Writing is work, and there’s not reason to expect it to be otherwise. Have a growth mindset: think effort, rather than talent. All talent can do is help the effort pay off. Talent can also , I think, be learned: it’s a side-product of effort. Even if you want to give talent some ur-role, pride […]
A Practical Alphabet for Writers: E is for Effort Read More »
For years, I longed for a daily practice while taking comfort in the authors who claimed not to have one. Some months I wrote morning pages every day. Some months I didn’t. Some stretches I labored at my novel, meeting friends in cafes to force myself to stay at the task. Other stretches I set
A Practical Alphabet for Writers: D is for Daily Read More »
Writers get courage from other writers, which is to say, from books and stories. Seek out the ones that astonish you, that make you say, “You can do that?” Seek out the ones that seep into you and charge you with the will to take risks. Writer friends and writing groups can similarly ballast and
A Practical Alphabet for Writers: C is for Courage Read More »
Begin badly, begin with questions (write them down), begin with a line that pops into your head or a few words you force from your pen. Begin with a character whose only partly visible to you, with eavesdropping in a cafe or on your own memories or imagination. Begin though the critic rises up in
A Practical Alphabet for Writers: B is for Begin Read More »
I like starting with action. We writers are often excellent at observation. A lot may be going on in the depths below the surface, and there’s certainly something to be said for that, but it traps us in two ways. First, we can be inclined to shy away from action in our stories. Ensconced at
A Practical Alphabet for Writers: A is for Action Read More »
I’m in the process of making notes on my novel, having just finished reading through and heavily editing a printed version of it. I thought I’d share a discipline I’ve imposed on myself during this process in hopes it might be of use to you as it’s turned out to be for me. I have
There’s a certain bravado in exams. You prepare as best you can and then you go in and make claims, stake claims, get something down. Time and expectations are blunted by the format. You’re alive with the energy of the exam–proving something about what you know but not proving everything about who you are. It’s
Write Like You’re Taking an Open-Book Essay Exam Read More »
I’m sitting miles above the flat rectangles and wrinkled skin of California, my small plastic tray out, tea on one side, view of the earth on the other. My device is in airplane mode–no new text messages, emails, status updates, Google searches. The engine makes a heavy white noise. I can’t worry I’m not doing
Go Into Airplane Mode! Read More »
Perhaps the most important gift we can give ourselves as writers is permission. Permission to try, permission to fail, permission to say something forbidden or ugly or embarrassing or painful, permission to soar. Permission to be important, for the writing and our time to matter, for the dream to take a certain precedence, amid the
Last week I wrote about Desire in story. It might be helpful to think about your desire to write, as well. How much do you want it? What’s in its way? How do you support it? Think about how you feel when you love it, when you sneak in the time for it because you
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