[Note From Frolic: We have a thing for novellas. A BIG thing. In the next installment of an ongoing series, we bring you a post from author Jill Shalvis, whose novella āTwist of Fateā with our friends atĀ 1001 Dark NightsĀ is out now!]
People often expect the hardest part of writing is finding the right story to write.Ā Not true, not for me.Ā Nope, the hardest part is sitting my tush in the chair every day to get my daily word count.Ā Itās painful really.Ā But since Iāve been doing this since the dawn of time, I present to you the hard-learned Shalvis Tricks that I employed during the writing of Twist of Fate, out now!
One.
No one understands attention or motivation problems more than I do.Ā Iām ADHD and extremely easy to distract.Ā Hereās what I do to get to my daily word count.Ā First I turned off my wifi on my laptop.Ā Second, I put on headphones and listen to a sound app.Ā Today itās jungle sounds.Ā Yesterday it was a thunder storm with high winds.Ā Third, I sit my butt on the couch/chair/beach lounger (whatever and wherever the dayās āofficeā is) and I tell myself I canāt get up and have a cookie or load Instagram until I write five hundred words.Ā Repeat four times a day for two thousand words, which is my daily goal.Ā š
Two.
Found a new way to trick myself to get my word count.Ā At the end of a writing day, I stop in the middle of a scene.Ā Literally in the middle of a sentence.Ā I return a few times and then write a quick note to myself on where I was headed in the scene.Ā Then the next morning, itās like MAGIC.Ā No time wasted staring at the blank page, some goddess has left me a note on exactly what to write!
Three.
When Iām really truly stuck and I have no idea what to do on the page, I skip ahead to a scene Iāve been looking forward to writing.Ā I allow myself to write it guilt free, out of order because I know that it will spark my poor, beleaguered muse.Ā Iāll get word count and feel good about it, even if it wasnāt what I should have written next.Ā And besides when I finally get to that scene, then ⦠itās already written!Ā Nothing more exciting than that!
Four.
Sometimes my word count can get dragged down by what I have to write next.Ā Last year I got really sick with the flu.Ā Weāre talking REALLY sick.Ā I wonāt go into details because theyāre horrendous.Ā But suffice it to say I wasnāt up for the extended love scene I needed to write.Ā So I type in āHe does her hereā and then I moved on.Ā By doing that, I was able to write something I could handle that day and got my word count.Ā Just make sure to go back and write that scene.Ā Do NOT do as I did and forget because then youāll get a puzzled email from your editor.Ā #Embarrassedā¦
Five.
One important thing about word count, at least for me, is to write without judging yourself.Ā Donāt worry about typos.Ā Do not even THINK about stopping to edit yourself.Ā Get into a good frame and mind and let the writing spirit out.Ā Tie up your inner editor and shove her in a closet.Ā That witch doesnāt need to come out until youāre fixing your draft.Ā AFTER youāve made word count.
Happy writing!
Twist of Fate by Jill Shalvis
When the one you want ā¦
Daisy doesnāt believe love is ever-lasting, so itās ironic as hell that she parlayed a business degree into a wedding planning business. More ironic still is her latest job bringing her back into contact with the man whoād taught her that love canāt last.
Is the one you canāt haveā¦
To say Diego has been taught the hard way to bury emotions is an understatement. But when heās called home to help the brother he hasnāt seen or spoken to in years, thatās one thing. Itās another entirely to also come face to face with the first woman he ever loved. First and onlyā¦
Can love conquer all?
Daisyās learned to depend only on herself, and Diego is and always has been an island of one. And yet when theyāre together, even when theyāre bickering, still wary and haunted by memories of what was ⦠itās magic. The question is, how to find their way back to each otherā¦?