All About Lockdown

When I was a professional online poker player, it was popular for players who weren’t meeting their monetary goals to go on “lockdown” for a few weeks. Basically, you turned off your phone, boycotted Facebook and played. You might take poker-related breaks every once in awhile, but as a whole, you existed to play poker and for no other reason... When I went on lockdown, as I often did, I found it helped to re-focus my game. When I lived poker, I cared more than the people I played with. I analyzed the game deeper than they did, and most importantly, I won more. So, when I started writing, I took a lot of those concepts with me.

If I got bogged down by writer’s block, there were a lot of things I could try to help get me on track. I found that switching from a computer to a typewriter or another medium for a while helped a lot. I also found that buying a beautiful new pen really helped me because I was always excited to test it out… But occasionally, when all else failed, I would go on lockdown. When on lockdown, I either planned what I was going to write, wrote, or read/watched things about writing. The results were incredible. I didn’t only write more, I wrote better.

In my blog posts and interviews, I’ve often talked about how I managed to write Tiny Instruments in 7 months: about how I locked the door, rarely went outside and even more rarely communicated with other lifeforms… In effect,  I was on a prolonged lockdown. It worked wonders for me, but I can’t recommend this for everyone. I realize that most people like to have some semblance of a social life (and even more so, that others have responsibilities to their families that make it hard to ignore everyone for a large portion of every day). There are a few ways around this. Also, you might find that you simply don’t have the time to go on lockdown. There are ways around this as well.

So, Where Can I Go?

Writing Retreat

In the way of short family-approved vacations, writing retreats are often quite nice. By design, they are typically quite secluded. Even better, you often have a lot of people, both from and outside of the retreat, constantly asking how your writing is going… It certainly gives you all the motivation you need to keep up your writing! The downsides here are obvious: if you function poorly under pressure, going to a place where the staff that cleans your room knows exactly why you’re there may not be the best idea. The second downside is that writer’s retreats are typically anywhere from a week to two weeks. They do occasionally go to three, but chances are there aren’t any of that length where you live. You’ll probably have to fly somewhere. The third downside is that Writing Retreats are extremely expensive. Some programs offer grants to upcoming writers, but they are hard to get. If you’re fabulously wealthy, writing retreats are probably your best option. Otherwise, see below.

Secluded Shack

There are places in the United States that are ridiculously cheap. In Harlingen, Texas, for instance, you can get a 700 square-foot apartment for $300 a month. Imagine living somewhere completely random for a month with nothing to do whatsoever but write. Trust me, the words will flow. Plus, you’ll have the added motivation of being able to get the hell out of Harlingen! Talk about a fire under your ass!

Home Lockdown

This works really well if you live alone or with a few roommates. Unfortunately, it can work TERRIBLY if you’re married, and possibly even worse if you have kids. Your spouse might feel offended by the fact that you are giving him/her less attention than normal. Worse than that, they probably won’t take it as seriously as you want. Expect knocks on your door or questions about what will be made for dinner. The only positives whatsoever about a home lockdown under these scenarios is convenience and price (or lack thereof). This method's effectiveness tends to depend on the relationship. This said, I'm not a relationship expert - I'm a a writing expert!

Mini Home Lockdown

Mini lockdowns are amazing. Actually, they’re incredible. Every single time I write, I go on lockdown. Single, married or otherwise, mini lockdowns are completely do-able. The first step is to tell everyone in the house that you are going to write for an hour. The second step is to find a secluded room that you can use during that timeframe (be sure that it IS secluded. You may think that you can write in the living room without being disturbed, but your roommate or significant other WILL pick that exact time to talk with you about dishes or about what kind of mess your estranged cousin Celia is in this week. The third step is to put up some kind of sign on your door that says that you are writing. It might seem tacky, but you need to make sure that the other people in your life understand how seriously you are taking this time. After that, set a timer for an hour (I use a beautiful Victorian hourglass because it inspires me to write more) during which time, you follow the standard lockdown rules.

Standard Lockdown Rules

1. Turn your phone off. If you are going on an extended lockdown away from home, set a daily time to check your messages and respond to calls. Do not go outside of that time.

2. No internet except to look up synonyms or information vital to your story.

3. Do not allow yourself other distractions. If you cannot write during this time, it’s okay to stare at the wall. What is NOT okay is deciding to knit a sweater when your timer is counting down. Believe me, you’ll find more often than not, it’s very hard to stare at a wall for full hours at a time.

4. When on extended lockdown, do not watch movies that aren’t related to your project in some way (whether films with similar stories or programs about the art of writing itself).

5. Don’t let anything but a fire disturb you. If someone knocks on the door, tell them to go away. Apologize later. If the yard people choose to rattle your window with a 50lbs leaf-blower, put in earplugs. This is your time, and the rest of the world will learn to respect that.

Out For Christmas Break

I greatly appreciate all the suggestions I've received for the next post, but, unfortunately, I'm gone on Christmas break at the moment, and have not had a chance to write anything. The blog posts will continue to be bi-weekly as always, and will start again on Friday, January 8th.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

-Mitchell

How to Conquer Post-Manuscript Depression

Not all writing is carefree, unabridged creativity. Some of it is hard. Some of it is REALLY hard. When I was writing Tiny Instruments, I certainly had days where I didn’t want to write - but even so, barring the occasional emergency, I managed to write 800-1200 words every day. I had a lot of pressure on me back then to prove myself as a writer, so I never took any breaks… at least until my first draft was completed.

When I edited my novel, it was a different story. I spent whole days staring at my bookshelf, organizing my desktop icons and making damn sure I saw every single Facebook post in my newsfeed. People rarely mention that working with a first draft is an indescribably painful experience. After spending months planning, writing and dreaming about my project every day and night, it was only when I read my first draft that I realized it was less than perfect.

Yes, getting to the first draft is easily the lion’s share of the work involved in writing a novel, but unfortunately, too many people never move past that - a lot more than you might think. I've known a many writers who managed to write three or four books, and never mustered up the strength to polish any of them. I've even edited books for people that were so wiped out by the idea of change that, after paying thousands of dollars, left their heavily marked-up manuscripts in a drawer for years before they felt comfortable enough to review the changes.

Post-manuscript depression is a real thing, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a myriad of things you can do to make that time a little easier. Below, is a short list of things that you should consider doing as you work on turning your first draft into a final draft.

Take a Two-Week Vacation

I took ZERO time off before I began editing. The day after I typed the final words of my book, I was going through a freshly printed manuscript with a fine-tooth comb. I was in a hurry to get my novel into the hands of my readers - but looking back, I probably would have finished a lot quicker if I had taken a two-week vacation. Unless you’re in danger of losing a multi-million dollar contract, why not take a little time off and reward yourself for your hard work? Going over what you’ve written is going to be stressful already; it’s best to allow yourself a deep breath before you take the plunge.

Do Things in the Easiest Order

The easiest order varies depending on the project, but I recommend, in general, that you make four passes through your manuscript. For the first, you change the minor things - the grammar or the clunky lines of dialogue - while taking careful notes of the major things that are too painful to deal with on the first pass. On the second pass, you go back and deal with the painful things at a slower rate, taking a fair amount of breaks in-between notes. For the third, you’ll want to work with a draft that has been carefully edited by your first readers, ideally non-professionals: your friends and family. The fourth draft should be completed by your editor, and should be by far the easiest of the four; any decent editor will give you two copies of your edited document: a copy with the changes shown as suggestions, and a finalized copy. Your job here is to read through the “suggestion copy”, and look for instances where you DO NOT agree with the editor. Once you’ve found them, you change them in the finalized copy, and send it off for print. Done.

Note: This is an odd section for me because it’s something I don’t actually do. Glutton for punishment that I am, I always go chronologically, and I often edit my own manuscripts without going through a third party. I give this piece of advice based on what I know I should be doing, not on what I actually do.

Create a Document of Important Changes

Okay, nobody is going to shed any tears when they turn a “your” into a “you’re” - but there are always changes that writers are downright terrified to make. What if you’ve realized that there’s no room for your character to have two brothers, and you decide to combine the characters into one “super brother” that takes on the actions and dialogue of both… Well, put bluntly, that’s going to suck. Inevitably, you’ll have to cut lines and scenes that don’t make any sense anymore. A big mistake that people make when dealing with these kinds of changes is to keep only two documents - the first draft, and the edited draft. They believe that they will have more than enough strength to go over everything side-by-side and decide which version is better… but hardly anyone can actually bring themselves to do that. I recommend creating a third document in which you paste both versions of significantly altered scenes - especially if you’re not sure about the changes made. In doing this, you’ll not only save yourself a lot of heartache - you’ll make it easier to make necessary changes without feeling bound to any version in particular.

The ability to let go is one of the most important traits a writer can possess. Often credited to William Faulkner or Anton Chekov, the advice “Kill Your Darlings”, goes a long way toward summing up the kind of fortitude it takes to make the changes necessary. It’s hard, but to be a great writer, you have to put your work above your feelings. Do what you need to do, but make it easier for yourself. Use a gun, not a rock.