4 Practical Ways to Get You Through A Writing Day
Writers are touchy. Unless you’re scheming to cause an emotional breakdown, it’s better not to ask one how long it took them to create their masterpiece. You might just see them flutter about with that haunted look of unanswerable questions in their eyes, like: Why does it it take so inhumanly long to finish? Why can’t we be more consistent? How can we plaster our butt to the chair and make it stay there?
The tragic expanse of time that dwindles by between the formation of the idea and it’s real, solid presence on paper is something that haunts scribblers everywhere. Today I’m going to try and lend you a hand with this. Writing has been my thing for the past decade. Recently, I churned my way through two-thirds of my novel’s draft. That’s 200 pages in 2.5 months. It’s the furthest I’ve ever reached till now, and the most consistently so. So what have I learnt? How did I overcome the urge to abandon the blank page?
Let me share five tips with you.
1. Don’t Look Up
You cannot draw and erase at the same time. The greatest problem many writers starting out on their draft can face is that they cannot stop writing and simultaneously correcting their sentences at the same time. Now you must avoid that if you want to get to your ideal page count.
Everyone goes at their own pace. A great hour or two in the morning could mean valuable work for one creative, while it might take another several more hours to run out of steam and feel satisfied. There’s nothing wrong about either approach, and neither is superior. Do you!
Say that you have decided to write two pages this morning. Then after you have a clear idea of your theme and emotion, just start and don’t look up.
Whether you’re writing on a screen or a page, don’t halt your fingers or put your pen down. Don’t look up to the start of the paragraph at all. You want to stay with the flow of your thought and complete it fully. Don’t press backspace unless it is to correct a spelling error.
We know already that to write is human. But to refine is divine.
It is in the editing process that the inessential is stripped away and the spark of your words is actually evident. But you must have something to refine, and you have to enjoy pressing the accelerator and go roaring away on the highway before you try to regulate gears and press the breaks.
Writing isn’t a mechanical job, in the end, and you learn to marvel and take pride and how the work is shaping up rather than get over obsessed with the handwritten page count. More than anything, it gives you the confidence and drive to believe that you will finish it.
For the first time ever, I was appearing on the draft everyday and dating it, always getting something down. This is a landmark achievement for anyone creative. This thought became a familiar hook in my mind, pulling me to the page and giving me a happiness boost that I’m getting something constructively done everyday. I believe it can do the same for you.
2. The Halves Rule
Everyone once in a while, just when I started out on a white page in the morning, even six pages seemed crushingly huge to write. So I further divided it in my mind to make it easier. Isn’t it always easier to eat in small bites than to swallow everything painfully down at once?
Three equal halves for six pages would be two by two by two. Every time I hit two pages, I’d mentally exclaim: ‘One third done! Halfway done! All done!’
Like landmark flags on a marathon run, this can give mental relief. Say you were writing two pages. By the end of one, you would know you are halfway through. It boosts you to make it all the way through your writing day.
3. Burn Out The Starting Irritation
It’s only natural. All the distractions of the world will ring out in your ears for the first half hour you try getting any serious work done. Fiction is a particular beast in that sense. But trust me, writing is a waiting game.
The idea is to just put one word after the other, till you get so absorbed in finishing the work and section of the story, that you forget to get up. You have to burn off the starting irritation. Often, if you can plan your work a bit and give it a purpose and direction before you start — however much or little, depending on the different way your creative juices work as a plotter, pantser, or something in between like me — you’ll find that you’re much more motivated to work on it. Fear of the unknown can be off-putting.
But the key is to stay with it. Fight the urge to arise. Stay there till you find your magic. And I promise, it will get easier as you keep sitting down, putting word after word down.
4. Professional Patience
This builds on the last tip, because I really want to stress the importance of patience in the writing business. Not just plain old patience. You require a professional patience to carry you through. To wait through the twiddling of thumbs and slow formation of ideas. To consistently put word after word together. Paragraph, into page, into chapter.
Once you cement upon the fact that this is a feeling you need, and generate it within yourself — the nerves will calm down. The slow but fulfilling work of materialising your creation from the unknown depths within you will begin. That’s the name of the game. Patience, patience, patience.
I hope all this helped you bridge the gap from your mind to the paper. And always remember: Writing is about resilience. ❤
