Hi, you and icedteainthebag are basically my faves and both of your writing styles makes me wanna curl up and die cause I wanna get on that level someday. Since you've been so nice to so many people asking questions about writing, I wanted to know if you have any tips for getting out of that writing funk where you get a new idea, outline it all the way to the end till your story is the bare bones of what you know will become a beautiful (+)
(+)skeleton to be filled with shiny new organs and fat to shape it nicely but as soon as you open a document to get started, all the ideas you had seem silly and you can’t connect those pieces if life depends on it. I don’t know if you struggle with that problem or if you ever have, I guess I’m basically asking if you have any tips for people who want to write more but don’t know how.
——
That’s so sweet of you to say! On behalf of @icedteainthebag and myself, thank you!
Oh boy, if I knew the ultimate answer to your questions, I wouldn’t have two WIPs hanging out there, unfinished! I struggle with that problem ALL. THE. TIME. Where I sit down to write and think that my idea is the stupidest one ever and I’m a terrible writer and why did I think it was a good plan to try to write anything, ever?
Usually, I do manage to get over it and actually write. Here are a few things that work for me that you could try:
1. Give yourself permission to write total crap. Who cares if it’s terrible, at least in the first draft?
2. Tell yourself that you need to write for 15 minutes. Just fifteen measly minutes, that’s all. Set a timer on your phone and go.
3. Try to not stop writing for those 15 minutes. Just write. Don’t check your email or answer your phone or go see what’s happening at Tumblr. Write.
4. Ignore your inner critic/beta reader. Don’t stop to correct your spelling or make a better word choice. Again, write. You can go back and edit later. Just get the words out.
5. If you’re still going strong after 15 minutes, keep going. If not, take a break. Go for a little walk. Have a drink of water.
6. Whatever you’ve written and for how long, when you’re done, leave it alone for at least an hour. Give yourself some distance from it so you can read it with an objective eye and do any editing or fleshing-out you need.
7. Repeat as necessary.
8. Also, don’t be a slave to your outline. If, while writing, your characters and story take you somewhere else, go with it!
To give credit where it’s due, this basic technique is cribbed from Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, a terrific book.
