Writing is a Job…
I think one of the best lessons I’ve learned about writing recently is that it has to be treated like a job. I used to write on a few short stories when a character or event struck me as interesting, and then I’d put it aside and when I came back to it I’d forgotten exactly what was interesting or where I was going. As a result I have plenty of half-finished short stories growing dusty in the depths of my computer’s hard drive that may never be finished.
I used to blame ‘writer’s block’ for not finishing my stories, but the truth was it was ‘writer’s lazyness’. One day of “I can do this tommorow” would turn into two, and two would turn into six and six would turn into a couple weeks. Then, by the time I was ready to work on it again the flow was gone.
So yes, writing is a lot of fun! But it’s also a lot of work! Just because the words don’t just flow onto the paper like a torrent the moment you sit down doesn’t mean you’re blocked, it means you need to just get started.
In the movie “Finding Forrester” the main character tells his young protege “The enemy of the writer is the blank page. Just write. It doesn’t have to mean anything, just type anything at all and eventually your own words will start coming.” This works for me, even when I end up re-writing the first paragraph half a dozen times, the act of just putting words to paper defeats writer’s block every time.
By the way, rent Finding Forrester, it’s an awesome writer’s movie. (Or a teacher’s movie for that matter!)
Some tips:
- Turn on music that provokes emotions for you (keep the TV off).
- Resist the urge to multi-task. Multi-tasking doesn’t mean more efficiency, it means less focus. (Those dirty dishes can wait!)
- Give yourself at least an hour and a half of uniterrupted time to write. (Shut the door, turn off the phone and tell friends you will have time for them in an hour!)
- Don’t stress out about ‘how it’s said’ in the first draft, just get it down on paper. There’s plenty of time for rewriting and refining later!
- Workevery day or every other day. (Never go more than 3 days, you’ll spend a lot of time rereading for the flow! This is not to say you can’t take vacations, but best not to do it in the middle of a work!)
- Above all, enjoy what you’re writing and don’t be afraid to let the characters go off on their own tangents. Mine do all the time!
~Kris
“En mi verso estoy libre”
