Chapter 1. Focus, focus, focus.

OK. My plan was in place. I had my outline. So I started writing, and at first it was fairly easy since I had covered most of the intro before, in the 240 pages I threw out. Then I got bogged down in questioning my word choices and dialogue. After a few hours, I knew something must change.

I realized that the creativity expressed in version one of my novel was bring overshadowed by all the things I had since learned about writing and self-editing. I needed to let my unfiltered thoughts flow onto the page and clean it up later. So I tried to ignore the spelling squiggles in Microsoft Word and resist reading back over the last few lines.

Amazingly, this change in approach led to me finishing chapter one... before I became an old man. The key for me was balance and segregation of duties. As a writer, it was my job to create. My due diligence was complete in my outline. Later, I would need to put on my editors hat, but not at first.

I know some of you may disagree with my approach, and that is fine. This is just what made sense to me, and it has proven to be productive. Do what produces results for you.

www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas