Tips of the iceberg

Just for fun, type in writing tips at your favorite search engine. Bet you come up with seventeen gazillion hits. All these writing tips, you'd think there would be innumerable successful authors, assuming those tips came from published writers. But.....

I suspect a good majority of "writing tips" come from novices like me. I collect them in my head, often just reading bits and pieces from various writers web sites. Some of them are probably even good.

However. Many are junk, or just don't apply to how I write. Trying to shoehorn a creative activity into easy to define steps indexed by happy, happy tips is like trying to eat jello with chopsticks.

Anyway. I guess the tip of the day would come from Orson Scott Card, in an interview he did recently for a gaming magazine, he noted that, with all the time he wasted playing civilization a few years back, he probably could have put out 20 books. That's a lot of money that the game cost him, in his estimation... So he suggested... Time limits. Preferable in the form of a switch controlled by his wife. Two hours gaming, and you're cut off, mister. Back to work.....

I can see how it would help, but I'm probably less stressed about my time usage right now. I often "unwind" with some solitare before I write. If I play something more substantial, like Sid Meiers Rail Tycoon, I set myself a time limit, and make sure it isn't overlapping the period I've defined as my writing time. Most of the time.

I do define my writing time with a little ritual. When I break out the Owl Mug, it's writing time. I might let myself get into the mood for 10-15 minutes, but eventually, I'm going to fire up the word processor, and get to it.

At least, that's my plan. And I'm sticking to it.....
TTFN,
Jim