Habits of the Writer
Writing Every Day
Practice writing like you would practice
anything else. Learning a musical instrument or a sport requires practice.
So does writing. Practice it as often as you can almost everyday even
if it's for only a half an hour.
Freewriting
Freewriting is writing or typing non-stop for a certain amount of time.
Even if you start with "I don't know what I'm going to say about
this subject, but . . .". The idea is to get the momentum going and
to not worry about grammar, spelling and logic. Don't edit yourself. Just
write it down.
Some occassions to use freewriting:
- You may freewrite to finish only part of your manuscript.
- You can use freewriting to complete your entire first draft.
- You may even freewrite before you begin outlining or even researching.
- If you have an idea, but don't know how to research it, spent a half an hour or so freewriting.
Let's say you found an idea and did some research. You may want to skip the outline step entirely and just write a first draft using freewriting. After you freewrite on the topic, a theme may emerge as well as an outline.
Find out at what part of the writing process freewriting helps you. You may want to freewrite two or three times before you finish a solid first draft. Use freewriting as a tool to help you relax and free your creativity in the article writing process.
Freewriting is also called stream-of-consciousness
writing. Julia Cameron recommends handwriting three pages every morning.
She calls this the "morning pages" and she talks about it in
her book The Artist Way.
As mentioned earlier, freewriting is is usually done in the rough draft
stage of writing. Sometimes it may be a good idea to do this at other
stages of the writing process such as before you do your research; in
doing so, you would discover how much you actually know or don't know
about a subject.
Benefits of Freewriting
- It helps the writer to quit worrying and wondering about writing and just write.
- It can charge the writer's creative batteries when he doesn't feel like writing.
- It helps the writer be less self-conscious about his writing.
- It helps create an outlet.
- It helps generate topics. This is when freewriting becomes beneficial in the research stage. It helps sort out what we know and what we thought we knew, but don’t, as well as what we don’t know.
Reading Every Day
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." Richard Steele
"Learning to write may be part of learning to read. For all I know, writing comes out of a superior devotion to reading." Eudora Welty
The writer must be a reader. How else can he study the craft? If you are planning on a writing project, read similar items. For example, if you are going to write a science fiction novel, pick ten to twenty of your favorite science fiction pieces and reread them closely. If you are going to write a short story, read an anthology of short stories. If you are going to write poetry, read poetry.
The writer must also read genres with
which he is not familiar. Why do this? The writer will improve his writing
style if he reads a variety of literature, not just one kind. He also
should read poorly written literature so he will know what not to do.
Read Books on Writing
To benefit the most
from reading, the writer must also read about writing. Check the Resources
for the Habits of the Writer to find some good examples.
Keeping
a Writer’s Notebook
A writer needs to get
into the notebook habit. He should carry something around with him to
capture ideas when they come to him, to record passages from books he
has read, or to write journal-entries in spare moments. It should be something
portable. Any notebook will do: a binder, a legal pad, or even a laptop
computer.
Potential Categories to Create in Your Writer's Notebook
- Journal-when you do freewriting or morning pages, reserve a section in your notebook for your pages.
- Ideas-in this section, when you think of a potential article, poem or story, jot down the idea in a sentence or two.
- New vocabulary words-while you are reading, jot down unknown words. Later, look up their meanings.
- A place for names-when you come across a name you would like to use for a character in your fiction, write it down in this section of your notebook.
- Potential titles for stories or poetry-excellent titles for stories and articles can be found in lyrics of songs, poems, everyday conversation, or whereever. Start collecting them in this section. You may never use them all, but this section is a good place to keep them so you won't forget.
- Borrowed things from reading-when you read a sentence or paragraph that you find interesting, write it down in this section.
- Observations-describe scenes using the five senses. Sit down in a restaurant or the park and make some observations.
Can you think of any more categories for your writer's notebook? The idea behind the notebook is to record things you might use in your writing later; it also helps you learn to play with words, to fall in love with writing style.
Improving Your Vocabulary
There are many ways to improve your vocabulary:
- Read the whole dictionary like Johnny Carson.
- Look up the word in a dictionary as you read.
- Write unfamiliar words on 3" x 5" cards. Write the word, pronunciation and the sentence of origin on one side; the definitions on the other.
- Go to Dictionary.com and sign up for the word of the day.
Good writing style does not come from using sesquipedalians. The best thing to do is to learn the meaning of words you come across frequently for which you don't know the actual definition. You may have an idea of the meaning of the word from the connotation of the sentence, but you may only be guessing. These are the words you want to learn.
Finding the Time
- Observe yourself when you write to determine what you consider a writing "stint." Do you usually write for one hour a day? Three hours? Twenty minutes in the morning and twenty in the evening? Whatever is the typical amount of time you put into your writing is considered a writing "stint."
- Ask yourself when you are most alert, creative and imaginative?
- Note the times you have the fewest distractions.
- Take your answers and mark your calendars. When that time comes, use it only for writing.
Procrastination
From Anne Lamott:
"You sit down, I say. You try to sit down at approximately the same
time every day. This is how you train your unconscious to kick in for
you creatively. So you sit down at, say nine every morning, or ten every
night. You put a piece of paper in the typewriter, or you turn on your
computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an
hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a
huge autistic child. You look at the ceiling, and over at the clock, yawn,
and stare at the paper again. Then, with your fingers poised on the keyboard,
you squint at an image that is forming in our mind–a scene, a locale,
a character, whatever–and you try to quiet your mind so you can
hear what that landscape or character has to say above the other voices
in your mind. The other voices are banshees, and drunken monkeys. They
are the voices of anxiety, judgment, doom, guilt. Also, severe hypochondria.
There may be a Nurse Rached-like listing of things that must be done right
this moment: foods that must come out the freezer, appointments that must
be canceled or made, hairs that must be tweezed. But you hold an imaginary
gun to your head and make yourself stay at your desk. There is a vague
pain at the base of your neck. It crosses your mind that you have meningitis.
Then the phone rings and you look up at the ceiling with fury, summon
every ounce of noblesse oblige, and answer the call politely, with maybe
just the merest hint of irritation. The caller asks if you're working,
and you say yeah, because your are." (Anne Lammott, Bird by Bird)
The time for writing or reading won't just appear. It has to be scheduled.
Forced.