Can You Magically Up Your Productivity By 400% With One Stupid Trick?

 Can You Magically Up Your Productivity By 400% With One Stupid Trick?

"Never go to sleep without a request for your subconscious." – Thomas Eddison. (Assuming he didn't steal that too.)

I was inspired to write this blog post after watching this video by Michelle B, which you can watch here.

The Basic Hypothesis: Sleeping on a problem makes it easier to solve, so reading your synopsis before bed should make writing in the morning easier.

Studies (mentioned in Michelle's video) show that complicated problems are best solved if you look at them in the evening, then try and solve them first thing the next morning, after you have slept.

This suggests your brain will continue to work on the problem while you are sleep, even though you aren't consciously aware of it. Theoretically, this is a process that can be utilised by writers who write first thing in the morning (like me) to improve their overall productivity and the quality of their work.

My plan is, to test this theory for a week, and write journal entries each day after writing. Her are my seven journal entries:

Journal One: 3 Scenes of POS.

When I first woke up, I had no ideas for the scenes I planned to write for POS, despite having read the synopsises for the night before. I did, however, have an idea for a truly terrifying short horror story. It was so terrifying, that as I woke up at 4am in the pitch dark of a winter morning, I lay in bed for about twenty minutes before I did anything.

While getting ready to write, I still had no brilliant ideas. Well, I thought, this was a complete failure. Should I blog about a complete failure? Maybe its not worth finishing the blog post at all. Still, I thought, I might as well wait until I give writing a go.

Now it's only 11am and I have written 3500 words on POS. I've written that much on other days this week too, but its taken me all day—starting at 7am and stopping at 8pm. Its been a painful struggle. This has been comparatively fast and quite painless. Though I am developing a headache.

I'd still like to write another 1.5k today. However, I didn't read the synopsis for those chapters last night. I am hopeful I will still get it done. So far, I am impressed. However, I want to finish this novel tomorrow, which means tomorrow will be another 4.5k day.

Let's see how that plays out.

Journal Two: 5 scenes of POS

Yesterday, I ended up not being able to finish, or even really start, the chapter I hadn't read the synopsis of the night before. Which meant if I was going to finish POS on time (today) I would have to write four chapters in one day, or around 6,000 words.

I read the synopsises for all four chapters before bed—though when I got up and re-read them, I realised there was a plot hole that was going to need to be fixed. So, I had to do some re-jiggering of the synopsis on the fly.

Did I end up writing over 6k and finishing the novel? Yes, I did. Was it much easier than usual? Yes, it was. I didn't actually finish up until 8:30pm, which is very late for me to still be working, but I did finish, and the last few thousand words were not the painful pulling of teeth I expected.

So far, I am impressed.

Journal Three: Edit a nonfiction book.

I had been putting off some editing a nonfiction for a few weeks, so right before bed I told myself: 'The first thing I do tomorrow morning, will be to complete that editing.' Despite that being the plan MANY mornings prior, the 'thinking about it right before sleep' trick seemed to work and today, I got up, and edited it very easily and reasonably quickly.

I should have planned to do more last night, because I was done with the editing before 9am.

Tonight/tomorrow, I think I will test a slightly more complicated idea. I am going to ask my brain to write a synopsis. Actually, I am going to ask it to write TWO synopsises, one after the other.

The first thing I am going to do tomorrow is get up and write the synopsis for AS, immediately followed by the synopsis for ABAB. I think my brain could do one easily, but two? We'll see how it plays out.

Journal Four: Write synopses for AS and ABAB

Today did not go well. I was out very late last night and woke up with a headache that progressed into a migraine and a sore throat that feels suspiciously like the start of a cold. I did not leap out of bed and complete the two synopsis I wanted to work on. I spent most of the day wasting time and then late in the evening I did the one of the synopsises, but it was hard work.

The other days were clear successes, but today wasn't. I don't know if asking my brain to do TWO synopsises for completely different novels was just too many things for it to focus on at one time. Or if the flu/migraine/tiredness negated the effects.

My goal tomorrow is to complete quite a few very physical tasks and I am hoping going to sleep, thinking about them will make them easy and fast tomorrow. Plus, I am going to have to get up early and the second synopsis before I do the physical things.

The experiment continues.

Journal Five: Write Synopsis for ABAB and yard work.

I sat down early to try and write the second synopsis and it came quite easily. I was then able to go and do all the yard work without any problems. I should note again, I don't wake up overflowing with ideas, its not until I sit down to write that they flow out.

Lesson learned. Sleeping on an idea works well. Sleeping on TWO ideas doesn't. Apparently, your brain can only solve one big cognitive problem at a time. However, one big cognitive problem and some physical, non-cognitive tasks is fine.

I should mention, while the synopsis backbone came very easily, as soon as I finished writing it, I noticed there were some plot holes and loose ends that needed to be patched up. Because it is a co-authored story, I can't be quite as detailed as I would writing a solo book. However, I still plan to have another go at filling in some of the gaps. Perhaps tomorrow.

Tomorrow, my intention is to write an opening scene, and write up notes and scores for ten of the Aurealis books I have read (I'm judging Fantasy Novels this year). If I have time, I may also look at the second synopsis again.

Journal Six: Patch holes in ABAS Synopsis, Aurealis Scoring, Opening scene of SP.

The first thing I did was get up and patch up a few of the holes in the second synopsis. Its now ready to go. So clearly sitting on it another night was a good tactic. Maybe not every complex problem can be solved in a single night—particularly if you are giving your brain several complex problems at a time.

I did most of my Aurealis scoring and reading for the day, however I had things on in afternoon and ran out of time to write the opening scene. I did read through the synopsis notes for the book though, and I was unhappy with the world building. In the evening, right before bed, I suddenly had a huge cascade of awesome ideas for the world and am excited to write it in the morning.

Tomorrow, I am going to read a novel of mine I am about to start editing. The goal of the read through is to comment all through the text on any problems I see, any thoughts I have and anything I want fixed. These comments will form the editing notes I use when I begin the editing process. I feel like this system would be better utilised if I read the book, then slept on it, then did the comments the next day. So that is what I am going to do, making this an eight-day journal instead of seven days.

Journal Seven: Opening scene of SP, read POS.

I woke up reasonably early, sat down at the computer and wrote the first scene of SP. Then I remembered I wanted to write it in first person present, not third person past, so I will have to edit it. However, it is written and after my world building epiphany last night, I am very happy with it. And I finished with it before 8:30am.

Now I am going to madly read POS in its entirety in the hope that tomorrow I can go through it again and write brilliant editing/feedback comments for myself.

Journal Eight: Write editing notes in POS.

I got half the editing notes done, not all. This was due largely to the TERRIBLE migraine I had, that left me virtually unable to function as a person. I think the comments would have come quite easily, if I had been able to see the screen to write them. As it was, the still came pretty easily, but staring at the screen was just too much. I didn't struggle as much with thinking as I normally would with a terrible migraine. The comments were there, in my brain, ready to go. So, I am still calling today a success. Sort of.

Conclusion:

Well, over eight days I have achieved the following:

1. Written 3,500 words on POS

2. Written 6, 000 words and completed POS.

3. Edited an entire non-fiction project.

4. Written a synopsis for AS.

5. Written a synopsis for ABAB.

6. Patched holes in ABAB synopsis, and scored some Aurealis books.

7. Written the opening for SP and read POS.

8. Written half the editing notes for POS.

Honestly, at the start of the week, looking at that workload would have made me cry. It’s the sort of load I WANT to achieve every week, but rarely do. So over all, for me, I consider this test a huge success.

I don't think there is any magic to it. Its just a matter of intention really. Planning what you want to do the night before, then getting up and actually doing it first thing. However, I do believe my brain worked on problems while I was asleep, and I also believe my test showed it could only work on one cognitive project at a time.

Going forward, I will continue to use this technique.

1. Read the synopsis/notes for what I want to do the next day right before bed.

2. Sleep on it.

3. Work on it first thing when I get up in the morning when possible.

I hope you decide to give this one a try too. Please let me know how it works for you! I always love hearing from you.

Narrative Traction - Part 6: Troubleshooting, Plotting and Identifying

Welcome to my six-part writing series: Narrative Traction. This week is Part Six: Troubleshooting, Plotting and Identifying.

OPENINGS

The two most valuable questions you can ask beta readers are: 'Did the opening paragraph grip you?' and 'Where did you start to lose interest?'

If the opening paragraph doesn't grip someone, it has no narrative traction. It is not promising something more interesting will happen if you keep reading. It has failed as an opening paragraph.

Anywhere a reader loses interest is where the narrative traction has dropped. Usually because you left it too long to introduce another traction thread, or missed opportunities to raise the pull of the threads you already have in place.

PROMISE – WITHOLD – RESOLVE

The opening narrative traction thread is usually called a 'hook' something to hook the reader in and drag them through the novel. You need to identify your first hook and open with it as strongly as you can. It needs to be something that gets the reader's attention immediately and keeps them interested.

You must then withhold that information. However, you can't withhold the wrong information. Sometimes I go to give feedback on a manuscript, and I just have no idea what is happening. There's a mystery all right, the mystery is who or what the character is, where they are, what they are doing and why they are doing it. That's not narrative traction. That's just poor writing. Ideally, you want to give readers enough information to make them comfortable and feel centred in the story, that is what allows them to be interested in the hook you are offering them.

And then you must resolve the hook while the reader still cares about it, but not too soon. I realise this sounds a bit 'how long is a piece of string', however how long you withhold depends on what you are withholding and why. If you open a romance novel with:

'All Renee had ever wanted was to be kissed by a girl with blue eyes and freckles.' You might not give readers that kiss until the final scene. Or you may offer it at the end of scene one, but somehow it leads to a complete disaster that kicks off the rest of the plot. Maybe Renee never kisses a girl with blue eyes and freckles, maybe she falls in love with a black woman with lips that make Renee's knees buckle and a hair so big it brushes the door frame as she walks through.

You must develop that skill yourself, and the best way to do it is to read consciously and note how other brilliant authors do it.

TELL THEM WHAT THEY WANT

Imagine for a moment, Renee gets her kiss with her blue eyed, freckled girl in the last scene of the book. Imagine the first line of the book was actually 'Renee had a secret, she liked girls' and the line before the kiss, at the very end of the book was: 'All Renee had ever wanted was to be kissed by a girl with blue eyes and freckles.'

Maybe you, the writer, knew that from the start. However, if you forget to tell the reader, then the fact that this payoff is FINALLY happening, has no impact. Because they reader had no idea. Or maybe you mentioned it at the start of the book, and never again, so the reader forgot. Either way, the impact is completely lost. The narrative traction isn't there.

It seems overly simple, but to introduce narrative traction to readers, the easiest way is to tell them what they want. Or tell them what they don't know. Give them information that allows them to have expectations for what is coming.

If we opened the book with: 'All Renee had ever wanted was to be kissed by a girl with blue eyes and freckles.' Then the book turned into a horror with no romance or kissing of any kind, it would be kind of stupid, because we would be wasting the opening line on something irrelevant, but it would also be misleading. With that opening line, we are telling the reader Renee will kiss a girl with blue eyes and freckles, or that we will subvert their expectations, and have her kiss someone else through some sort of personal growth or development.

Don't make promises you don't intend to keep, but also don't keep promises you never made in the first place.

So once again, the process is:

1. Make a promise that the reader wants to see fulfilled.

2. Withhold that promise to keep them reading.

3. Fulfil that promise in a way that makes them want something else.

PLOTTING & IDENTIFYING

If you are a pantser, I wish you all the luck in the world. However, if you are a plotter, you would be well served making a note of your narrative traction arcs in your synopsis. How you go about this depends greatly on how you write your synopsis, however mine a laid out something like this:

Chapter One – Day One

Scene:  Opening line: “What if the whole family moves to New York for me, and I’m not good enough?”

TELYN and WYNN are walking home. Wynn is worried about the move to California because their parents SOPHIE and JACOB are giving up their jobs so WYNN can pursue his acting career. Telyn is excited about the move, desperate to get out of their very boring small town where she is being bullied and reassures him it will be fine.

They are confronted by COOPER, a local deadbeat, who attempts to mug them. He grabs Telyn and the BONEFALL occurs. The sky rends and a leviathan skeleton crashes down on the town. Lightening rips through all of them and most petrol tanks and gas lines explode.

Purpose: 1. Introduces WYNN, TELYN and COOPER.  2. Introduces setting. 3. Introduces primary conflict.

Hooks: 1. Wynn worried about the affect his career will have on his family, worried about failing.

2. The mugging, will they be injured?

3. The Bonefall, what is happening? What is it? How is it happening?

4. Will they survive the explosion and lightning strike?

Beats: Action/adventure. Mystery. Wonder.

Characters: Telyn, Wynn, Cooper (Vivian, Sophie and Jacob mentioned).

From this chapter and scene, hooks 2 and 4 will be resolved in the next scene—though with ongoing implications for the rest of the book. Hook 3 will be sustained not just through book 1, but through all three books of the trilogy. Hook 1 is rendered completely moot by hook 3. This chapter is designed to be around 3500 words long.

At least as many, if not more traction lines are introduced in chapter 2.

I haven't noted when the threads will be resolved, because that is something that comes quite naturally to me. However, having all the hooks listed in your synopsis can help a lot, since when you are editing, you can check you didn't forget any. Everyone hates dangling plot threads.

TROUBLESHOOTING

Troubleshooting is usually going to happen with those two questions I mentioned at the start. 'Did the opening paragraph grip you?' and 'Where did you start to lose interest?'

Generally, you need beta readers to fix narrative traction issues. People who will be honest about these things are the best beta readers in the world. Love them, cherish them, even if what they say stings a little. Places where the story loses narrative traction are places where you have failed to convey your excitement about the plot. Unless you also find the scene boring, in which case you knew it was flawed before it went to the beta reader and you deserve it.

If you have worked to put in narrative traction, it can be very hard to find where it drops, because the problem is one of clarity and communication. There are ideas you have not explained to the reader. You might have forgotten to tell them what they want. Which is why a virgin pair of eyes is vital.

The worst-case scenario is that your ideas just aren't big and interesting enough, which is going to require a lot of re-writes and reconsidering of your plot. However, remember, sweet romances sell well and they have very little in terms of plot and high stakes. They do have a huge depth of emotion though, so if your narrative traction is lacking, it might be an emotional problem, rather than one you can fix with more explosions.

Generally, if your characters don't care, your readers don't care either. So even if the stakes are high, if your character is blasé about it, the reader will be too.

Remember the line is 'All Renee had ever wanted was to be kissed by a girl with blue eyes and freckles.' ALL SHE EVER WANTED. That's a lot of emotion right there. There is yearning in that. 'It would be hot to be kissed by a girl with blue eyes and freckles' does not have the same pull.

FINALE

You have reached the end of the narrative traction series! I hope it was as amazing for you as it was for me. Pacat's lessons on Narrative Traction boosted my understanding of writing tenfold in about an hour. While I didn't manage to do it as succinctly or elegantly as she did, I hope you learned a lot you can apply to your own writing.

Remember to follow me on twitter if you want updates of what my cats look like on a daily basis.

POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

1. What Is Narrative Traction

2. Types Of Narrative Traction

3. Infomational Narrative Traction

4. Event Based Narrative Traction

5. How To Create Narrative Traction

6. Troubleshooting, Plotting & Identifying