Just Shut Up & Write

Unfortunately, authors often get derailed from writing projects. I got off track with my novel, even though I’m excited about my story. I’ve intended to sit down and write for many days, weeks, and months, but matching available time with the right frame of mind has been difficult.

By the end of the workday, my brain is tired, and my typing hands deserve a rest. A change of venue usually helps me focus, but it’s hard to leave the comfort of home for Starbucks in the dark of winter or coop myself up on warm summer days.

My subconscious realizes there’s a large task before me. Once I reacquaint myself with my completed chapters and am ready to write the next chapter, there will be hundreds of pages ahead of me to tackle.

Last month, I started breaking down the enormity of evaluating chapters, plotting, and scene planning into manageable steps. I decided to do some of this nitty-gritty work during a Shut Up & Write session.

I’d dabbled in attending SU&W before at a friend’s house, at the library, and even online. But something about the in-person, Tuesday morning gathering of local writers at a café has hooked me.

Shut Up & Write provides a time and place to do just that—shut up and write. The California Writers Club San Francisco Peninsula branch hosts three SU&W sessions: the in-person one on Tuesday morning, and two online on Wednesday, one in the morning and one at night. The sessions are dedicated blocks of writing time long enough to accomplish a writing goal.

I’ve been attending every week since I gave it a try. I did all the preliminary structural scene work, and yesterday, I wrote a rough draft of the next scene—this is real progress! I got far enough into the draft to continue working on it during the week—layering in research and character development.

I’m delighted to have generated momentum to create something new to show my critique group. It’s about darn time.