What Do Writers Do?
A famous author once said that writers do what they do: they write! (I can't find who the author was, so I'm paraphrasing.) I delve into this a bit in the book I Can't Write. What I have maintained since I first started writing anything of length, was that everyone can write. If you can talk, then you can write. Sure it's not exactly easy to put what you want on paper (or in the computer). You have to find the system that best works for you. If anyone were to see me writing at my best, they'd think I'm a bit off kilter. They'd see me with headphones on, listening to music, the lights turned down, and wearing a blindfold. I listen to music because it helps me focus. I wear the blindfold so that I don't get caught up on the page with some typo or something. I plow ahead and keep writing. I've found by doing this, my writing is much more fluent. And better.
Always Write
The key to writing, really, is discipline. That means you always write. No matter if its a blog like this or a letter to a friend or a poem or even part of an unfinished book. You write. If you have writer's block, you can write about that. The key here is always write. I know that's easy to say: always write. But what does that mean.? It meant that you should always write. Every day. At this day and age with distractions and lives full to the hilt, that may be difficult. But no matter if you set aside five minutes or fifty, do so. Every. Single. Day.
Now, do I write every day? No, I don't. But I do write several times per week, week in, week out. By now, its habit. On rare occasions, like about eighteen months ago, I had the desire to keep writing. Over the period of a few weeks, I'd finished several anthologies. I was writing in every spare minute, night and day. When I wrote '58 Buick, it took me three weeks. The first week was for working on the story arcs and timeline and scenes and organizing those scenes into a coherent book. The second and third weeks were just for writing.
What Should You Do
There are a handful of things you could to get in the habit of writing every day. Here are some recommendations:
- Set aside a specific time for you to write. Whether its right before bed or when you get up, set down a time where you can write interrupted without interference. Steve Alten spent much of his nights writing Meg rather than sleeping. He was balancing a job in sports management as well as a young family. Of course, Alten is the exception rather than the rule. Two days after he lost his job, he received a book deal from Bantam Doubleday.
- Be consistent and disciplined. Be consistent when you write. I mentioned earlier how I maintain that consistency - music and a blindfold. If you find yourself writing and watching what you write and stumbling over the words as they come out, find something that will work for you so that you don't hesitate in your writing once you start. (I also bought a mechanical keyboard so that I could write much faster than previously. These days I'm up nearing 2,500 words per hour when writing.
- Write anything, even if its crap. One of the most important things, of course, is to write. Some people use writing prompts if they can't think of anything. I've never had that problem, but I found my voice years ago. I can write about just about anything. But if you have that problem, look for writing prompts. Or, as I said above, write how you can never come up with something to write because that is still something!
- Create a blog. You can create a blog just for yourself. Perhaps it's just a Word document that nobody other than you will ever see. But in any case, it is still writing.
The point to all of this is to get you into the habit of just writing. What you write is irrelevant, as long as you write.