I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that I spend a good deal of my time on auto-pilot.
Any rote kind of activity in my life—laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the kitchen counter—it’s sort of committed to muscle memory. Sometimes, when I’m done with it, I don’t even have any memory of having done it and I have to check myself (this is what happens when you write books in your head while you do housework.)
Unfortunately, I was apparently on auto pilot a couple of days ago when I went to the grocery store.
Going to the store is another activity that sometimes doesn’t require a lot of thought. It does if I’m going for special ingredients, but there are some trips that are just to replace staples from the pantry—and I don’t even need a list for those trips. I need milk, bread, fresh fruit, sandwich meat…you know.
So yesterday, I show up at the store and I’m apparently not even really there. I load up my cart, pulling things off the shelves, then go to the checkout line—and I have no money with me.
No money. That’s right. I’d gone to the lake with my sister and had changed my pocketbook and put my money and debit card into a beach bag.
So I left my cart at the store, told the cashier I’d forgotten my money (yes, she looked a little worried about me) and drove home for the debit card and cash. And then drove back to the store, got the fully-loaded cart and checked out.
You’d have thought forgetting to bring money to the store would have been enough to shake me out of auto pilot for the rest of the day. But then when I was unloading the groceries I apparently resumed it—and left the milk in the trunk.
There are certain things that I do when I write a book that put me on auto pilot. The story is never on auto pilot (that would be a bad thing), but the way I just keep on going, plowing through to the end, staying in the writing zone is me just doing what I always do…following the usual path. If I’ve really gotten into the groove of a plot, I feel like I’m almost just the typist, putting the story on the page. The characters tell me their bits of dialogue, I watch them as they lie to my sleuth, and the story just unfolds on the screen.
If I run into a plot wrinkle, I’d rather just keep on going and iron it out during revisions. Again, I’m just plowing through to the finish line.
But there are some problems that are big enough that I stop immediately to fix. Because if I just keep to my usual auto pilot plan for quickly working through to the end of the first draft, these problems will balloon and be more of a pain to fix later.
These are problems I pay attention to as I’m writing that can pull me out of my auto pilot zone:
The protagonist seems to be coming off as unlikeable. Or flat.
The character seems to have changed—a lot. With no reasonable explanation.
The plot is unfocused…and not in an easily-fixed way.
The main characters’ behavior doesn’t seem to have any motivation.
Now I still like to keep on plowing ahead. If I shake up my routine too much then it messes me up. But what I like to do with these major problems is to immediately make the change to the rest of the manuscript from that point on. I mark the point where I straightened out the character or plot issues in the margin of the manuscript with a Track Changes comment…then I can fix the earlier part of the story during revisions.
Do you ever find yourself on auto pilot with your writing routines? What shakes you out of it?
The main way I keep from going off track is that I’m never quite ON track. I can’t do things in a fully linear fashion. I tend to skip around in a story, and if something doesn’t fit with something further on, it’s easier to notice.
In some ways I suppose I do a rough draft in my head. I’ll often go over scenes a number of times, especially key ones, feeling for the right tone or the right emotional texture. Sometimes I keep going over them after I have got it set.
It feels kind of like rehearsal – and maybe that’s what makes it work. I “rehearse” it until it fits. (And I usually end up dreaming the story too.)
My problem is that my unconscious takes over sometimes, and I will continue to rehearse things I don’t need to.
Ahh the auto pilot. Without it I couldn’t get through my days.
I’m not yet on auto pilot with writing. I have to actually have my hands on the wheel.
Teresa
Elizabeth – Oh, I know exactly what you mean about auto-pilot! I do that, too, and I’ve been known to do some pretty weird things because of it. Writing-wise, I do go on auto-pilot sometimes, but not often. When I do, the first thing I notice that “wakes me up” is the “implausibility alarm.” I’ll write a scene and then realize “Oh, that couldn’t happen! He was in another place just five minutes ago!” or “She wouldn’t say that. She’s trying to hide_____.” That’s when I “wake up” and realize I have to stop and go back.
My habit is to print out the newly completed scene and read it at night. I’ll mark up anything that jumps out at me, and the next morning I use that as my ‘get into writing mode’ starter (after popping in to some blogs!). I’m anal about fixing things as I go, but if I come across something I know needs help, I’ll note it using the Document Map, so I can find it easily. I’ll also use ^^ markers in the ms when I just don’t want to waste time finding the perfect metaphor, or what kind of a car the character drives.
As for the forgettery stuff–I do that all the time, writing or not. Have gone to the Post Office to mail packages but left them at home. And walked all the way down to the mailbox with my house key instead of the mailbox key. And more.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Romance with a Twist–of Mystery
Sometimes I’m going along great when I realize what I just typed is either not feasible or not logical. I should probably mark it and come back to it, but I usually stall until I can rework the scene.
this is my big thing in life – being unaware of the current reality. It is why I do sitting practice and in fact why I’m a Buddhist. If we miss the joy of our process because we are so focussed on our product we have robbed both ourselves and our potential and actual readers. There. that’s all I’m going to say.
Yes, and when I do the edits I notice it right away because it’s so boring to read or it makes you groan.
I hate when my character does something so out of the ordinary. She’s weak and then all of the sudden she’s brave. Or she’s brave and then does something cowardly.
Great post.
CD
I’m dealing a lot with my character’s motivation. I want to keep things fresh and full of conflict. Ack!
Great post:)
I spend SO MUCH time on autopilot! I have large chunks of time where I realize I haven’t paid any attention AT ALL.
With the writing, unfortunately, when I notice those things I tend to OVER correct… I need to maybe step back and figure out the balance. In my Cozy I thought I’d been too subtle with the killer, and my correction made (killer) too obvious… now I am cleaning up the other direction.
When I realize that I’ve been editing on auto pilot — NOT a good thing! Most of the time, finding myself in this mode is indicative of needing to take a break.
Being aware and recognizing when you find yourself working this way is one thing; realizing it before too much damage is done can be a challenge!
I love this, Elizabeth! My tendency is to revise as I go along, which can lead to big problems — like never finishing the book, or finding you’ve wasted massive amounts of time perfecting a scene that has to be cut. I’m going to adapt your methods (and Terry’s too -thanks) to keep myself ploughing through before serious revisions. Thankyou.
Thanks so much for this post. It is opening up a world of possibilities for me.
I absolutely love how you discuss exactly what might make you stop and rethink, or plow on while writing a manuscript draft.
Also, thanks to the others who posted comments here. They’ve been very helpful too.
Camille–I do some of that, too–writing out of order. But if I do too much of it, I can get confused with my scene transitions. Or just confused, period!
I like that you do rehearsals in your head.I bet that comes in handy for revisions, too. I tend to think about future scenes (like the next day’s writing) but not usually the ones I’ve already written.
Journaling Woman–As I should!
Jane–But the good thing is that you go back to the manuscript and fix it. I think a lot of writers just get hung up on that one bad spot.
Margot–Implausibility–good point. That IS a big alarm. Small things will get past me but the big ones will definitely cause me to snap to.
Jan–You’re *absolutely* right. We should be living in the moment…I couldn’t agree more. I think, with me, that when I think TOO MUCH about what I’m doing when I’m writing then I freak myself out–either over the deadline, or my insecurities over the story, or my ability to carry off the plot, etc. It must be my self-defense mechanism against overthinking!
Clarissa–I think I groan all the way through my edits!
I know what you mean. Not good to have a character act out of character, but it’s easy to have happen.
Terry–I use asterisks. :) If I don’t want to come up with a minor character’s last name right then, or can’t think of the right word, I just leave it for later and keep on going.
The memory thing is the worst, isn’t it? I’m SO absentminded. I think if I paid more attention to things then I would actually save myself a lot of time.
Hart–The worst part is when you’re driving and suddenly you arrive at your location and you don’t even remember the drive over! Or is that just me? :)
Over-correction! I’ve done that, too. It’s hard to find a balance sometimes.
Crystal–It definitely is a challenge! And sometimes I *don’t* see it…and that’s when my agent or editor asks for revisions (and it’s more of a pain dealing with it at that point.)
Linda–Honestly, I can’t even look at what I’ve written until I’m done with the first draft–it makes me really insecure about the story. With minor problems that I realize are happening as I’m writing, I just use Word’s highlighter function and its Track Changes’ comment function to make a quick note to myself for after the first draft. But when I see one of those real BIG problems, I’ve learned it’s better to take care of it right away. Good luck with it!
J.L–I’m so glad it helps. :) And I run into lots of problems while writing a WIP…today I was writing and realized I’d left out a big scene that was to lead up to the one I was writing today. But you know, I just pretended that scene was written, made a note in the margin to remind myself to write the scene during draft 2, and wrote today’s bit. I know that’s less of a big deal than some of the other issues I run into…it’s something I can slip in later during the second draft.
I tend to plow ahead as well. I had to stop and go back on my current project though, but something didn’t feel quite right – and then I had several great ideas for plot twists appear. Rather than continue writing a scene that I knew would never happen, I went back to the beginning and began inserting my changes – which of course, change the course of the story a bit.
And is there any way to get through the grocery store other than on auto pilot?
Auto pilot can be so annoying! It definitely happens more often when I’m tired :)
My autopilot just sent me the wrong way: read, scroll, read, scroll, click on comment, comment–only I didn’t click on comment, I clicked on date! Not a big problem, completely fixable, but the result of an autopilot and multi-tasking crash.
As for writing, I would have to HAVE a routine to get stuck in autopilot! But I will say I think stories written on autopilot are obvious–obviously bad!
Michele
SouthernCityMysteries
You had the chance to get some real crime experience there, Elizabeth. You could have stolen the groceries and just run away. Easy enough, you didn’t have to take it to the point where you killed the cashier and stuff like that >:)))
Cold As Heaven