Writing when you don’t want to write
We all know that if you want to write a novel, you have to WRITE a novel. But sometimes writing is the last thing you want to do. Sometimes our brains go on strike. And sometimes life is too full on to give it the attention it requires – can I just mention here the sheer volume of Christmas events my children’s schools require me to attend or provide food for or remember a sparkly accessory/non-school-uniform/odd-socks to avoid humiliating her in front of her friends by revealing my absolute inadequacy as an organised mother?
Anyway. So thinking back to my rant-lite about Stephen King’s philosophy of Just Write (goddamit), I’ve developed a few cheats that I use when putting a single word down feels too much.
Stay in the story
When the page is too daunting, I spend time hanging out with my story in my head instead. While it’s a really good way of remaining creative when time or will is against you, it’s also a pretty crucial part of writing so you are TOTALLY still a writer when you do this. Luxuriate in the thought of your story; the feel of it, the smell of it, the sound of it. The whole entire world of it. Keep it alive in your head. Disappear into it when you’re on the school run like it’s a gorgeous memory or something to look forward to. There’s no pressure here. Just bimble around for a while and see what happens.Just be there. Because the more you stay in the world you’re building, the more you’ll want to go back there when you’re able.
Momentum is everything when it comes to creativity so if you’re THINKING every day, letting yourself meander around the alleys and back parlours of your story, magical things can still happen.
Take note
Thinking is dreamy, but thinking also leads to IDEAS so you’ve got to be prepared to get down anything that comes up. I cannot stress this enough because trust me I am speaking from experience here when I say that no matter how sure you are that this is the best idea you’ve had and you’ll never ever forget it, YOU WILL FORGET IT. Write it down. Dictate it into your phone when you’re walking, make a note on the train or in McDonald’s drive thru. You never know when it’ll be the answer to a knot so BE READY TO CATCH IT.
This was a Godsend for me. I was really struggling with the opening line of my book. Nothing I was writing was working, but then I was hanging out with my characters during a dull drive on the A303 and BING! there it was. I dictated it into my phone and it’s now that first line of Mrs Wood.
Writing when you don’t want to write
There’s no easy way to say this, but no matter how rammed your schedule is, if you want to write a novel you’re going to have to actually sit down and write a novel. Sometimes, that’s fine. Sometimes it’s like warm butter spreading across the page. But most of the time, the first few minutes are usually you staring at the page while the cursor blinks ‘YOU … ARE … SHIT’ back at you in morse code. This is the WORST because you’ve finally got the time to do this and it’s really bloody hard. It would be so easy now to just stop and go and watch that Netflix doco. So how about this instead:
When writing feels like a chore, limit yourself to a twenty-minute sprint. That’s all. Twenty minutes. Set a timer and when it goes off, stop. Because one of two things will happen: either you’ll close the document and feel bloody amazing that you did something that was really hard and that you can go and watch the Netflix doco without feeling like a failure. The other is that you ignore the timer and carry on. I mean, that’s a win-win right?
When writing is boring
Now. This is important. If writing is a chore because you’re bored by what you’re writing, ask yourself: why am I writing this? Because if it’s not doing it for you, it definitely won’t be doing it for your reader. If it’s boring, don’t write it. Move onto something that you DO want to write and you’ll either figure out how to sass that dull bit up, or realise that the thing that was proving to be a slog to write actually didn’t need to be written at all.
And if you’re stuck with the boring stuff, I heard the best tip on the Artshole podcast which everyone should hold in their head when they’re writing a scene: arrive late and leave early. Skip the boring shit for both your sanity and your reader.
Does size really matter?
Sometimes I just want to hit a number. And that’s fine. Knowing I’ve got 1000 words under my belt, even if they’re rubbish, means I’ve done something. But other times I’m working out a scene and I’ll have to stop and do the school run or something and check my wordcount only to find it’s like 10 because I’ve deleted loads. That’s miserable BUT … so what. It’s words, right? Sometimes I’ll do 2500. Sometimes I’ll only claw my way through 300. It doesn’t matter. The words are down and I can move on.
Because ultimately
This is your story. And it’s not all about sitting at your laptop. Writing when you don’t want to write is hard and yes, you’ll have to do it. I’m sorry, but you will. But you can make it easier on yourself and keep the momentum going by filling the times when you can’t or it really is too hard by immersing yourself in dreams of your story’s world, let you characters chatter away in your head, take notes of what comes up and then, when your writing time arrives, go word-by-word until you get to the end.
