30 Posts in 30 Days Challenge
How to Use Timed Writing To Your Advantage
Use this trick the next time you get stuck in your writing!
This is a hard truth: You will always struggle as a writer.
But who am I to tell you this? You already know.
As I’m writing this, it’s past 10 PM and I’m playing catch-up. I failed to post yesterday, so to make up for that, I am doing two posts today. No one will notice, right? Let’s keep this between us.
Now, why will you struggle?
It’s a Struggle Out There
My grandma used to say: Wake up, listen to your body. What does it say? Does it hurt? Good. Because the day you wake up and nothing hurts, you’re dead.
In addition to the baseline struggle of paying your bills, putting food on the table and living in late capitalism, you will have other worries. Personal struggles. Trauma. Mental health issues.
If you decide to become a writer, you will have the writer’s struggles. That’s a fact.
You’ll find it hard to come up with topics, with headlines. You will spend countless hours looking for just the right images for your content. I won’t go into detail about Social Media.
You may struggle to get published, you may struggle with feedback, you may struggle with your own expectations.
Then there is that particular struggle when your inspiration is low. Perhaps your motivation is high, perhaps you have your topic and your structure planned out but you can’t seem to get ahead.
Writer’s block. Whatever you wanna call it.
Freeing the Writer Within
Did you ever go to a writing class? I did a few but I’d really love to join a class by Natalie Goldberg.
The writing hack I want to share with you in this post comes from Natalie’s book Writing Down the Bones. It’s a great read. Very engaging, short chapters, essayistic approach. Natalie doesn’t care about handing you the ultimate writing manual. She stimulates your brain with this and that — and suddenly you want to write.
Writing Down the Bones is all about the writing practice. Like an athlete, that’s how a writer practices, too.
Timed writing is the basic unit of the writing practice, Natalie Goldberg says.
It’s best done with a piece of paper and a pen.
You sit down, decide on how long you are going to write for and then just start. Ten minutes is a great place to start. Set an alarm on your mobile phone, put it face down away from you and start writing.
How to Do Timed Writing
The main idea is to keep writing and not stop until your alarm goes off. Just keep your hand moving. Now you see why it’s crucial to do this in an analogue way. It’s easier to keep writing with a pen than with a computer screen and keyboard in front of you. It’s less distracting and more natural.
Here are Natalie’s rules:
1. Keep your hand moving. [Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.]
2. Don’t cross out. [That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn’t mean to write, leave it.]
3. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar. [Don’t even care about staying within the margins and lines on the page.]
4. Lose control.
5. Don’t think. Don’t get logical.
6. Go for the jugular. [If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.]
Try to stick to these rules, even if they seem hard. There will be temptation to reread, to cross out. Sometimes it happens automatically. It still irks me when I misspell something or have a bad sentence. Keep going.
It helps to remember that you don’t have to share this with anyone. This is for you.
Natalie wants you to burn through to “first thoughts”, a place where “you are writing what your mind actually sees and feels”. First thoughts aren’t heavy with ego. First thoughts are raw energy. They are what is happening, now, in the moment.
What’s the Big Deal With Timed Writing?
As I hinted at in my headline, timed writing can be beneficial to you. It can help with some of your writer’s struggles.
It’s a great freedom when you can write the biggest junk in the world before you get to the real thing. The sports metaphor I used before may not hold, but think of it as a warm-up. Maybe a practice run before the 5km, the 10km.
Sometimes you write for 10 minutes and nothing but trash comes out. That is okay.
Other times you find out what it is you actually want to say in your article, in your story.
It may even become difficult to put then pen down once you enter this sacred state of flow.
When I find it hard to say what I want to say, a timed writing practice can help me clear the cobwebs out my mind. Even if I start rambling about my day or complaining, the page gets filled and eventually I move on beyond complaint.
On a few occasions, I strike gold.
Let Me Know What You Think
The next time you feel stuck, go for a timed practice. Take your pen and pad and vomit words on the page.
Then go back to what you were writing before. If needed, do it again. Go for another 10 minutes.
I’ll be honest: I am not doing it as often as I should. Even earlier today as I was struggling with a film review, I forgot about this simple trick.
Try it out and let me know in the comments if it worked for you! What did you experience?
Part of my Medium challenge — 30 Posts in 30 Days
Day 5/30
Further reading
