The Only Writing Tip You Ever Need
The Only Writing Tip You Ever Need
It will change your writing life
It will change your writing life
I’m not going to lead you on about this magical tip, or make you read a bunch of filler before I get to it. I’m going to give it to you right upfront.
Ready?
Here it is:
Sit down and write.
Sit down and write when you feel like it. Sit down and write when you don’t feel like it. Sit down and write when you have several hours to devote. Sit down and write when you have several minutes.
Sit your butt down and write.
Whenever and wherever you can.
Oh wait, what’s that you say? You don’t know what to say? You’re not sure what to write? Sit down and write. The words you are seeking will come as you write. You don’t think they will — you convince yourself they won’t — but trust me, they will.
I offered this tip to a friend of mine a few months ago. Over coffee last week, she told me it had changed her life and loosened a long-held writing block. Instead of sitting around waiting for the muse to tell her exactly what to write, she started writing — and the words came.
Get Over Your Writing Block Already
Because Writing is Easy, People, Compared to Other Jobsmedium.com
Because sooner or later, that’s what happens. It’s magic! Writing magic.
However. It is easy for me to sit on my side of the computer and tell you blithely to start writing when sometimes it is damned hard to get yourself to do it.
Why is this? I have a few theories — and fixes as well. Read on.
The smoke screen
Your brain doesn’t even let you connect with your desire to write. You’re so resistant to it that you forget about writing. Example: you have an unexpected free hour. You scroll through options of what you might do with it: laundry, mow the lawn, take a walk, read a magazine, nap. Writing isn’t even on the list, even though just the night before you bemoaned your lack of time to write to your spouse.
FIX: Schedule a regular writing time. Even if you can only manage 15 or 20 minutes on a regular basis, do it. Once your start writing consistently you’ll gain some momentum. And once you gain momentum your brain will start pondering aspects of your current story, rather than throwing up a smoke screen so dense you forget about writing.
Sustaining A Writing Practice Over the Long Haul
Tips and tricks to help youmedium.com
The scourge of perfection
You write a sentence and freeze. It’s such a bad sentence. How could you be such a bad writer? You go back and fix it. But it is still not right. On and on you go until you are so exhausted by the process of trying to get the words perfect that you give up.
FIX: Write one bad sentence. Or a whole bad page. Tell yourself it has to be bad. For real. Because here’s a tip: the most prolific writers don’t aspire to perfection. They aspire to completion. They get words on the page, and then they revise them.
The words don’t sound right
You’re writing a lot. You don’t have any trouble with flow or writer’s block or momentum. But you can’t quite get the words to sound the way you want them to. And yeah, you know all about rewriting but this draft just feels so off. You’re so far away from what you want that you give up.
FIX: Try a bit of organization ahead of time. (Use odd moments throughout the day for this, rather than taking your writing time.) Take notes (I love Google Keep for quick ideas when I’m not near my desk), make an outline or loose list, try a mind map. Corralling your thoughts before you write can make a huge difference in writing flow.
Know Where Your Writing is Going
Creating a Container for Your Creative Work Helps Solve Procrastinationmedium.com
The words won’t come
You sit down, place your hands on the keyboard, ready to go, and….nothing. You sit that way for a while, then get mad at yourself and try again. Nothing. You take a walk, come back. Still nothing. And so on, on and on and on until you give up in frustration.
FIX: Free write. The only way out is through and free writing will get you through this slump. The rules of free writing are simple: find a prompt (all over the internet and in books galore), set a timer for 15 minutes, grab pen and paper (you can do it on the computer if you insist, but handwriting is better)and write until the timer goes off. And by write, I mean write. Do not stop. Keep your hand moving across the page, even if you are writing the same word over and over again. Eventually you’ll move on. You might just be amazed at what comes out. If not, try again.
Distraction
You sit down to write and a notification comes across your phone. You attend to the text, but now you have to remember where you were. Or your phone rings. Or an email comes into your inbox. Or your husband calls to you from across the house. Or the dog barks. Or the cat demands his dinner….
FIX: Utilize one or many of the wonderful apps that exist to help you with this. They can’t get rid of all distractions (husbands, dogs, and cats for example) but they can help with the demons of phone and internet. I swear by brain.fm to help my brain focus, and there’s Freedom which limits internet access, Write or Die, which punishes you when you stop writing, and Moment, which tracks how much you use your phone.
Remember: sit down and write. That’s all you have to do. It’s the answer to everything. And I guarantee it will change your writing life.
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