Muscles Atrophy

Do you want to write faster? Write more. Writing is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger you’ll be. You’ll be able to write faster for longer.

You know the problem with muscles, though?

They atrophy, too.

I mentioned a few weeks back that my daughter slaughtered a series I’d already outlined. That’s okay. I think it’ll be much, much better for it. So, this week I finally sat down to actually outline the series that had been destroyed. Well, re-outline it. You get the idea.

I set up some basic characters, some basic conflicts, the overall setting. All good. I saw some definite possibilities in character interactions that would be a lot of fun.

And then I started outlining.

Well, I tried to outline. See, it’s been too long since I’ve outlined, apparently. I stared at the screen. It took far, far too long to figure out what I was doing. Where was the main character going to go? I knew she had to end up over here, but right now she was over there. How to get her from point H to point I?

And I was not gruntled by this at all. I had six books to outline, and it took me two days to get a passable outline for one book.

So this week… it’s back to the writing gym. I’m working on outlining again. Don’t skip leg day. You’ll wind up like me, apparently.

I’m still excited by the project. I think it’s going to be amazing by the time it’s done. This is time well spent.

I just wish the muscles hadn’t atrophied from nonuseage. Sigh.