Keeping Up the Pace

How many words per minute can you type?

Can you do 60 words or more a minute?

I wish I could.

Not because I think this skill will be of use in landing me a kick-butt secretarial job or some other recorder type position, but because I feel like my typing can't keep up sometimes with my train of thought or my ability to dream something up.  Not meant as a brag, just a fact.  I could probably rattle off a story into a microphone faster than I can type it.   Except I'm not really the "tell an oral story" kind of guy.  Much as I love the oral tradition, as it is called, I love the written word more.  Sometimes I can only ring out one idea or paragraph at a time and I plod along to get the job done.  Other times I feel like if it weren't for other obligations I could just write from dawn til' dusk.  Yes, those obligations even include potty breaks.  When I, or another writer, get into that coveted "leave me alone, I'm writing" groove it leaves me wondering:  can we as writers ever hope to keep up with our own ideas?   Do we lose great ideas that will never enter our heads again?  Can we compensate if our mind clicks along but the keyboard doesn't?

First, I have to say from experience it feels like a monumental task to keep up with my creative side when I can only crank out about 30-50 words a minute.  Just because I am a writer, doesn't mean I can zoom along the keyboard...well, most of the time.  I admit sometimes I feel like Mario and I can crash through mental barriers like I've just touched a invincibility star and writer's block is so many goombas.  I love those times, as I'm sure every writer does.  Should I feel bad for the times that ideas come more slowly though?  Maybe they just needed a bit of time to marinate.  I'd like to think that most times I can keep up with my own thoughts, but there are times when I can't.  Have you had those times?

I have been flying along at the keyboard, a scene is coming together just the way that I want then BAM!  I have to make a decision about one of five directions the story can take from there and sometimes they can be incorporated into a latter part of the story.  So the easy solution to that problem would seem to be that I could make a quick note to myself, and come back to that idea later after I pursue another one.  The problem is that it doesn't always work that way for a writer.  Some times you can see for miles down the writing road, but you know that once you start on one path, you can't see those other paths quite as clearly.  Sure, you can kind of trace them there in the distance and you know their final destination if you check a map or look at the notes you took.  But much like real life, a map can only tell you so much, and a seeing a map of where things go is not the same as seeing the road that gets you there.  At times like that I envy the cartoonists and artists that I know, both at home and on twitter.  Artists like Apelad or Walmazan create several iterations of a design and can show it off and the viewer can get a clear picture of the ideas they were going for in each design.  I am not sure if it is easier, but when I get stuck trying to remember where a certain pathway was going, I envy their talent for making a picture convey more than just a thousand words.  So how do we compensate for those times when we have lost a thought or know that we might have had a fantastic idea that we totally lost track of?

I wish I had a fantastic answer or that one was out there either online or in a book.

I've heard everything from "write it down" to "draw a picture about it when it comes along," nothing seems to work though.  Sometimes you are blessed and you can easily lock on to that old road you nearly took and add it to the story you were writing.  Sometimes you totally forget why that particular arc was interesting or so full of promise.  Either way, you need to keep pace with yourself and keep writing.

So here I am writing, trying to keep up a pace that will help me not only stay ahead of my thoughts, but will hopefully allow me to stride confidently down whatever story path I choose.  I hope those of you who actually read this blog can stride ahead too and keep up a good pace.