Getting the ideas flowing

I’m on a mission to re-train myself to write faster. I suspect it’s a function of habit that my wordcount isn’t what I want it to be (and frankly, it wasn’t sustainable.)

One thing I’m noticing is that if I don’t “feel” the scene when I’m getting ready to write it, shifting to pen/paper with random word prompts and freewriting a little bit will often get me to the spot I need to start real-writing.

The process goes something like this. “Vic and Jacob need to set up the expectation of X.” Okay, I know what the scene needs to do, but the details are lousy. Are they home, is it domestic? Are they in the car hiding from the FPMP? Are they agreeing or in conflict?

I then grab a dictionary or thesaurus and point to five random words, then freewrite just a sentence or two about how the scene COULD be involving those concepts, knowing that I don’t need to really use them. But the act of casting the net really wide tends to jog loose a feeling like “yes, I now feel that scene in my gut and I see some interesting details to use, too.”

And hopefully I’m done by the time my helper shows up!