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Chan790

(20,176 posts)
3. Create a time and space to write in your routine and stick with it.
Mon Dec 12, 2011, 10:16 PM
Dec 2011

It's advice from Stephen King's On Writing which is this really great book about writing, specifically the process of writing...not what goes on the page (there is admittedly some of that) but how he gets into the mindset to write, how he finds his writing space, a funny anecdote about how he bought this big honking desk and the fancy-assed chair to stick in an office only to find he was creatively-stunted by it (he ends up sitting in the corner instead.), how he tackles writer's block. It ends with him explaining how his need to write saved his life after the hit-and-run accident.

I highly recommend it. It's one of those books that if you can't find in the library, you can almost certainly find at your local used-bookstore for around $1 in hardcover, I've worn-out 3 of them already. Given away two more.

But back to what I was saying. Find a place you're comfortable to write. Set aside the time for it daily, tune out the distractions, stick to your schedule. Even if you feel blocked or like you can't write, move on to something else, just write...a page that read "I can't write, I have nothing to write about, I'm so blocked,..." was the genesis of The Shining supposedly.

Mine:
Every morning from 8-11, I sit on my exercise ball in front of my crappy old desk and write. Notes, brainstorming, outlines or research by-hand, prose on the computer. Rain, snow, Armageddon, the promise of sex if I just come back to bed, medical emergency...I'm there or I'm writing where I am. I have a simple mantra handwritten on a piece of paper stuck to the ceiling over the bed for when I don't want to get up to write. It reads "A writer writes." Not "writes well." or "writes commercially-successfully." just "writes." As long as I get up and write, I feel justified in telling people I'm a writer. When I finish something, I take a vacation. I allow myself a few days off...and most of the time, I end up writing because I feel clogged-up and tense if I don't.

I'm not really a fan of King's work, but as a potential writing instructor/guru he's a lot less bullshit than some people working in that field.

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