Is writer’s block getting you down? Can’t think of anything new or original to write? Find yourself second-guessing yourself and your creativity? Sitting before a screen and waiting for inspiration to smack you down? Well, I’ve got a special message for you.
Write! Now! Do it! Stop making excuses! Here’s a run-through of my tips to help make it happen.
- Prepare the writing space
- Eliminate distractions
- Tools of writing at the ready
- Carry a notebook at all times
- Make a routine
- Stick to it
- Finish it
Before breaking into my expanded tips on maintaining a prolonged mental state for large writing projects, let me say this: it’s essential to prepare the writing area before writing a word. There’s nothing worse than an unforeseen element ruining the fluidity of imagination once it gets flowing. Switch off everything that goes beep or buzz. That means social media. The internet needs to be put away. You can get back to all that stuff later. Writing is all that matters until your first draft is out. (Research can be done later – just make a note of what you don’t know and move on)
Make sure your tools-of-writing are ready to work. Paper, pencils, pens, and power in your laptop must be put in place before the journey into fantasy begins. And practice periodic saving every few minutes to save your sanity!
Make time for writing, only writing. It’s impossible to write an entire novel in five or ten-minute intervals. Good writing demands more than that to write a first draft. It’ll take up to six times more than that to edit that work and get it right for publishing.
Novels require their writer’s attention for hours at a time. Writing for eight or nine hours is not unusual for an author. When I write, I’ve found that it takes about two hours to re-engage with the previous day’s work, three hours of new, good material to flow, an hour of twiddling around with the new stuff and another hour checking to see if what was written flows well from the material that was written before it.
If you haven’t already got a writing routine, find one. Sit at your writing table at a prescribed time every day and stick to it. Make yourself do it. At first, it’ll be hard to do, but it gets easier as your brain reprograms itself. Eventually, your fingers will be dancing over the keyboard because they (and the brain) love routine! That’s where creativity meets discipline.
Two distractions threaten to sabotage any writing project of mine. One is external, and the other is not. A noisy neighbour with a leaf blower would be considered an external distraction. An internal distraction would be checking one’s phone. This one can be controlled. We can’t control the externals.
Self-induced distractions will kill a good write. Find a way to be alone with your soon-to-be-book and commit to it. Stop making excuses!
Carry a small notebook with you when you’re NOT writing your book – to write down character/plot ideas. This will give your mind something to work on when you’re away from your desk. It’s surprising how much content you’ll gather by the time you sit down to write again. (I DON’T use my phone to take notes – it’s too tempting to check phone notifications when it’s in my hand!)
Millions of authors BEGIN their new novels, but so few finish the work to see them published. A book is a book when all its pages are done, from first to last, and all the editing is done.
There ya go! Lesson over!
Enjoy your writing journey.
– Michael (Author of Dark Fiction “SEETHINGS”)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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