Comments on: What to Do While You Wait: Working with Your Book, Instead of On It

By: Top Picks Thursday! For Writers & Readers 01-24-2019 | The Author Chronicles

Thu, 24 Jan 2019 18:02:38 +0000

[…] delineates the difference between critique partners and beta readers, Barbara Probst has ideas on how to work with your story instead of on it, and Sam Lipsyte reveals the key to writing: it all has to be the good […]

By: apisacano123

apisacano123 — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 02:13:55 +0000

These suggestions are so fun! Thanks, Barbara!

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:55:31 +0000

Hi Jen! Thanks for your comment! We do need to shake things up, loosen our minds, "turn the soil" "so we don't stay stuck in what we've put on the page. These exercises can absolutely help us to see what's there in a new way ... and to turn up new possibilities! I'd love to hear how they worked for you!

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:51:53 +0000

Thanks, Fae. Maps and charts are a great way to turn what is essentially a "linear" story into a graphic form that is based on relationships rather than time. Summaries, on the other hand, help us to get at the essence of the story—both are great, especially if done during the same period of time, because they exercise different parts of the brain and stretch us in different ways!

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:49:22 +0000

Thanks, Patricia. I would love to know which ideas were useful to you, and if they sparked you to come up with new ones as well! It can help to have a list at hand that one can turn to during those times when we feel aimless or impatient. I'd even venture that an exercise like this can give us a renewed sense of agency while we wait for "the other person" to get back to us.

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:46:52 +0000

Hi Laura. You make a great point that this "play time" can also be used to noodle around with other stories ... even if they never see the light of day, they help to keep our creative juices flowing and may, surprisingly, circle back to illuminate the current story in a new way or add another aspect that we hadn't realized could be there. Thanks for adding that idea!

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:44:28 +0000

Hi Linda, I'd love to hear how the "chutes and ladders" worked for you! It can be fun to take a familiar idea or metaphor and apply it in new ways! This one, in particular, helps us to see that everything is always in movement, in one direction or another. Sometimes we have patterns in our writing that we're not aware of!

By: Barbara Linn Probst

Barbara Linn Probst — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:41:59 +0000

Thanks, Jenny! I totally agree about the need for both "directed" writing (aimed at making a specific thing happen in the story) and "free" writing (when there's no set aim but more of a sense of exploration). We need to carve out time for the latter, and to take advantage of those times when they occur.

By: Jenny Hansen

Jenny Hansen — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:08:04 +0000

That "no pressure" time is the best time for a writer, isn't it? I think when people lose that ability to have free-flowing creativity, just for creativity's sake, that's when writer's block and burnout occur. Thank you for a lovely, lovely post!

By: Linda Rosen

Linda Rosen — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:56:25 +0000

Great suggestions, Barbara. I especially like the chutes and ladders and will use the idea. Thanks