One word at a time.
Every word you write is practice for the next. Knowing how to choose the next word, happily putting it on the page, happily letting it live on the page; all of these things take courage, and a certain skill.
It’s not a big courage, it’s nothing more special than being confident enough to sit down and write, and accept the results as something that exists.
It’s not a big skill; it’s a skill you acquire from repetition.
Writing requires courage, because many people think it does.
Writing is a skill, because you do have to invest time into developing it.
Improve your writing, by writing.
In what world can you imagine improving your writing by not writing?
Write with diligence, and consideration for story and the words will flow in an endless stream. Don’t fear how you’ll feel about the results, don’t anticipate results. Just write.
7 comments:
I usually see it as every word I erase is practice for the next.
;)
Great advice... which although I think it over and over, I really need to learn to take!
"Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better..."
It's good advice, BT.
It really is.
Master Po, how does one become wise?
A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, grasshopper.
@ Stella, I try to chop off the eraser end of anything I use when I’m writing drafts. It’s a perverse habit of mine, but I try to get the story down as fast as I can write, without taking away a single word. I try to write what I think of as living writing. When I have a show to review, I’ll sit and write throughout the review- not conscious stream of consciousness, but constant stream of conscious, I open up my senses and let the room pour in, then put down every impression on the page. The writing has a real snap and zing to it then.
It’s when I redraft that I bring out the eraser… In the example I use, a show review, I might start with eight and a half thousand words over three hours, and then pare that down to five hundred words. I guess it seems like a waste of words in the rough draft, but I want the biggest picture possible to choose the most accurate way to tell the story- the review.
You are right, that eraser can be great practice = )
Stella has been a huge supporter of “The Anatomy” since day one, and writes a great blog on writing, “Stella Scripts” Stella provides technical advice, some wonderful; scripts, Haiku and some great personal observations of the world, It’s well worth looking at. You’ll find a link to Stella Scripts” in the links bar to the left = )
@ Catherine @ Sharp words, it can be very hard to think of our writing as practice, and bring that attitude to the table, but it can help when you are trying to achieve a greater output of work- it removes the fear that what you write has to be good.
Sometimes I look at writing as a sport. When I’m writing a draft I’m practicing for the event, I’m learning the things I need to for that specific situation- each piece of writing is very different from the next. The final finished piece is the main event, but luckily, no one except for me gets to decide when that occurs. So I practice, and practice, and practice. I think the biggest mistake we can make is to think a rewrite is a terrible thing to have to do- I love writing, just sitting and writing, it’s the best fun, as a result all my second drafts are straight re-writes. I read the first draft, remember everything I like about the story, and then write it again from the top down, keeping only those things that stand out as good. It saves me a lot of editing time that way. Then I begin to chop off the excess. I like to start with a big document as the rough draft- if you’ve read what I wrote above, you’ll see I like to start with a VERY big document- and move down from there. The more I write, the better I get at writing (hopefully)….
“Sharp words” is one of the best blogs I’ve seen on writing. It is easy to read, well presented, and full of very useful advice. Like all the other blogs I mention, you can find a link to “Sharp words” in the links bar, to your left on screen.
@ Ken Armstrong, Thanks Ken, I’m glad you appreciate what I feel about writing- that’s all I’m writing here, the things I observe about myself in my writing.
Ken Is the author of a great blog called “Ken Armstrong Writing stuff,” I love Ken’s short stories- the stapler incident with the Dr Martens almost caused me to rupture my spleen laughing. You can find a link to Ken’s blog in the links bar to the left. Enjoy.
@ Clark [GRINS] A better translation of Lao Tzu’s quote is “A Journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet,” which is exactly what I’m trying to get at- it’s great that you recogise where I found my reflection = ) Lao tzu and I have been hanging out for a long time, trying to make sense of the world. For sure, he’s dead, and some centuries dead at that, but his writing lingers, his words, wisdom, and the direction he points in still rings so true as to influence today.
Let you in on a little secret- the things that make a good writer are the same things that make a good father, baseball player, ballerina, Fireman, rocket scientist, neurosurgeon or anything else in the world. It’s a special wisdom where you know there is no wisdom greater than no wisdom. ; )
Blushing.
Also, I need to take your advice and be more spontaneous when I write.
Heya, Stella, Trying to be more spontaneous is like Zazen, “Just sit there and don’t think about anything,”- just when you think you’ve got it you notice yourself thinking, “Hey! I’m not thinking, woo hoo! DOH!” The big one is writing all the time; by writing all the time you can come out with some fascinating material.
My average is about ten percent. That is to say, ten percent of the things I write will be keepers, the rest destined to go into the Big Draw, where I recompost the ideas and recycle them again, at some later time. Ideas like “The boy who mistook his father for a goldfish” don’t necessarily fly off the page the first time, but the eighth or ninth time, they start to sing. Sometimes, out of nowhere, and idea will go Bam, and smack down onto the page and leave me reeling, but that so rarely happens as to be a freak of nature and not something I can make happen. Most of the time, like Stephen King said, There’s a lot of hard work before the muse turns up.
Get over to “Stella Scripts” today and have a look at the haiku Stella has laid up for readers- haiku is often a black art, and Stella has a firm grip on its principals. You can find a link to “Stella scripts” in the link bar to your left, enjoy.
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