As a guest on the blogsite Life in the First Draft, author Judi Moreo shared her “funky little writer habits.” Get the inside scoop below:
I am an idea hoarder. I write my ideas on anything made of paper. Napkins, labels, church programs, edges of magazine pages, note pads, journals, cardboard….then I save up all these pieces of paper making file folder after file folder of the subject matter. I now have three file cabinets of ideas, articles, and notes on subjects from Attitude to Writing….I don’t have any XYZ files yet. Only A-W.
Then when I have one of my “genius” ideas of what would make a great book or a great article, I get out one of the files (the one most related to the idea) and start reading all of the notes, which then need to be put into categories and/or outline form. If it is a book, I write what I perceive to be the easiest chapter first. Easy means I have the most notes made and it will take less work to get that one done. Then I do the next easiest one and the next. Before long the book is half finished and all that’s left is the hard part, which doesn’t seem hard now because the book is well on its way.
I like to write my chapters as stand alones, so when the reader picks up my books, they could open to any chapter, read that chapter and feel like they got an entire story from the one chapter. The chapters do build on one another to make a whole…but if the reader never read the whole book, they’d still get valuable information.
In my office where I write, I have paintings that I have done on the wall. I have them hanging there to remind myself that there was a time when I didn’t believe I could paint. So if I get stuck and don’t believe I can write, or don’t believe I can create something new, then I look at my paintings and remind myself that I can do whatever I put my mind to doing.
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