Practical Writing Advice

Recently I set up a Scrivener file for blog article writing. I have a page for ideas and a separate folder for every article I start. I’m way ahead of myself. I have weekly articles for months to come. I’ve also written two novels this year, a Sherlock Holmes episode, a few more short stories, and I’m feeling like I could keep going like this forever. 

It’s funny because when I first started out - a few decades ago - I couldn’t sit still for long. Literally, youthful adrenalin prevented me from being immobile. I used to perch and write for short periods, literally five or ten minutes, then get up and pace around the room, burning off excess energy, waiting for the next wave of inspiration to hit. A totally exhausting process to be sure - and really not a very productive way to work. But I had to do it that way or I’d do nothing.

Growing up I also wrote in short spurts, literally five minutes here and there because I felt embarrassed and didn’t want my family to know I kept diaries, wrote short stories based on real life events, and recorded all my most personal thoughts. I used codes so they wouldn’t know what I’d written. I wrote using tiny words and sentences that curled around corners so people would find it difficult to know what I’d written. I guess I thought of my writing as secret and somehow perhaps shameful.

I’ll admit I did write a lot about what I considered odd behavior - but this was basically what everyone else considered normal. Later I realized I was, indeed, the odd one.

At school, I could never finish a writing exercise. My teachers would ask us to compose a story and I’d feverishly write 20 or 30 pages and hand that in. I would then have to apologize that my homework was not finished, that I had run out of time. My English teachers took note and often advised me to write as a career. Some gave me advice and guidance for which I’m grateful to this day.

I always loved writing. It made me feel good.

But I also loved music. Writing songs was the same for me. I used to write a dozen songs in one evening and then none for a year. I found writing songs exhausting too. The bands I was in would play these songs until we were sick of them but I would only write in short bursts - usually when I was alone for an evening or a day, because I didn’t want people to see me making up songs.

Again, that sense of shame associated with creation…

But my creativity was shot in those early days. I had no clue how to organize myself and make the best of my talents. Back before the Net, I had no one to compare myself to, no mentors, only my family, who thought I was weird and antisocial. Which I admit I probably was.

These days, it’s hard for me to stop being creative in some way or another. Over the years I’ve trained myself that way. Sitting for long periods is not difficult anymore and I can organize my thoughts as I write. But the best part is that I don’t get mentally buzzed or overexcited by my creativity anymore. Which means it’s not so tiring nor physically demanding.

That was the killer really. I’d get so excited my brain felt like it was about to explode. The opposite of calm progress. Just totally erratic explosions of creative vomit. And a lot of it was awful - but I still believed my every word was divine, awesome, and perfect. I realize now that was because I had so much physically invested in the process. I needed to get older and less precious before I was mature enough to write well.

Some professional authors believe you don’t have anything meaningful to say before you’re forty anyway. They say you need the objectivity that comes with maturity. I don’t agree. I think you can write at any age. And write well if you practice enough.

At various times in my life I’ve got out of the habit of writing consistently and had to retrain my brain. So, here’s the teaching part…

I remember reading Becoming A Writer by a wonderful lady called Dorothea Brande. In her book she suggested, when you’re starting out, writing for short periods every day.

When I was working in London for a - actually I can’t remember now - I used to find a spot outside in Hyde Park during lunch breaks and write silly paragraphs about nothing. When you’re struggling to start it’s not always the writing that is hard, it’s finding things to write about. You need to train your mind to find subjects that are worthy of a few words. Plus, you must learn to write fast, and try not to think of where you’re going. It’s better to be terrible than to write nothing. That’s the philosophy to encourage.

Nothing is sacred. It’s all meaningless, not worth anything, but at least it’s down, on the page.

Other times I used to get up an hour earlier and write tosh: anything, nothing, about my dreams, about my life, anything to trick my brain into thinking that my every thought was brilliant and fascinating. You have to do that. It’s a necessary part of the process.

But what all of this creativity depends on is this: you have to learn to switch off your internal editor when you write. Always know that editing and polishing is for later.

Getting stuff down, no matter how bad, is the only thing that’s important.

At least at first.

Keep Writing!

Rob Parnell’s Writing Academy