CREATING THE RIGHT MINDSET FOR WRITING

Each time I sit down to work on revising a manuscript, it's different, and I'm trying to do something different for the story. I'm not talking about editing - that's a different process. I'm talking about what the story needs from me. Do I need to get the chronology, the timeline, clear? See how each character ends up where they are at each point? Understand how the conflict affects each of them? 

This time, I am looking at the hardest revision of all: Re-visioning - the entire story. Seeing it whole, and, simultaneously, taking it apart piece by piece.

And putting it back together, maybe adding, maybe cutting, but re-shaping, re-writing, re-encountering each character, each scene, each moment as though I'd never encountered them before and discovering their true nature.

Every time I get to this point with a manuscript, how I get there - how I get in the frame of mind that will let me re-envision a story that has lived in my bones for two years - is different. And harder every time.

I've read many things about how other writers manage this - getting in the right mind-set for the work you have to do.  Ursula Le Guin has said that she washes dishes.  Raymond Carver isolated himself in his office.  Others go for a walk, paint a wall, run, knit, build, go on a trip.   I think the particular thing that you do is important in only one way:   that it works for you.  Experiment, find what brings that frame of mind, that intense focus on the story you are telling, and do that thing.  Mostly, for me, it's been walks.  This time, however, I'm finding that I need the right piece of music.  
During the time I've worked on this manuscript, that "right piece" has ranged from Paperback Writer by the Beatles, to Mozart's Concerto No. 20, to Gotta Get Up by Harry Nilson, to the current selection, the one-hit wonder Spirit In the Sky.
 
The point is, as my Zen teacher used to say:   PAY ATTENTION.  Do what's working, and only you can know what that will be  Maybe you will need to try something you've never tried before., maybe it will mean returning to or recreating an environment that is safe and comfortable for you. But pay attention to those moments when strong focus and insight come - don't let them get away.  Stop.  Look around, and take note of what the conditions are.  Then try re-creating them for yourself as often as possible.   

I was stuck on my current novel some weeks ago, and went to a local bar just three or four blocks from my house.  I sat there drinking coffee (it was in the early morning) and eating eggs, scratching at the yellow pad I'd brought with me.  Nothing happened.  Spirit In the Sky came on the jukebox, and suddenly I was writing like a maniac.    Writer's block broken.