I call it “the James Patterson method,” but it’s working for me; one of the best tools I’ve found in making progress on my new novel and not losing interest is to write in short bursts. Rather than composing a novel of maybe twenty chapters of twenty-to-forty pages each – long, ponderous things to write or to read – I am limiting myself to several brief, single-scene chapters.
At the end of it all, I’m aiming at writing about 120 chapters, with an average length of three to five pages each. It gets me the same place, but the important part from a creative aspect is that, usually, I can compose a single chapter in one sitting, and so feel a sense of completion and accomplishment each and every time I sit down to write.
It also means that unless I slack off and take Orlando vacations several times (which I don’t have the budget for anyway), I should be done with the first draft of this puppy by New Year’s Eve.
It’s a great, achievable goal to shoot toward.
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