Solitare

A friend asked recently if I could suggest one thing to improve writing productivity. Off-hand, I joked, "Delete all the games off your computer. Especially Solitare!"

Hmmm.

Lawrence Block talked about Solitare and his tendency to play when he should have been working in Spider, Spin Me a Web. Ultimately, he came to the conclusion that perhaps his mind needed the break. And, after flippantly dismissing any value to keeping the game on the computer, I thought about how Solitare actually helps me as a writer.

For example, I often play a game or two before I start my writing for the day, particularly when I'm working early in the morning. If I'm ever blocked on a particular segment of the book, I have a tendency to click open and play through a few times. I used to think I did this to procrastinate, but in thinking back on it, the story flows better that way. The Solitare is almost like a cup of coffee for the brain, and my production is better than when I start cold and write a bunch of junk that will have to be edited out later. And when I'm blocked on how to handle a particular scene, playing Solitare seems to straighten things out.

Like almost anything in writing, your mileage may vary. But it seems to me every writer needs their little warm-up exercise. I know writers who do a free write before tackling the daily work, others who read their previous day's work and revise, and others who do a physical activity, like jogging, before they start. I get the feeling this sort of work is critical, not just because you get a chance to mentally prepare, but it also helps set the routine. If you have something to reinforce sitting in front of the computer, doing the daily word count, it's worth it.

And I figure I'll bore my minimal audience here with an update: The book is 66,800 words in. With classes starting this week, I haven't been able to get much done(Chemistry is threatening to make my head go Scanners, already), but hopefully I'll be able to use story segments for work in my Fiction class. And am I ever glad I took it... if it had been all science this semester, I might go insane.