Top Ten Writing Tips #3 – Writers Write
There have been times when I’ve tried to write myself out of a shitty life situation. I can now report my findings – it didn’t work. What I did manage to do was write a lot. I took it seriously, I was motivated.
Rule #1: Writers Write. That piece of advice was right up there in the first ‘How To’ books I read. Later on I turned my back on it as trite truism, I thought I knew it all. Of course writers write, that’s what they do, well, duh. One day I got it through my thick skull that writing is a journey and the learning never ends. (In fact why would you ever want it to?) That I did in fact know three-quarters of fuck all and I would be a wise man indeed if I remembered that. Then I rediscovered this simple piece of advice and it unfolded all of its koan-like wisdom.
You can’t edit a blank page, and no matter how much pleasure you get from the finished work, you cannot experience the satisfactions of having written unless you’ve actually written something in the first place. I do know some people who seem to prefer having written to the writing itself. Personally, I think they’re focused on the wrong thing – getting published. It’s important but it follows on. First of all – well, you know where I’m going here.
So, writers write. Except that often we don’t. So often it seems we’d rather be doing something else.
How can it be so difficult to actually do the thing we want to do? There’s no such problem with the day job*. The more I write the more I understand the clichéd theatrical lovies telling each other how marvellous they were. When you write you’re putting yourself out there, your writing will be judged, and as a consequence so will you. ‘Darling, you were wonderful.’ You have no control over all those various opinions, including being totally, utterly and comprehensively ignored. What with your own opinion of their opinions it can all get a bit anxious. That’s just your ego talking.
Getting started at the beginning of the session is the thing for me. Once I can do that, I’m off. Wake up, shower, cup of tea, sit down and write. This is the method that gets me started and if I insert anything else into that process I can easily waste an hour, or a morning, an entire day.
Keeping going is another thing. My concentration during writing time ebbs and flows. Some days I’m head down and writing for hours at a time, the more usual day has a lot of wandering around. I’ve learned to take deliberate breaks. Words should pull you along, you shouldn’t have to push them. If they’re not coming then ten minutes in the garden , a little housework, some brief exercise lets me refocus. Often it’s because I need to think about what I’m doing, and insisting on writing, writing, writing, doesn’t let me do that. (Writers write, don’t they?)
Long term concentration on the project is something else. My opinion on my writing changes almost hourly – This is the best thing anyone ever wrote, ever! This is a steaming crock, I don’t know why I bother. We’ve all been there. One thing I’ve learned is not to compare the current first draft with the finished piece I wrote before. You have to be motivated, and that means you need to love what you’re writing, be fascinated by it, the story, the characters, the situation. Pwimula Nesbytt and the Underground Empire!. Yay! If you don’t, nobody else will.
I think it’s vital to get your own ego out of the way of the writing process. It’s not about you, it’s the story. I’ve told myself this so many times it’s almost become a mantra.
Yes, put your passion into your writing, yes, write about what you want, say what you want to say. Be as funny or scary, weird or sexy or exciting as you can (or all of them, if you can do that I salute you.). Whatever some people tell you there is no Must or Must Not in writing. Rule #2 – There are no rules of technique. That’s not to say there are not plenty of guidelines and strong suggestions, from punctuation to mythic structures. You’d be wise to learn them, but there are always exceptions.
However you do it make your writing time part of your routine, build it into life so it becomes as automatic as breakfast. Be serious about your writing but don’t take it seriously. It’s not about you, it’s about the story. Writers write.
Next week – Kill your darlings.
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*The best way I ever found to prevaricate is to have two jobs. Mine were writing and leatherwork. I prevaricated about one by doing the other. It was quite productive.
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