Method to madness - TIP: Stop talking about what you’re doing

Although the title of this post might lead you to think I’m recommending this to ensure your story is not stolen, that’s actually not the case. The most progress I made on Only Human was when I finally decided to stop talking about the book and just focused on writing and editing.

Although it may not be your case, for me, talking about the book actually slowed me down because the energy I could have dedicated to the book I spent talking about it. What seemed to happen is that when I sat down to continue writing, I wasn’t as gun-ho with the project as when I really kept myself from talking about it. This means that when I shut up, NO steam was lost, and hunger built up. Telling people I didn’t want to talk about it until I finished really spurred me on and the editing process flowed much better since I wasn’t going to say anything until I finished. Psychologically speaking, since I had a desire to talk about it, my focus increased to finish it and earn the right to talk about it.

I thought I was crazy at first until I commented this to two fellow people that completely agreed with me and a third who gave it a try and finally finished a screenplay he was working on. You often hear of people who are working on something, or have something brewing, “it’s in the works”… in some way, this is a way of stalling or offering an excuse as to why something’s not finished. When I finally shut up and forced myself into an embarrassing corner in a conversation saying I needed to finish it to talk about it, it spurred me on immensely.

Some people may call me crazy, and they may be right; the fact remains though, I finally published my first novel instead of talking about it. 

By all means, do the same.