Baby Steps, Baby Steps

In the 1991 Bill Murray film "What About Bob?" his neurotic character learns that if he uses the Baby Steps method perfected by Richard Dreyfus's' psychiatrist character he can attain his goals.
Yesterday I took Baby Steps until I thought I'd drop. Rereading the opening of my novel I knew it needed a stronger voice, a hook. The opening was good, but I'm pretty sure "good" doesn't land agents and publishing contracts. Yesterday was the day I quit composing bad poetry (Just a little hobby of mine. If I try to be intentionally bad, it's amazing what lands on the paper.)and sat down at the computer. I knew what I wanted to say. I thought I knew how I wanted to say it but what appeared on the screen before me was as big a load of crap as my bad poetry. Boy, was I pissed at myself. So, instead of whining and fuming I would have in the past. I got up from in front of the computer and strolled into the kitchen where my Muse was hanging out. For a change, she wasn't beckoning me with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Today she called to me with the melodious tones of the kitchen timer.
I punched in fifteen minutes and walked away. The goal was to keep physically busy for fifteen minutes without thinking about the novel's opening. My health has been a challenge lately so in order to complete housework it has to be done in small intervals some days. The dust on the master bedroom furniture was as deep as Hoosier snow in January so I grabbed my household implements and went to work. When the timer went off I was more than happy to drop the duster and sit back down at the computer, but not before I set the timer for fifteen more minutes.
Back at the keyboard I referred to a couple of pages scribbled on a junior legal pad (I defy anyone to decider the scraggly lines of ink.) I set about typing, fast and furious, getting words on paper was my primary goal at this point. I scarcely heard the timer's chime this time.
Rereading the two new opening pages was gratifying. The revisions now better relayed who the main characters were and hinted at the strange circumstances surrounding them. If that round with the timer didn't work I'd have reset it and continued the routine until I was satisfied. Don't be too hard on yourself. Satisfaction could have come from success that was measured in one or two words, or lines.
Baby Steps can work.
- bethany moran