much trouble continuing. This is something I learned back in the day when I used to trick myself into writing by setting a “one sentence a day” goal, knowing full well I’d write more than a sentence. The same thing is happening here; I’m frequently writing two or three paragraphs in between my ten turns of Civ. But the one rule remains steadfast: I must write at least one paragraph before I let myself play more Civ. You wouldn’t believe how fast the writer’s block dissolves when I’ve got Civ an alt+tab away.
I feel really good about this. What’s that you say, world? Video games are a waste of time and are keeping us from being more productive?
Come back and talk to me about it after video games help me motivate myself into writing a novel.
Well, I’m off to do more writing and Civ’ing. I eventually plan to extend this to other turn-based games as well, should I tire of Civ. I’m excited. I can’t wait to SMAC and write.
Actually a surprisingly large number of people believe games will become part of everyday life in the future, and help productivity etcetera etcetera, I’m sure you’ve been linked the seminars discussing it.
Good to hear this.
Have fun and write more.
As I see it, we all have our own personal average level of productivity per hour (or day, or week, etc), and that there isn’t much we can do to vary it. Personally, I’ll typically get as much done in a varied hour of work, break, distraction, etc. as I would if I were simply banging my head against the work for an hour. I’d rather burn through my productivity focus quickly then recover, instead of letting my productivity simmer over a longer period of time.
Good to hear it’s helping! Hey ya gonna publish anything lol? Polish it up and throw it on Kindle. Do some online adverts on Redwall fan sites/FF.net and you’ll make a million overnight.
The question is, will the awesome SMAC quotes inspire your writing more lol?
(Speaking of which, how do you guys feel about FF.net? Some people love it, some people think it’s “the world’s biggest repository of crappy fanfiction”. I personally think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread for writing, almost like Deviantart for writers, but some disagree.
Yea?
Nay?
Indifference?
It’s not exactly video game related, but lots of video game related fanfic gets posted there, so it kinda ties in lol.)