Here’s a suggestion.
Fail.
It’s better to have something to delete than to sit staring at a blank screen. [You've said this - Ed.]
So do something. Write a note about a character. Write a letter to yourself about wanting to write whatever it is you want to write.
[Oh, come on. Not again. Ed.]
Write the back-cover blurb. Or the dedication.
The point being that ideas only come from writing. [This isn't necessarily true. Ed.] The point we want to make in this post [You made it before. Ed.] The ENTIRELY NEW THING we want to say in this post is that writing is the only way to write. [What about planners? Ed.] Even planning is writing. Just don't draw a picture of a character and think you've started.
So...
Why? Why do you want to write? Why do you want to write this?
It’s kind of chic for writers to talk about the difficulty of writing – how mad, masochistic and strange it is to want to put yourself through writing – but they all do it and they have reasons. What are your reasons?
["Chic"? What kind of a word is that? Ed.]
By the way, it isn’t mad, masochistic and strange.
It’s fun.
So write something. Actually write. To a character, maybe.
Look at what you've written. Think about it.
Then delete it and write something else. If you’re a traditionalist, print it out, screw it up, throw it across the room.
Your pile of screwed-up sheets of paper is allowed to get big – perhaps waist-high is average but overflowing the waste-paper basket is essential. [Get a waste-paper basket. Ed.]
But what might happen, eventually, is that you write something, and … you don’t stop writing.
We’ll come back to this.
[Please don’t. You are starting to repeat yourself. You need to get on and write about why you’re writing this. Then get into some serious stuff about pace, rhythm, info-dumps and BINMAD. Ed.]
Fail.
It’s better to have something to delete than to sit staring at a blank screen. [You've said this - Ed.]
So do something. Write a note about a character. Write a letter to yourself about wanting to write whatever it is you want to write.
[Oh, come on. Not again. Ed.]
Write the back-cover blurb. Or the dedication.
The point being that ideas only come from writing. [This isn't necessarily true. Ed.] The point we want to make in this post [You made it before. Ed.] The ENTIRELY NEW THING we want to say in this post is that writing is the only way to write. [What about planners? Ed.] Even planning is writing. Just don't draw a picture of a character and think you've started.
So...
Why? Why do you want to write? Why do you want to write this?
It’s kind of chic for writers to talk about the difficulty of writing – how mad, masochistic and strange it is to want to put yourself through writing – but they all do it and they have reasons. What are your reasons?
["Chic"? What kind of a word is that? Ed.]
By the way, it isn’t mad, masochistic and strange.
It’s fun.
So write something. Actually write. To a character, maybe.
Look at what you've written. Think about it.
Then delete it and write something else. If you’re a traditionalist, print it out, screw it up, throw it across the room.
Your pile of screwed-up sheets of paper is allowed to get big – perhaps waist-high is average but overflowing the waste-paper basket is essential. [Get a waste-paper basket. Ed.]
But what might happen, eventually, is that you write something, and … you don’t stop writing.
We’ll come back to this.
[Please don’t. You are starting to repeat yourself. You need to get on and write about why you’re writing this. Then get into some serious stuff about pace, rhythm, info-dumps and BINMAD. Ed.]
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