Multitasking

It's dawned on me that the reason my writing sessions are so unproductive is that I spend much of that time thinking instead of writing. As a non-plotter I'm making it up as I go, and so I have to create the next scene on the spot. That often results in false starts that I have to delete and rethink.

Yesterday, being surprisingly interested in what I'd written the day before, I opened up my document, changed a word that was bothering me, then left the manuscript open. As I did mindless computer tasks, I found myself thinking up new scenes or ways to enhance previous ones. I really like this method! I'm not staring at a blank screen, figuring out what comes next, and wasting precious writing time; I'm "plotting" during my off hours. 

Since my writing days are limited, I always feel like I have to get a lot of words down on the screen (which, as I noted above, rarely works out that way). But by perhaps playing a computer game that requires little actual thinking, my mind is freed up to ponder my story. I can come up with scenarios that I ultimately don't like, but instead of deleting them and starting anew, there are no fingers on the keyboard at all. Time saver! 

Does this make me a plotter? Not in any traditional sense. I certainly will never have an entire story planned out ahead of time, but for a discovery writer I think I may have hit on something. And it has the added bonus of keeping me focused on the story even on non-writing days.

I'm going to try it again today. Yesterday could have just been a fluke, but it's rare that I stumble upon something that, unlike time-worn internet advice, actually works.