I Googled ‘best writing advice you’ve ever heard’ And Found An Interesting Trend.
I had the idea for this blog, and I was going to share the greatest writing advice on this side of the internet, but when I took it upon myself to google ‘best writing advice you’ve ever heard’ an interesting trend came up.
But before I did that, I asked the question of myself, and here’s what I thought of:
Mine comes from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I’ve read a whole lot of books on writing, but she has the best advice on simply how to write more. Not how to write well, which there’s a plethora of advice out there, but how to actually sit down at your keyboard or notepad and write words on the blank page.
A lot of books overlook how hard that simple act is for a lot of newer writers. At the same time, it might be the most important advice you can get—because what’s the point of writing advice if you aren’t actually sitting down to write?
You can learn every bit theory and technique you want, but if you’re not actually putting words on a page, it’s completely useless.
That’s why I thought Anne Lamott’s was so groundbreaking. It’s all about not caring how much you suck. You simply put words to paper, then fix it later.
The term “Bird by Bird” comes from a story about her father telling her brother to take his book report “bird by bird” and she extrapolates from that story that each novel you write has to be written word by word. You simply put one word after the other, until the novel is done, without caring how it comes out or how it sounds.
Then you go back and fix it.
That’s how you write a novel. That’s all. It’s that simple. There’s no pressure to be good. There’s no pressure on you to be good. You just write it. Quality does not compute. It does not come into the equation.
Release yourself from the pressure of being good.
That’s the best writing advice I ever heard because it removes the responsibility to write well. I no longer beat myself up while writing, thinking I suck, and slogging through the dread of one more poor sentence after another.
Now, after I thought of my own answer, I wanted to report back with a wide variety of answers on the internet, but that’s not what happened.
A trend formed. It looks like I’m not the only one who has found this thought powerful.
The Best Writing Advice I Got From A Simple Google Search
“It’s kind of hard.”
“No it’s not!” she said. “All you have to do is start with ‘Once upon a time’ and then turn the page, then turn the page again and again.”
“Always remember that you love and enjoy writing, even on the days when it’s the most difficult thing to do.”
“The best writing advice I’ve ever had was just that it’s possible.”
“She told me to make my book better.”
“The best writing advice in the world starts with two words: just write.”
“When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story . . . When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story." - Professor Gould to Stephen King, from On Writing
“For me, the best was to write in the mornings (the moment I get up, actually). No pee, no bake a cake, no wash your face, no nothing. Simply get up, sit on the computer, turn it on (if you can leave it on rest mode, then the better) and start typing whatever comes to your mind. It might be a dream, it might be a thought, a memory, whatever.”
What I noticed was that almost all of the answers that I found were some variation of the idea or advice that Anne Lamott gave, which is “just write” or what happens after you “just write.”
Because that’s your only real goal as a writer—write.
Everything else will come in time, as long as you put in the work.
I’m reminded of Ira Glass’s video called THE GAP.
Anyone who starts creative work will generally go into that creative field because they love the work that is produced within that field. That means they’ve developed a taste for what’s good and who’s good.
So when you begin, you have good taste, but the reality is you do not yet have the skills necessary to create what’s good.
So there’s this gap between what your skills can produce and what your taste recognizes as good and you know what you’re producing isn’t very good.
That’s the gap. It will last for years, and the only way to get out of it is to...
DO A LOT OF WORK.
When I started taking writing seriously, that’s all I needed to hear.
Sucking is completely normal.
“Sucking is the first step towards being sorta good at something,” Jake from Adventure Time tells Finn.
But other than “write more” there are ways to help you write more. Here are some strategies that I’ve used over the years.
>> Download The Self-Publisher’s 56 Point Editing Checklist: How To Go Straight To Print. <<
How To Write More And Write Every Day
Use a timer
I use a Pomodoro timer to time my writing. I do 30 minute spurts, because I can always get 30 minutes done in a day. If I want to do more than 30 minutes, then I will, and I often do, but there’s almost no day that I can’t fit 30 minutes in somewhere.
And I think having a realistic but achievable goal is the key. It’s hard to convince yourself that you don’t have time for 30 minutes. Of course, I still fail here and there, but it’s rare these days.
Track your progress
I use a calendar and write down my daily word counts. The calendar hangs right above my computer and I love seeing my progress reinforced in front of me. There’s also something satisfying in completing your writing for the day and getting to write down a number. I start to look forward to writing that number, and that’s important. It’s a mini reward associated with a habit.
Protect your momentum at all costs
While I do miss some days, and those days are rare, I never miss two days in a row, because protecting your momentum is everything when you’re trying to build a habit.
Even if I can only commit to writing 5 minutes that day, I will make sure I do not get a zero two days in a row. If I do, and again I am exaggerating when I say I never have, I know how hard it is to build up that momentum again.
Block out distractions
There are two things that distract me—and I’m sure most of the western world can relate: my phone and the internet.
The first I lock away in a time-locked container. I use this container by kSafe. If I want to do work for 30 minutes to 3 hours I’ll set my timer for the same time. The container locks and there’s no way to get it out until the timer expires.
If you can’t afford a container, I’d recommend putting it in another room while working. That’s what I did for my first 3 years of serious writing.
Website blockers I use an app called “SelfControl.” Again, you set a timer and it blocks websites you’ve chosen. Unlike regular website blockers, there’s no way to turn this one off.
Choose a time of day you can commit to
For me, that time of day is the morning. I wake up 2 hours early for work and use that time to write. No one can call me, and I can’t make plans to avoid this time. It’s guaranteed and I have to show up.
This time took a lot of trial and error. My time slot used to be between 7PM and 9PM, but I found that making plans would mess everything up. With the early morning, I know that time is almost always guaranteed to be free.
Journal
I am not, for the most part, a feelings journaler. I journal with a goal in mind: how do I write more?
I look at my life and try to track decisions and adjustments that negatively or positively impact my ability to write.
That’s how I stopped drinking, started going to the gym, started meditating, and came up with a variety of these solutions. I’m constantly analyzing how to reinforce the habit of writing.
Even when I am in the middle of writing, and I find that I get stuck in a particular spot and the urge to quit becomes overwhelming, I simply open up my journal and talk to myself about it. Usually I can work through the problem and return to writing.
Analyze what’s going through your head when you decide to quit, to give up, to stop working, to never start, and when you’re feeling particularly down on yourself. The only way to figure it out is to work through it.
Allow yourself to suck
Back to Anne Lamott and Ira Glass’s advice. Sucking is a part of learning a new skill or habit. It’s also particularly important because most first drafts suck and that’s kind of the point. A first draft is simply to get the finer points of the story out onto the paper. You’re using that time to tell yourself what happens, not to tell a reader what happens.
Read!
I try and read at least one book on writing, or the business of writing, or sentence structure, or how to read like a writer, at least once a month.
I find that reading these books not only sharpens my skill set, but they invigorate my love of writing. I start to get excited to use the techniques that I am learning in my own writing. Then, once I open up my own novel, I write with more confidence and gusto. Learn, then take what you learned and apply it.
But beyond books on writing, I am constantly studying other great writers I admire.
As Stephen King said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to work.”
I try and read at least one poem a day, one novel a week, and one book on writing a month.
If you apply all these habits to your own writing, and you bear “The Gap” by producing a large body of work, it’s inevitable that you will become a good writer.
>> Download The Self-Publisher’s 56 Point Editing Checklist: How To Go Straight To Print. <<
