Being a writer is a tough gig, as previously noted. Hugely satisfying, and the only thing you can do if you are called to it, but it is a demanding task mistress and at all but the highest levels, the pay is low.
So you might as well have fun while you are doing it. I’ve been pondering how, exactly, we creatives might have success setting the brain free. And below are some tips. Some of these may be familiar to you, but often it takes reading something several times before it really lodges in the mind. And some might be new to you. Consider them all and think about how you can put them to use in your writing life.
Write hard and fast for the discovery draft. Throwing words at the page with abandon, when time passes, and you don’t even know it, and afterward you’re in love with the world—this is why, I believe, most writers start writing. It is wonderful experience. It gets harder to achieve this state when you are writing professionally, but….you need to. This is when the magic happens.
Don’t confuse writing with rewriting. Don’t labor over every word as you write. Let the words rip. And also, don’t labor over the first chapters of the book, going back over it and over it. This is a sure way to get blocked. Write your discovery draft from start to finish and then you can begin revising. You’ll know much more about the book when you get to the end, trust me.
Write bad. If you are well and truly blocked, this is an exercise that will help set your brain free. Write one bad page. Force yourself to write the worst crap you can think of. Here’s the thing: you won’t. Because you are basically a good writer, so writing bad doesn’t come naturally. But once you allow yourself to write bad, that takes the pressure off.
How do you keep your brain and creativity free?
A (much) longer version of this was first published on Medium, which is a site that encourages longer reads. You can read that version here. I’ve got other posts on writing up there, too!
I realized that, if you’re like me (and since you are a writer, you probably are, in some small way at least), it takes you forever awhile to make up your mind about things. Because, as writers, we must ponder the overall story of every thing that crosses our paths. Am I right? Also, there was this holiday, at least in the states, called Thanksgiving, which, since it is most often a family affair, can either be a wonderful distraction or a horrible distraction, depending on where you fall down on the idea of family. But either way it’s a distraction. And perhaps, like me, you were out of town with limited wi-fi.
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Isn’t that wonderful? L’Engle had presented such an incredible picture of what it’s like to lead the writer’s life that even non-writers got swept up in the vision. And to me, it just reinforced what I already knew: that writing is the best passion in the world. There’s nothing I love more than being totally enraptured by a story I’m writing, or completely wrapped up in putting together an article about writing.
But there’s another reason beyond both of these, that I love writing. And that is because it constantly and consistently brings me back to myself. Through throwing words at the page, I write my way home, over and over again.
It’s easy to get lost these days. There’s a cacophony of noise out there—social media, news headlines, videos, a contentious and distracting presidential election. It is way to easy to drown in all of the input our poor overloaded brains take in on a daily basis and to feel confused, puzzled or out of sorts—without even knowing why. When this happens to me, I pull out my journal.
It is all too easy to sneer at journal writing as the purview of the wealthy who have nothing more important to do than write delicate entries about their fragile emotions. And yet, when one is in the grip of emotion, confounded about how to respond to the anxieties of the world, there is no better antidote than throwing words on the page. I went through a period, many years ago, when I wrote in my journal every day. That hasn’t been true of me for a long while, but I do journal in fits and spurts, regularly enough to call myself a journaler. At the start of this year, for instance, I filled an entire spiral with words. And then one day I was just done and I didn’t journal again for a long time.
Most often these days I don’t journal because I’d rather be writing fiction. If one has limited time to write, one must choose what one is going to write carefully. Also, if one wants to write fiction but is blocked, one can easily use journaling as an excuse! All those caveats aside, I do think every writer should consider keeping a journal at least sporadically, because it is so tremendously helpful in getting the crap out of your head and onto the page.
There’s all kinds of journaling you can do. I could write helpful snippets about writing morning pages , or keeping a gratitude journal, or writing unsent letters,, or writing about your day. But I’m not going to, because honestly, the best thing you can do is grab yourself a journal, open it up, and write. Start where you are now, wherever that is, and end when you’re finished. That’s all there is to it.
Do you write in a journal? Come on over to the blog and tell how you use it!