Writing, and why I don’t do it enough
Create.
Start.
Stop fiddling. Stop reading the news. Stop surfing and finding the latest cool deals or gadgets.
I’m at my desk with some music streaming through iTunes (Radio Paradise at the moment, but I may switch over to some jazz or classical). That is the only data coming through my wireless network. I’ve quit all of the other applications, the bells and whistles and dings that distract from the work. No e-mail. No instant messages. Safari isn’t running and I’m not obsessively reloading Facebook or checking for the latest news on CNN.
Merlin Mann said his fingers have to be physically moving for 10 or 15 minutes before his brain knows that it’s time to work and there is a lot of truth to that. He said something else pithy that sounded stupid to me at first but is making more and more sense.
“You can’t think your way out of a writing block, but you can write your way out of a thinking block.”
—Merlin Mann, from a talk at MaxFunCon 2009
If I leave it to my brain to get ready to create something, I’ll never create anything. I have to set some goals for myself—good goals that focus on writing—something like sit down and don’t get up until you’ve written so many words, or don’t allow myself to do anything I want to do for a set amount of time; do what I’m doing right now. Shut up. Sit down. Unplug. Write.
I’ve written a bit more than 1,000 words this morning. My fingers are limbering up and so is my mind. I’m having to backspace less often, making less typos as my brain and fingers sync up get into gear.
What is it that causes me not to write?
Another bit of insight from Merlin Mann is that many of us, if not all of us. Are afraid of sucking. “Nobody wants to be seen sucking,” he said. I think that I’ve been afraid to suck. I look at past work and realize I don’t like any of the ideas. I think about what I want to write and see nothing.
Nothing is too strong, but my focus is shifting from dreamy thoughts of writing the next great southern gothic american novel to something more realistic, nonfiction. Maybe one day I’ll move back toward writing some fiction.
I’m the wrong person to give advice about this… but I find that I do much better when I try to write what I specifically feel moved to talk about. I might “want” to write the next great southern gothic American novel… but that doesn’t mean anything… that’s a vague description of the general parameters of a book. When I have a specific piece of human nature that I am interested in and want to explore – or, better, a specific piece of southern gothic culture I care about, then I am in a position to conjure scenes in my mind that flesh out that concept and write about it. If I do a great job of it, then maybe the result will be a “great novel”. If not, maybe it will keep me entertained while I write it.
I agree that is a much better way to go about it. You don’t sit down to write a novel. You sit down to write, and that happens one word at a time.
hey…
cool post!!! I think people nowadays do write less than they use to, because there are more distractions in our life!!!