13 Tips For Actually Getting Some Writing Done

One of the challenges of writing is...writing. Here are some tips that I've found most useful for myself, for actually getting words onto the page:

1. Write something every work-day, and preferably, every day; don't wait for inspiration to strike. Staying inside a project keeps you engaged, keeps your mind working, and keeps ideas flowing. Also, perhaps surprisingly, it's often easier to do something almost every day than to do it three times a week. (This may be related to the abstainer/moderator split.)

2. Remember that if you have even just fifteen minutes, you can get something done. Don't mislead yourself, as I did for several years, with thoughts like, "If I don't have three or four hours clear, there's no point in starting."

3. Don't binge on writing. Staying up all night, not leaving your house for days, abandoning all other priorities in your life -- these habits lead to burn-out.

4. If you have trouble re-entering a project, stop working in mid-thought -- even mid-sentence -- so it's easy to dive back in later.

5. Don't get distracted by how much you are or aren't getting done. I put myself in jail.

6. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that creativity descends on you at random. Creative thinking comes most easily when you're writing regularly and frequently, when you're constantly thinking about your project.

7. Remember that lots of good ideas and great writing come during the revision stage. I've found, for myself, that I need to get a beginning, middle, and an end in place, and then the more creative and complex ideas begin to form. So I try not to be discouraged by first drafts.

8. Develop a method of keeping track of thoughts, ideas, articles, or anything that catches your attention. That keeps you from forgetting ideas that might turn out to be important, and also, combing through these materials helps stimulate your creativity. My catch-all document, where I store everything related to happiness that I don't have another place for, is more than five hundred pages long. Some people use inspiration boards; others keep scrapbooks. Whatever works for you.

9. Pay attention to your physical comfort. Do you have a decent desk and chair? Are you cramped? Is the light too dim or too bright? Make a salute--if you feel relief when your hand is shading your eyes, your desk is too brightly lit. Check your body, too: lower your shoulders, make sure your tongue isn't pressed against the top of your mouth, don't sit in a contorted way. Being physically uncomfortable tires you out and makes work seem harder.

10. Try to eliminate interruptions -- by other people, email, your phone, or poking around the Internet -- but don't tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

11. Over his writing desk, Franz Kafka had one word: "Wait." My brilliantly creative friend Tad Low, however, keeps a different word on his desk: "Now." Both pieces of advice are good.

12. If you're stuck, try going for a walk and reading a really good book. Virginia Woolf noted to herself: "The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature. It is a mistake to think that literature can be produced from the raw."

13. At least in my experience, the most important tip for getting writing done? Have something to say! This sounds obvious, but it's a lot easier to write when you're trying to tell a story, explain an idea, convey an impression, give a review, or whatever. If you're having trouble writing, forget about the writing and focus on what you want to communicate. For example, I remember flailing desperately as I tried to write my college and law-school application essays. It was horrible -- until in both cases I realized I had something I really wanted to say. Then the writing came easily, and those two essays are among my favorites of things I've ever written.

The Happiness Project book is due out in January. In the book, I describe my experience writing a novel in a month, inspired by Chris Baty's No Plot? No Problem! Yes, you can write a real novel in one month. It was a lot of fun.

* I always find something great on Dumb Little Man.

* If you're starting your own happiness project, please join the Page on Facebook to swap ideas. It's easy; it's free.

Comments

[mychagal]

As a writer I appreciate every word you say. Sane, clear and good advice. Thank you.

[Stuart Dobson]

Every single tip, a diamond. Thanks.

[LoraineAntrim]

These are spot-on tips for writers,Gretchen, but let's extend your audience to the business world and specifically to executives in the C suite.

As an executive coach, I listen intently to execs bemoan the fact that they don't have time to run a business. What I hear is, "I have hundreds of emails to answer, then I've got to write a blog post, film a video-blog, and now I've got to tweet every few hours...I don't have enough time for my clients!" In this highly verbal web 2.0 world, your suggestions can offer executives a time management tool to help deal with the pressures of writing for a social media-fixated world.

I encourage all business folks to take Gretchen's suggestions to heart as you struggle through the day-to-day writings that our social mediated world has made almost mandatory. Loraine Antrim

[timezone]

Thanks, Gretchen, for a great and useful article for writers. I agree with others re handwriting as well. There is definitely something about thinking and handwriting, then later putting on computer to revise. I keep a pen and paper near my bed. I also have a digital recorder which can be handy when you have a thought in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning. It's particularly handy when you have a thought stream going and you can talk faster than you can write :-).

[MountPanic]

14. Don't keep your browser window open under your Word window (better yet, get away from the the computer altogether and write your first draft by hand). There's absolutely nothing happening on the internet that won't wait until today's writing is done -- and that includes looking things up in the dictionary or encyclopedia. Keep writing and come back to all that later.

[Cool-headed]

Quite agree. Nothing beats writing by hand. One's handwriting is a very personal thing, full of one's own energy.. Start with paper and pen, copy it out on your computer later.

[limber]

Have to disagree vehemently with this. Carry a notebook and scribble down ideas or catchy phrases or descriptions by all means, but by hand at length? Egad!

Writing actual manuscripts longhand makes me a crazy person. I'm tighter and much faster on the computer, there's a better flow to the entire thing. Not to mention, it doubles my workload -- write it, then copy it again? I'm not made of time!

I do agree that blocking out a big chunk of internet-less day is the way to go, though. No PDA, no Twitter, no texting (ugh). Phone only, and only incoming calls, and only if someone is actually on fire. Writing is work, and should be treated as such. If you treat it like a hobby, it'll show.

When it comes down to it, no list of tips or rules is going to help if you don't have the idea and then the determination to put it down on paper. I procrastinated for years, and then three days in a row woke up thinking "where is that book, I want to read it again, I forget what happens at the end..." followed swiftly by "...oh, crap. I haven't written it." That got annoying, so I wrote it.

[nippyfan]

My brain moves faster than my hand and I start to scribble, later being unable to understand my scribble. I type far faster.

[eibonvale]

Yeah - i also disagree, but of course, this is a personal thing and one has to do whatever suites you best. I find it useful to be connected to the internet while i write, as there are always little things to research (i am a fiction writer) that would otherwise sit there at the back of my mind nagging me. What does X look like and is it really possible to interact with/use X in the way i am writing? And if not then i need to know NOW before it becomes part of the plot. And having things like Street View and Google Earth to hand can also be useful if you use them the right way. These things can be very inspiring and some of the best writers tools that i have ever had! I guess that you just need the discipline to avoid getting distracted by stumbleupon (which, incidentally, was how i found this post, so it isnt all bad!) or searching for weird Indian faces wearing headphones in Google Earth.

[MountPanic]

I think most of that can be filled in later, even just an hour later. I'm a big believer in the energy of raw flow. You can polish it up afterward, but you can't put the energy into it if it wasn't there in the first place.

[Mnoriega777]

Thank you for the tips! This gives me inspiration and a starting point for my summer writing project!

[sempronia]

great. now i just have to write my master's thesis.

[Andyklah]

Setting specific time limits often helps as well. One trick I have recently discovered is (if you write on a laptop) give yourself the full time until the battery becomes low for you to write continuously in that time. Not long enough that you'll burn out, but long enough to get some substance out.

[Evangeline A]

It's so easy to look at these tips and say "that's a great post"--you have to put them into practice! Which I am pronto!

[YouDisgustMe]

Very useful info! thanks!!

[uniskywriter]

Lots of good tips for writing. One tip in particular doesn't seem quite right, number 4, which is quit writing in mid-sentence or mid-thought- that sounds more like mental gymnastics-jumping over yourself. I think one should stop when one is most comfortable with what you have already written.

http://uniskywriter.blogspot.com/

[Evangeline A]

The best advice I've ever put into practice is to stop your writing on a cliffhanger. This has helped me tremendously. The next day, instead of sitting down to start from scratch and writing randomly in hope of catching the momentum of the previous day, I have that liffhanger nagging my brain and kick-starting more of my novel along the same thread.

[ninthlevelmonk]

Great entry and tips!

[Andrea Claxton]

Thanks. I've been "not working" on a young adult novel off and on for 2 years now. I have about 3 chapters written, but I am a PRO-crastinator. With summer coming, I'm going to commit to working on it every day (and running three days a week). These are very good tips!

[Christine Noble]

Thanks for all the very good advice. Some of this I have already implemented, but it is good to remind myself.

[Carl Coss]

Articles like this are the reason real good books don't get written anymore. People think that if they have a word processor and some good tips they can be the one in the picture for the next writerly advice article. The next Carrie Bradshaw. The next fictional writer. When really good writing isn't about form anymore than inspiration, and that kind of good stuff doesn't need any tips to work. This is Bukowski: "If it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything,don't do it. unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut,don't do it. if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don't do it."

[DasBoot]

I disagree with what appears to be a little cult of genius in your post. Writing is a craft and a skill, like being a musician. Nobody can sit down on a piano and just start playing Chopin.

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
Thomas Mann