Today’s guest post is from Yona Zeldis McDonough, whose novel TWO OF A KIND (NAL Trade) will be released September 3, 2013. It’s the story of second chances, blending families, and overcoming obstacles to find that happily ever after.
A touching, airy novel that manages to meld the concerns of family members spanning four generations into a delightfully well-written story… A tender, clever story with emotional heft. –Booklist
She is the award-winning author of five novels and twenty-two books for children, and is also the editor of two essay collections. Her fiction, essays, and articles have been widely published in many national and literary magazines. She has been the fiction editor of Lilith Magazine for many years and lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and their two children.
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Two Pages a Day
Back in the late 1990s, before I had published my first novel, I had pocketful of literary aspirations and a heart full of dreams. I also had two small children and a budget that precluded the hiring of a baby sitter or nanny. Although I had the idea for a novel rumbling around inside me, I despaired of having the time and emotional space in which to write it. The uninterrupted days, those blissful periods, kind of like swoons or trances, when I could sink deep into my work and not emerge for hours, were like a mirage from another time; I could not imagine having them back until the youngest child was eighteen and off to college.
My reaction to these restrictions ranged from brooding resentment to Zen-like acceptance. But neither strategy was particular helpful. And I certainly wasn’t getting any work done. Then I had an epiphany: I would not tell myself I was writing a novel, a concept that made me feel like an ant balancing a grapefruit on its back. No, I broke down the task at hand into much more manageable chunks or bits. I told myself that I was writing a scene. A conversation. A description. And I gave myself a small, manageable goal: two pages a day, five days a week.
There was such a sense of liberation in this: I was no longer plagued by the enormous task I had set before myself and instead had a concrete goal that could be checked off on my “to do” list. I wrote those two pages during endless re-runs of Barney, the oversized (and under-endowed, at least mentally) purple dinosaur, Dora the Explorer and episodes of Arthur. I wrote them during naps, play dates (at someone else’s house) trips with their father to the zoo/park/ playground. I was not overwhelmed, guilty, angst-ridden or despairing. I was just writing, two pages a day, five days a week.
And it worked. By week’s end, I had ten pages, by month’s end, forty. Sometimes I was even able to exceed my limit. The pages piled up and less than a year, I had a draft of a novel. And even though a draft is a far cry from a finished book, it still beats that blank computer screen with the cursor pulsating like a small, frantic heart.
Once the draft was completed, I switched my mantra slightly to editing, and then revising. The magic of my self-deception still worked, and I could polish and refine the draft into one submittable first to an agent and then an editor. My first novel, THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS, was published by Doubleday in 2002, hard proof that even the smallest increments can one day turn into solid achievements.
Now my children are older and my time is much less constrained. But I still use the two pages a day mantra; it gets me over so many humps, blocks and dead ends. In my newest novel, TWO OF A KIND, one of the protagonists, Christina Connelly, eluded my grasp for the longest time. Even though she was at the center of the story, she was nut I could not crack, the consciousness I could not penetrate. I was first frustrated, then disgusted, then despairing. How would I bring her to life? I wondered. How would I make it all work?
Once again, I was saved by my two pages a day strategy. I did not attempt to tackle Christina overall; I focused on her scene-by-scene, conversation-by-conversation, description-by-description. Who was she, want did she need and want? How did she go about getting it? What happened when she did not? Two pages at a time, I broke her code, unlocked her secrets and brought her forth. By staying small in my immediate goals, I was able achieve the larger one. It was a great lesson, not only for writing, but also for life.
What are your strategies for staying small to achieve your big goals?
I’m still working on this one. I had the blessing and curse of being unemployed for some time, which allowed me plenty of room to write, and I loved it (the writing; being unemployed? Not so much). Now that I’m working again, I’m trying to shift my schedule to get in writing mode in the evenings and weekends, and it’s definitely tough. Still, the motivation is the same: write it, revise it, get it published.
Hi Yona! I love this instead of a word count. I’m going to give it a try as I’m heading toward a deadline for my second novel. Thank you for the solid advice! If it works for you, it’s got to be good!
What a great post and a great idea! I don’t have small children but I work full time and blog part time, so the hours in the day that I can devote to my writing are more like minutes. I’ve often heard recommendations to set a daily word count, but I like Yona’s idea of writing just a scene, a conversation that would be at least two pages. I’ve actually been writing my characters into my blog which is helping me to understand them better, even if I don’t wind up using those particular bits. The real challenge for me is the editing. I have three novels in first draft. I’ll have to take Yona’s advice if they are ever to turn into finished novels.
Thank you so much for the inspiration … working on the parts really does add up to a better whole!
Oh, yes, those good little lies we tell ourselves. I need to tell myself one right now. “I’ll just get that conversation down. No need to worry about setting or what happens next.”
I like this, Yona. Good advice.
I run a business and have young children, so I try not to put pressure on myself to write, and instead declare MOMMY TIME whenever I can get it. Writing just happens to be what I like to do with my personal time.
That said, sometimes these moments are few and fleeting and it’s hard to write with limited time and various distractions. What do I do? Read what I wrote previously. Over and over. Start from the beginning and read it again. Read what I wrote last month. Read notes, character profiles, setting details. Read, read, read.
I might not pen two pages a day with this system, but it keeps my head in the game. Which happens to be my favorite way to spend MOMMY TIME. :)
Denise Willson
Author of A Keeper’s Truth
You have proved it once again, Yona. Anyone can eat an elephant…one bite at a time.
Yona this is a great post. Today is Daddy day as mommy prepares her flower shop for the holiday. Working at home with a 3 and 5 year old really does mean dividing up the tasks into when I need my brain and and when I do not. (tweeting and posting go well with preparing snack). I totally get the resentment to zen comment. The irony is that my over all productivity is increased. I am not wring those 8 to 10 pages a day, I am getting whatever I can done. Now that the youngest is in preschool I am sure not to waste the 2 hours I have a few mornings a week to optimize.
I so feel as though I am playing the long game.
From across the bridge in Manhattan I thank you Thank You for the great post.
I think this strategy works well not just for those with time constraints, but also for those with writer’s or any other kind of mental block. Breaking work down into manageable chunks makes it possible to achieve something tangible and therefore gratifying. Kudos to you, Yona!
Love this idea, Yona. I’ve always been a firm believer that small steps add up to a big journey as long as we keep moving forward. Your 2 pages a day mantra reminds me of a summer in which I feared I wouldn’t have time to write, either, so I promised myself I’d write every single day, even if it was just one word or one sentence squeeze real quickly right before bed. That took the pressure of grand expectations off, and what usually ended up happening was that one quick sentence was all I needed to get me started…I’d end up going quite a bit past it.
Even if it’s one word or two pages, I guess the key is consistency, and continuing to come back to it. Thank you for sharing this!
Love this post as I approach most of life “2 pages at a time” whether it is writing, learning to sing a new Mass, tackling the many household things to keep it running smoothly. Congratulations on your new book!
Great post. Baby steps will get the job done just as well as going for 5 to 10 pages a day.
I find that staying in the story daily is a big help also. Then your ready to get down to work, using what time is available. Now that my son is almost off to college I find that I have all this time available to write. It is a wonderful and scary prospect. Sometimes just having the small slice was better.
Being disabled means that I can’t count on myself. But I try, every day, to take MY cut first out of any good energy that comes along.
It is so easy to instead spend that energy on something important (like paying bills) – and then it’s gone.
But I CAN, if I force myself (bill paying deadlines with late fees, anyone?) pay the bills when the energy isn’t that great.
And I CAN’T write unless I’m in the best condition. Writing first, and then, if there’s anything left, everything else.
I couldn’t do this when my kids were little – but I can now. When I don’t, I have wasted my time and my life.
Makes you think of priorities, doesn’t it?
Alicia
Great post! I wish I’d thought of this when my children were small. I gave up my dream of writing and raised my children instead. They just graduated from college so I am FINALLY perusing my dream of writing. Better late than never :-)
This was a great post, and it’s nice to know I am not alone in eking out time to write. I keep a goal of writing for 15 minutes a day for 5 days a week. Slow and steady wins the race, they say.
It’s really all I have energy for since I have a full-time job and two kids to take care of.
Great post! It happened to reinforce an attitude that I’ve been forming for a while now. Good to have that report from someone further along the path than I am.
Terrific idea, Yona. It’s great to think about a novel in more manageable chunks. I know if I wait to write until I have hours of uninterrupted time, I’ll be waiting a long time.
Two a day is a great tactic. That’s my goal. In a hundred and fifty days, you finally have something. An incremental approach reduces the anxiety of facing writing an entire novel. And the pride one feels when you get to 100 pages, then 150 and finally to 300 or 350 is wonderful.
I belong to WANA and one of the “tribes” I joined is called “An Hour a Day.” The members of that tribe pledge to write an hour a day. It works! We check in with each other daily (briefly) and offer encouragement and report progress. I have gotten so much more productive since joining.
That’s how I got through my manuscript too…but it took a while to find the courage to let it happen.
Bravo. While I adore grand gestures, most everything I’ve done in life that was worthwhile was built in small increments. I ask a half-hour of myself daily six days a week, but of course, often do more. Small expectations help keep me playful. I do better work when I’m loose.
Excellent post, Yona.
I use a similar approach. It’s based on time, not volume. As long as I write something every day, I know I’ll eventually finish.
Great post – am curious how you switched your mantra when editing because I’m editing now and would love to have a way to keep me moving forward in editing. I do a chapter at a time and I’m learning if a chapter gives me a tough time it’s probably because it doesn’t fit in the plot line of my memoir. Thanks
I like this approach–so workable!