Building the Platform

Not so long ago, I was fat. Sixty pounds overweight to be exact.

I hardly even saw it. I assumed that clothes were getting shoddier (and tighter) and that there was something wrong with my haircut.

When I started going to the gym, it was because a half-hour on the stationary bike meant I could watch TV uninterrupted by my 3 year-old.

One half hour. Three or four times a week. At the pace of a senior citizen.

After three years of this, I got a trainer. I ignored half of what she recommended.

But I did the other half. Three or four times a week.

A few more years passed.

I wasn't fit. I wasn't strong. I was still fat. But I was ready. I had built the platform.

When a rare lull at work let me go to the gym every day, the scale started to move. So I trimmed my intake, just a bit. In a year, I lost 40 lbs. 20lbs more went in the next few months.

Without the platform, I never could have done that. Five years where I got little to no results, except for the pleasure of dropping by the gym, watching the tube, and showering in peace.

The Lessons:

1. Keep writing, undettered by a slow pace and barely adequate performance.

2. Make it a pleasure. Otherwise you'll quit. All that slow work you've done on your platform will be lost. Write about what you like, when you like.

Don't worry about progress, as long as you're showing up at your desk at regular intervals.

Just like the lull at my work, your great opportunity may be coming. Make sure your platform is ready when it does.

How I Know

I've been busy lately. You know how it is.

The busy has been snowballing. When this happens, I build a pebbly crust around it. The current crust is about a week thick, and consists mostly of emails, and bits of my to-do list.

Not so long ago, the layers of my crusts were numbered in years.

The crust's insides can ripen into dusty emptiness, if left unchecked.

When I find some quiet time, the crust cracks. The busy blows away.

Then I start to write again. It makes me happy.

That's how I know.

100% Unguaranteed Anti-Block #4

So how do we clear the forest from the trees of your writing? Today, some cheap tricks.

Its a beautiful day, you should be writing more of your novel, but you're blocked.

Try this.

Take a good chunk, say 15 pages or so. Ideally, this is something you DIDN'T write recently and haven't read in a while.

Cut and paste this chunk into a three new documents. Open the first document. Take a deep breath, go through and cut out every other page. It'll take you less than thirty seconds.

In the second document, cut out every other paragraph. This will take longer, maybe 3 minutes.

In document three, cut out every other sentence. Its sounds tedious because it is, but it'll take less than ten minutes. Your writing is worth that, right?

Close the files and let them cook for a week or so. No peeking at the original chunk during this time. Now open the first of the files. Fill in the missing bits from memory if, and only if, you need them to maintain the integrity of the story.

Repeat with the other two files.

Prepare to be amazed. And yes, I plan to patent this technique.