Keep Going Back to Your Writing
Keep Going Back to Your Writing
No matter how often you quit
The Story Writer’s Path
No matter how often you quit
I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled columns on aspects of story for a very important message.
Keep going back to your writing.
No matter how often you quit, go back to it.
Because quitting is easy. Moving forward is hard.
It’s hard when you don’t know where you’re going. Or when you’re not sure you can accomplish the task you’ve set out for yourself. (Like, say, writing a novel, or a memoir.) Hard when you don’t know what the next word should be, let alone a scene or a chapter.
How do I know this?
I know the cycle of quitting intimately. Because I’ve quit a million times. And, true confession: I almost quit Nanowrimo this weekend as well. I got busy and distracted. During my usual early-morning writing sessions, my brain was so full up I couldn’t concentrate. I skipped one day, then two.
But on the third day, I forced myself back to it. I wasn’t sure I could do it. But I wrote one word, and then another, and then another. And pretty soon I had laid down one thousand of them.
Why You Should Do NaNoWriMo This Year
November is right around the corner. Ready to write a novel in a month?writingcooperative.com
As I write this, we’re eleven days from the end of November. Maybe your efforts at Nanowrimo aren’t looking like so much fun anymore. Maybe you are sick of the novel you started with such hope at the beginning of the month. Maybe you just plain hate writing.
Maybe you’ve even decided to quit.
But don’t do it. Go back.
I’m not the only one
This week I got an email from a client. She was writing an apology for not being ready for a coaching appointment this week. She’d taken a look at the story she was working on and decided it was worthless. Unsalvageable. Nothing further could be done to it.
But then something caught her eye in the story and she began to work on it. I’m not sure exactly what she did — maybe tinkered with one word. And from there she could see that
How to not quit
The blythe, easy answer is to unearth the old slogan: just do it. But that’s not helpful when you’re in the throes of angst about the state of your work and your ability to get back to it. So try some of these strategies:
Set a tiny goal
Tell yourself all you have to do is open the file for your story. Really. That’s all you have to do today! Tomorrow you can open the file and read a few sentences. The next day you can set a timer and write for five minutes. Baby steps.
The thing that’s so great about baby steps is that they often work to engage you despite your best efforts. You open the file and even though you swear you’re not going to, you read a sentence. Hmmm. That’s not so bad, you think. And then the next sentence pops into your mind. Don’t look now — but you’re writing.
And even if this doesn’t happen, you can allow yourself to work up to it gradually. Eventually your brain is going to get so tired of your baby steps that it will scream, “All right, all ready! Let’s just freaking write.”
Lay off the perfection
Since its November and we’ve been talking about Nanowrimo, odds are good you are working on a first draft of your story. So, remember, the purpose of this draft is to finish. You can always change the words later! But by putting words on the page, you at least have something to work with when later comes. If you don’t put words on the page, you won’t have anything.
Just write. Even if it’s nonsense. Even if you are cursing yourself for writing such terrible dreck. Keep writing. I guarantee it is not as bad as you think. And, let me repeat — the purpose of this draft is to finish. It is not to be perfect.
Remember nobody ever has to read your work
You don’t have to share your pages with anybody until you want to. You can hide it from family and friends as long as you like. It never has to see the light of day if you don’t want it to! (But I hope you will want it to eventually.) Your story can remained locked away on the computer until you are ready.
So there’s nothing to fuss about. Nobody is going to see it. So write whatever you want, however you want. Go wild. Spread craziness across the page. Or write as pedantically as your college English professor spoke.
Who cares? Nobody! Go for it!
Talk to yourself
Years ago, a wise mentor told me how she coaxes herself to the page. She tells herself to write one word. And then one sentence. And then she congratulates herself and says, “Okay, you did that. Now you can write another one!” On she goes until she’s in the flow and no longer has to encourage herself.
You can tell yourself terrible things — like what an awful writer you are — or you can tell yourself kind things. Do the latter. Tell yourself that you can do it, and sure enough, you’ll be able to.
Reduce your expectations
Maybe you have a newborn baby. Maybe you just started a stressful new job. Maybe the time is simply not right for you to set out on the story-writing path. Perhaps you might want to lower your expectations.
I once had a writing friend who was overwhelmed with life but still had a burning desire to write. She set herself a goal of writing one sentence a day for a year. And she did it! At the end of the year, she had 365 sentences. I’m not sure if those sentences ever turned into anything, but it set her on a path toward writing. She now attends a weekly writing workshop.
As goes your writing, so goes your life
I’ve got a news flash for you: this applies to all aspects of your life as well.
So if you’re pushing forward in your writing, it’s easier to push forward with your other life goals. And vice versa.
So, please, do me a big favor. Don’t quit. Move forward. I know you can do it!