“I am a plotter – I absolutely have to know what’s going to happen in the next chapter…”
Novelist Andrea Mara tells how switching her schedule solved her productivity problem
“I write in the morning when my kids are at school, and again at night when they’re in bed, but I found I was struggling with productivity. I am a plotter – I absolutely have to know what’s going to happen in the next chapter, otherwise I either meander all over the place or sit staring at a blank page. But then half my morning was being taken up with plotting, leaving me frustrated about how little time I was actually spending writing. Then at night, I was too tired to write with any great productivity.
So I switched things around – now I always plot at night, so I’m ready to go at 9am the following morning – straight down to writing. I am much better at paper-and-pen plotting at night than I ever was at writing too. The only sad thing is it took me two years to realise I needed to shift things around!
The other thing I’ve started recently is promising myself a treat at every 10,000 words. If I don’t get a chance to hit the shops I double up at the next milestone. It might be a nail varnish or a new dress, but it definitely helps keep me pushing up the word count!”
Andrea Mara’s latest novel is The Sleeper Lies, a mystery thriller set during the big snow of March 2018, and is out now. Her two previous psychological thrillers are The Other Side of the Wall and One Click (Poolbeg Press),
The Other Side of the Wall was shortlisted for the 2018 Kate O’Brien Award and One Click was shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year in the 2018 Irish Book Awards.Find out more about Andrea at http://officemum.ie/
This article was taken from the book Seven Creative Gremins.
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