|
||||||||||
|
Subscribe to the Absolute Write Newsletter and get the Agents! Agents! Agents! report free! Click here.
|
Win a 1-year subscription to Writer's Digest by subscribing to Absolute Markets-- all paying markets for your writing. Click here. |
|
| |||||||||||||
|
|
Thirteen Tricks to Tease Yourself into Work By Noelle Sterne
For years I called myself a writer, but I managed to do everything but write. Sure, I'd make stabs. Watching the sauce at the stove, I'd scribble a rough outline. Standing at the subway platform, I'd dash off a four-line poem. Waiting for my sandwich at the coffee shop, I'd take down the entire argument of the two women at the next table. But rarely did I go sit at my desk for a dedicated stretch to rework, revise, and polish a piece, much less send anything out.
After reading countless break-your-block articles and whining endlessly to my friends, I recognized that my writing habits and approaches were seriously deficient. If my difficulties sound familiar, the following thirteen tricks will help you tease yourself into working and keep at it.
1. Make your work space comfortable. Writing is hard enough without feeling your work area is out to get you.
Arrange proper lighting to minimize the glare of your lights and screen so your eyes don't get overly fatigued. Whether you use a computer, typewriter, pen, or stone tablet, invest in an ergonomically sensible chair and desk setup. One of the most frequent complaints writers have is pain and cramping from wrongly positioned chairs, surfaces, computer monitors, and mice. A friend told me that for months, after a half hour of editing, her hands and legs went numb because her monitor was too high and her mouse too low.
2. Make your work space pleasant and nurturing. Think of it as inviting you in. Place a few things nearby that nourish your eyes and soul-- a plant, some polished stones, a model car or plane, pictures of significant others, or framed affirmations. Above my computer screen, I taped two lines by the American poet Richard Wilbur that constantly urge me on:
Step off assuredly into the blank of your mind. Something will come to you.
In the background, if it doesn't interfere with your concentration, play music. Classical music soothes me while I work, and I alternate between the lone local classical radio station and my favorite Mozart CDs.
If you can set your desk near a window with a view, do so. Looking out occasionally not only gives your eyes a welcome break but also gives your brain a noticeable boost. However, a view may be too distracting. The English novelist Somerset Maugham had a spectacular view from his London studio but avoided its seduction by facing his desk toward the wall. The choice is yours.
3. Stay neat. Especially if you're chronically haphazard, for your writing work, at least, stay as neat as you can. Put your best effort into getting and staying organized. Set compartmentalized tasks and do one a week-- collect all the drafts in a file, file the rejection letters together, make a list of editors' names and requirements, throw out old contest notices, returned SASEs, and all the fragments of paper that have multiplied and cover every surface. It's not "artistic" or "freeing" to live in a mess.
A longtime writer and editor confided recently, "For years my desk and work area looked like a library after a tornado. Then I got someone to help me get organized. We threw out fourteen large garbage bags of junk and put everything into labeled files. Now I love going to my desk. I work better and-- still can't get over it-- I can find things!"
A cluttered desk reflects a cluttered mind, and you want to stay clear for your work. When you write in neat surroundings, you'll not only find things quicker, but you'll stop finding excuses to approach your workspace. Instead, it will beckon, and you'll feel a strange sense of freedom.
4. Decide what project you're working on today. Choose a time for working and put down in your calendar the hours (minutes) you'll unconditionally devote to your project today.
Some writers are able to write for an hour a night from 10:00 to 11:00, after all household duties are done and the kids are bathed and bedded. Some writers get up religiously before going to work and write from 4:00 to 6:00 in the morning (I never had such discipline). Some write only on Saturdays and Sundays, with time out for a pizza with friends.
Depending on the time available and your writing interests, you may want to divide your writing time among various projects, or between projects and other necessary related activities. One full-time writer works on her novel every morning from 9:00 to 12:00, her articles from 2:00 to 5:00 three afternoons a week, and queries and marketing the other two afternoons.
Whatever your chosen time, decide on it and stick to it. Success and completion come not from how many hours you write but how many hours you write consistently.
5. Set specific times for project completion, by month and day. Do this even if it's a small project or short piece. But be realistic; we all know how the rest of life can intrude. If, as the days go by, you see there's no way you can make it, change your target and still stay specific. Forgive yourself and just keep going.
I had planned to complete a project by December 31 but saw in November that this was impossible. So, forgiving myself (many times a day), I tacked a note to my bulletin board: "Complete self-help book by June 15." Every time I looked up, this note served not only as a reminder but an affirmation. (And I did finish it by the spring.)
6. List the tasks involved in completing the project in logical, chronological order. Begin at the beginning, and realize that you're expected to do only one thing at a time. Picture yourself doing one thing after another, and jot down everything that comes to mind. A journalist wrote this list for an article:
a. Type handwritten notes. b. Research background on Internet. c. Type rough outline. d. Interview Bob, Sandra, Margaret. e. Call the guy at Consolidated for an interview. e. Type interview notes. f. Do rough draft. g. Do next draft. h. Check all facts. i. Send draft to interviewees for approval. j. Do final draft k. Send to editor!
This list will immeasurably help organize you. And more, it will prove that the project, contrary to your dismayed assumption, isn't endless and overwhelming. Then, instead of frantically trying to complete everything at once, you can choose one task at a time and focus only on it. And you'll have the added bliss of checking off each task as you go.
7. Decide, with your list in hand, what you'll work on next. One of the most difficult parts of completing a project is starting, and this often stops us from doing anything at all. A writing friend, whom I'd always admired for her steady productivity, shared her secret.
She said, "I used to have the worst trouble starting. Once I got going I was all right, but I'd do anything not to start-- you know, clean the house, catch up on newspapers, re-arrange the linen closet. Then another writer told me his technique. Before ending your current session, decide what you'll do next. Even if it's the smallest thing, like addressing an envelope, set out what you'll need. Put the materials on top of your pile or desk so they're the first thing you see when you go back to work next time."
Now I understood why she was so productive. With this method, she'd eliminated procrastination. Here are some variations.
The night before, choose several things from your project master list. Addressing an envelope won't take long, and then you may be tempted to veer off into the day's TV offerings. So instead, pinpoint several successive things to do next.
For example, if you decide to start your research, get out the materials. These may be a list of key words for Internet searching, phone numbers and questions for interviewees, clippings, reports, or brochures on your subject.
If your next task is to continue with writing, use the computer "bookmark" feature to go directly to the page you last left so you won't waste time in mindless scrolling. At the bookmarked spot, write a few notes of what you intend to do next. Here's how I tagged the bookmark for this section (it won't work with spaces or punctuation):
Decidewithyourlist
When I next sat down, my notes reminded me where to start: "Rachel's method. Other ways to set up night before."
8. Compartmentalize. If the constant sight of all the tasks and piles of projects are giving you heartburn, do what a college freshman English teacher advised me during my first year of teaching: "Take out five term papers and hide the rest under the bed." That is, arrange your physical environment to reflect your present task. Hide all the stuff you're not using right now in a drawer, file, carton, or under a blanket until you need them. Out of sight, out of anxiety attack.
9. Move. Alternatively, leave the whole thing and take yourself and your work in progress to a different room or another place entirely. Many writers work well in cafés, restaurants, libraries, mall courtyards, park benches. We have enormous mobility with the blessings of clipboards, notebooks, pads, and the proliferating gaggle of electronic writing wonders. Today it's not uncommon at the local Starbucks to be greeted by a sea of laptops.
If you don't like leaving your office or main writing environment, an alternative, à la Maugham, is to face the other way. I do this. Half my office is clogged with cartons, sometimes stacked two or three high, of projects I need to get to (my files have long been crammed to capacity).
This is not a pretty picture. So I've arranged my corner desk and computer to look the other way-- out the window. The view happens to be a lovely one, and I see sky, greenery, and the tops of buildings. I turn my back on my nagging cartons as I stare out the window, rest my eyes, and muse about the work on my screen.
10. Take breaks. It's a well-known fact of learning that attention and focus are greater when you take periodic breaks. Get to know how long you work best at a time. For some people, a good stint is forty-five minutes or an hour. For others, it's two or even three hours. You know you're reaching the limit when you feel headachy, blurry-eyed, mentally fatigued, cranky, and slightly depressed.
So, take mental breaks: leaf through a magazine, meditate, make a phone call, watch 15 minutes of television (set a timer). Take physical breaks: a little cleaning, a short walk, stretching in the living room or walking on that treadmill gathering dust in your bedroom. I have one of those large, air-filled exercise balls and drape myself over it on my back for a few minutes. It's a great tonic for stretching all the computer-cramped shoulder and neck muscles.
A full-time children's book writer said she loves to take cooking breaks. After a session at her desk, she goes to the kitchen, puts together something that takes time to cook-- soups and casseroles are her favorites-- and goes back to work. Then, at her next break, she gets up to peer at her pot, stir, add something, taste, and adjust. And she gets the added bonus of a meal ready when she wants it.
"Cooking is relaxing and creative," she said. "My mind bubbles around with what I'm working on as I keep fixing the dish. I like cooking on all cylinders."
11. Start easy. When it's time to do some serious thinking and writing, start with a task on your master project list that's obvious, easy, or short. Some time management gurus advise starting with what's hardest, but I've never found this productive. All I do is sit, gnaw my nails, and agonize, wishing I were someplace else.
Starting easy is first cousin to addressing an envelope. You're warming up. And most of the time this is necessary. What's more, completing an easy task will give you a great sense of accomplishment, made even sweeter by checking it off your list. At the same time, you'll gain confidence in what you're doing, and, as many writers have found, you'll start to "flow."
But a caution: All of us occasionally misjudge what to start with. A novice writer chose to begin with the scene in which his major characters resolve their conflicts. He found himself sitting blankly, getting more anxious as ideas collided in his brain and the idle minutes mounted.
When he told his writing group about this incident, one member sensibly pointed out that such a major scene needed to "percolate" in his mind. It would evolve much later, after he had lived with his characters through most of the book. Another member suggested that he would find it much easier to work first on the seeds of the conflict and each character's motivations. So he began his next work session by taking one character, describing her background and making notes of her desires and experiences that would lead to the main conflict.
12. Keep your promises to yourself. Whatever your writing time for the day, stick to it, whether it's a full eight hours, an hour or two, or even fifteen minutes. Choose your time and show up. A wise mentor once said, "There are no writing blocks. There are only unkept promises to get to the desk and stay put."
13. Reward yourself. When you finish a task, a section, a day's work, or a whole piece, congratulate and treat yourself. It may be a double brownie fudge cookie, a wallow in a writing magazine, or a long walk. Or scrubbing the sink-- whatever pleases you.
It's important to mark and acknowledge our progress. Few understand our daily victories, except maybe other writers. Our successes, as small as we think they are, should be recognized and valued.
A well-known novelist was asked in an interview what he does after finishing a difficult chapter or completing a book. The interviewer anticipated, "Call everyone you know? Go out and buy something extravagant? Get drunk?" The novelist smiled and said, somewhat embarrassed, "No, no. I stay in my studio and just dance around a little." Most of our triumphs are solitary, but we are entitled to celebrate them, however we choose.
***
These thirteen tricks have worked for me for a long time. With them, I get to work sooner and stay at it longer. My stalling has diminished, my anxiety has dropped, and my confidence has grown. Ideas and solutions come faster, and my writing is more consistent and productive.
Try a few of these tricks. They'll not only tease you into working but will help you work faster and better. And, possibly to your surprise, you may not even want to stop.
© 2006 Noelle Sterne
With a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, Noelle Sterne is a writer, editor, writing coach, and consultant for fiction, nonfiction, academic, and business projects, and other creative enterprises. For two years, she wrote a monthly column for the writers’ newsletter Seasons For Writing, and a short story recently won an award and publication in the CrossTIME Anthology. She has published how-to articles in many writers’ magazines and online resources, including Absolute Write, Writer’s Digest special issues, Writer’s Forum, and Writers’ Journal. Additional essays are scheduled for 2007 and beyond in Once Upon A Time, Writers’ Journal, The Writer, and a Writer’s Digest annual, among other publications. Her motivational/practical/inspirational book for writers First You Find Your Desk: Start Writing and Keep Writing with Less Agony and More Joy is currently in publisher review.
|
Sponsored links 
Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer! How to find a book publisher |
Text on this site Copyright © 1998-2007
Absolute Write, all rights reserved.
|
