Lesson 4

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Finished Act 3

Doing this assignment, I learned that despite my thick outline, I still have holes in the story. The great thing is I’m figuring out how to fill them.

Rating of My Use of the High Speed Writing Rules

A. Consistently use.

B. Some use.

C. Need to start using.

Rated B: Rule 1: Use empowering self-talk. Cheer yourself on.

Rated A: Rule 2: Understand writing in drafts.

Rated A: Rule 3: Choose speed over quality for EARLY drafts.

Rated B: Rule 4: Allow yourself to start (or continue) without all the answers.

Rated B: Rule 5: Keep moving. Don’t allow yourself to ever stall out.

Rated B: Rule 6: Even if you can’t create it now, you will be able to at some point in the future.

[Jack Young]

Jack Young’s Finished Act 3 for “STREAM”

I learned that I was trying to pack too much story in one act and had to do some rethinking of the structure and scenes. As always, I tried to have fun while writing and stuck to the scenes as much as possible.

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – FINISHED ACT 3

What I learned doing this assignment is that writing is so much more, well, fun doing it high speed. Having already done the thinking part in the outline, I find myself free to write without thinking, as that has already been accomplished in the outline.

When I look back at my perfectionist method, it really was a combination of thinking and creating and the thinking part was always getting in the way of creating. And the opposite was also true, that creating was always getting in the way of thinking.

Not that the outline is not creative. But it involves a lot of making things make sense. It has to be rational so it can move.

Once the outline has assumed the burden of rational ideas, the Act seems free to go wherever.

For me, separating the flow of ideas (outline) from the flow of feelings (scene) makes writing a lot more fun. Or so it seems. It’s a mystery.

A. Consistently use.

B. Some use.

C. Need to start using.

Rule 1: Use empowering self talk. Cheer yourself on. – B

Rule 2: Understand writing in drafts. – A

Rule 3: Choose speed over quality for EARLY drafts. – A

Rule 4: Allow yourself to start (or continue) without all the answers. – B

Rule 5: Keep moving. Don’t allow yourself to ever stall out. – B

Rule 6: Even if you can’t create it now, you will be able to at some point in the future! – B

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble’s Finished Act Three

What I learned: I’m using the high-speed method more comfortably and consistently now. While I’m still uncomfortable leaving scenes unwritten, I’m gaining a lot more empowerment but pushing through and moving ahead rather than being stuck on those scenes. Taking care of three kids and working part-time doesn’t give me much writing time, so I’ve found it’s important for me to keep moving forward and wherever I end on a given day, that’s all that’s going to get written on that particular act, at least until the end of this draft. It has kept me in a mode of seeing the big picture rather than getting hung up on scenes or details, which is refreshing.