Thinking about writing again

So, quite a few bloggers recently have been talking about writing, and the need to write. M at YelloCello has made it a resolution to write every day, and a bunch of other bloggers (me included) have included writing (or working on one’s own research) as part of their New Year’s resolutions (sorry, I ran out of linking energy).

What I would love to hear, from those of you out there, is this: what techniques do you use to encourage/coax/coerce yourself to write? Any tips or tricks you can share? (I know that in the end there’s really just the good old Nike answer: JUST DO IT. Just wondering if anyone can offer some refinements on how to go about that.)

Comments

[bitchphd]

I find the blogging thing helps. And keeping a specific writing journal *really* helps, but I haven't been doing that. Some place to write about writing in a really informal way often warms me up to do more "real" writing. And leaving something easy to do when I start the next day, like finish a sentence or a paragraph.

Interested in other people's techniques, too...

[lucyrain]

Hey, NK,

This has nothing to do with your post, really. I'm just a little desperate for some feedback. In my blog, I'm asking for input regarding job interviews. Since you're not far off from that interviewing experience, I thought I'd contact you directly, rather than waiting for incidental responses. Please, at the horrible risk of seeming (and, heck, being) desperate, please check out the latest post and share some thoughts.

The same goes for the rest of you reading this post.

Thanks!

And please forgive the desperation.

*She asked, desperately*

[wolfangel]

Bribing myself tend to be the only thing that works, and that only occasionally. If you find something that works, share it, because I could use the advice.

[Duane Bidwell]

Take a look at Boice's text "How Writers Journey to Fluency and Comfort" [or a title nearly like that].

It's annoying to read, but full of helpful advice. The chapter on motivation--chapter 1, I believe--is excellent, and the others have been helpful to me as well.

[dr. m]

Before grad school, writing was easy. It was fun and not even really much of an object of reflection (given that there was nothing seemingly riding on it). With the diss, I just went at it until I would unwittingly hit the groove. I was blessed with a semester of writing fellowship, so having no other charges helped (and having huge guilt about partner writing diss without fellowship also helped). From out of several years of darkness, I've turned to the blog to help get things going (though, oddly, this is the first year I haven't made a resolution to write). This is probably a meaningless and lame tautology, but writing seems to be mostly about finding the right space (physical and emotional) to write. For me, it's a desperate search for finding a way to make it fun again. Your best writing will come when you aren't looking for any aproval. It's sort of like when you go months and months obsessing about not being in a relationship (which makes you un-relationship-able). Then, as soon as you come to terms with being you and you just forget about dating altogether, you have to start beating back potential partners with a stick. I think writing is sort of like that. I've been the desperate weirdo for too long with that muse.

[Laura]

I think that writing for a particular amount of time works best. Trying to write a particular number of pages was more difficult because it might take a long time or a short time. Plus, with the 9-5 job and the kids, it's easier to carve out a particular hour than to be sitting for hours trying to get that page written. I also liked being in another place to write. There were fewer distractions. I couldn't blog or go put in another load of laundry. Even just moving to a different room helped. There's something about my desk that just makes me not want to write. :)

My friends in my writing group were talking about this last night and they all thought they needed to be in a good mental space to write. Some of them meditate. I have found that the walking/exercising seems to be helping. It's like clearing my mind and making room for the ideas. I know--it sounds weird.

I also used to read over previous passages and revise them a little to get myself started.

The other thing I've learned is not to beat myself up if I don't write one day. It just makes you feel worse and less likely to write the next day. Good luck with the writing! You've got lots of virtual support.

[Claire]

I'm blogging about the process of finishing my Phd. It's like I've got to write now otherwise the whole internet will know I'm a slacker.

[lucyrain]

During my first semester at my job, I hadn't finished my diss. A new colleague--now dear friend--took me to coffee and asked, "What's it gonna take? I'll do anything I can to help you get it done." I didn't know what it would take so he offered a plan: "Every day, you and I will write for two hours at the same time. I'll email you and tell you what I'll be working on. You email back with your plans. At the end of the two hours, we'll email each other what we accomplished. Even if it was just a sentence. Just a word. And we'll never feel bad if we didn't do what we thought we would, because we gave ourselves the chance. Not everyday can be a prolific writing day; but everyday can be a good writing day. 'Good' because honored your commitment to do it."

I finished my diss (one and a half chapters worth of new writing) in eight days.

I suppose it worked for me because it felt good to be writing "with" someone. Writing is such a solitary activity--one I easily allow to consume me in detrimental ways ("I can't do this. This is crap. I have nothing worthwhile to say.") Having a writing partner made me feel accountable to someone else--in positive ways.

[Nels]

You read about my trick in the blog, but I go out and set a timer to write for a certain amount of time like two hours. I have to work that entire time, and I get a lot done. That's how I wrote the diss. and that's how I write now.

[Tiruncula]

NK, gotta just say I was so happy to find your blog! In fact, since you've already raised all the issues in my life (and even have a similar cat), there's really no need for me to blog at all, but the chance to combine procrastination with graphic design fiddling is just too good to pass up. Blog to start soon...

But meanwhile, two things that worked for me in the late stages of my diss. and have worked sometimes since:

1) Don't write; just type. Since I usually either have a bunch of notes I need to turn into continuous prose or a text to transcribe chunks of and comment on, I make myself sit down and just type. I promise myself I don't have to think or write a single original word. Invariably, after I've typed for a while, I think of something to say in spite of myself and my typing morphs into writing.

2) Go where there's no computer and no books (so you can't second-guess yourself or look up just one more source or triple-check that article you've already read too many times. Take a really nice pen and paper. I prefer Tetras Supertechnica pens from Pentel France and Clairefontaine notebooks. If you don't have nice paper to hand, this provides a shopping opportunity on the way to the chosen work site. Settle down in a cafe and write. This is no good for detailed, carefully structured stuff, but is excellent for generating gobbets of elegant prose.

The two processes feed one another, since at some point you will need to type up your precious prose gobbets. Once you've done enough typing, the gobbets and the data will begin to converge and you will have enough continuous text that you will be able to see the end of the article or chapter in sight.

[Claire]

How many hours writing can you all do each day? My work day tends to consist of just two or three hours. Which doesn't exactly seem very good when it's the only thing I've got to do.

[What Now?]

In contrast to some other responders here, I've had some success giving myself a word count goal for each day, rather than a time period requirement. I've only done this during the summers and so don't know how it would work during the school year; I guess I'll find out this term, since I finally have a four-day-a-week schedule with one day set aside for writing.

The other thing I did last summer that worked really well was to create a chart with the following categories: Writing, Reading, Research, and Revision. I'd fill in the chart each day with what I'd accomplished (counted in # of words or time spent or articles read or whatever), so that at the end of the week I could clearly see what I had and hadn't accomplished. It was a way of keeping myself honest, since I'm very good at tricking myself into thinking that I've worked harder than I really have. Again, I don't know how this would work out during the school year; I found it useful to handle unstructured time, but the problem I have during the school year is that my time feels a little too structured.

Thanks for starting this interesting discussion!

[Pilgrim/Heretic]

Claire, I think 2-3 hours of writing is about the best that can be done! I don't think there's any one magic bullet (besides sheer self-discipline), but several people have talked about writing a little bit every day, and I think that's as close as it gets. It's a little counterintuitive, because we often want to set aside Writing Days or at least big chunks of time to write. I've tried that, but it just didn't work for me. When I was doing the big push to get the book done, my best work by far got done when I did about 2 hours a day of writing. EvieB is about the most productive dissertation writer I've ever known, so I've learned to follow her example. :)

There's also a big psychological factor here, I suspect. If we keep talking about writing as the Big High Slippery Mountain that we're scared to death to climb, and we keep asking for the right paths and the right tools to climb it with, we're just solidifying that idea of it being big and scary. Remember that this is the field you love, and these are the ideas that intrigue you. Try to think of writing as a positive thing - here's your chance to play with your ideas and discover more about them! instead of a big ugly obstacle.

[Tiruncula]

I agree with Pilgrim/Heretic. When I was finishing the diss., I was writing on an old clamshell ibook that had about 2 1/2 hours of battery life, so that seemed like a natural limit for one writing stint. Sometimes I found if I wrote for a couple of hours in the morning I could recharge both self and ibook and do another stint in the too-early-to-eat-dinner-yet segment of the late afternoon. Now that my nouveau ibook has almost twice as much battery life, I still keep myself to 2-3 hours a day by using up the remainder of the battery charge in mindless websurfing and online shopping :)

A grad school friend and I have agreed that when we write our joint memoirs (or a roman à clef) about our grad school days we're going to call it _Shopping on the Way to the Library_.

[af]

For me, sometimes it's all about staying in the chair at the desk. I take email breaks on the hour (sometimes, pathetically, even on the half hour) - I usually don't have anything in the in box or send anything, but somehow being connected to the world helps just that little bit. Also I clean my keyboard and the rims of my glasses with post-its - delaying tactics, yes, but ones I can do without actually leaving the desk.

I think getting lots of sleep is important, too - for me that's 8-9 hours a night. Without it I just can't concentrate.

There's a great line by Italo Calvino, I think in If on a winter's night a traveller, where he talks about how the verb "to write" should be used like the verb "to rain": not "I write" but "it writes." On those rare days when it writes, it's very nice.

[Sherman Dorn]

I combine a risk of embarrassment with pampering myself: committing to something and then giving myself permission to ignore everything else in the world (okay, except for things like picking up kids, laundry, etc.) and be "lazy" by writing.

Now, who said that writing was easy, for you just cut your skin and led it bleed?

[anon]

I have to say that cleaning the rims of one's glasses w/post-its is the *best* delay I have ever heard -- thanks, af! It makes me sorry I wear contacts now (though cleaning them, removing dust from one's eyes, etc.) doesn't work so bad either.

I use a mixture of the "character count" (words per day) and time approach, depending on the phase of writing. For me, "character count" works well for the draft (when the goal really is to get words on paper), whereas "time on writing" is essential for outlining and editing. During the term, I try to evaluate a day in advance (based on amount of teaching, meetings, etc.) to determine what a reasonable goal is. This allows me to say "tomorrow is a 5000 character day" (or whatever), put it on my list, and work until the goal is accomplished. Doesn't always work, but it adds structure to the process.

I love What Now's chart idea.

[Jane]

Recently, I've found that blogging and/or journalling right before I settle down to work helps get the creative juices flowing. Like a few others have said, writing about something helps me to focus my thoughts---sort of like I'm cleansing the little things from my brain so that I can concentrate on the important stuff. Telling colleagues about my goals and what I'm working on also helps, because then they'll start asking me about your progress and that motivates me, because of course I don't want to be seen as a slacker! Closing my office door sometimes helps---uninterrupted time is precious and hard to come by at my school.

[michelle]

Man, I'm glad (yet again for one reason among scores) that I decided against moving to get my phd. This sort of writing expressed my your commenters is so not up my alley. It's true: I lack the fortitude.

[Ancarett]

When you sit down in the morning, just start writing. Write for your alloted time (usually a few hours if you can manage that). Do your research for the next writing session in the afternoon. Make your notes, scratch up an outline. Write the start of a sentence for the next session and close it up.

Do NOT write to burn out. Do not stop to check that research note when you're on a role. Put in an asterick or whatever mark you like to use to tell you "go back here and fix this" and keep on writing.

And, if you're really stuck, jump ahead and write something from the middle or the end or wherever. Just keep writing.

[Susan]

I'm not a writer, just an avid blog-reader who thought this post by Terry Teachout might be relevant to this theme.

http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/archives20050109.shtml#94215

[heading out]

I usually write after 4:30 for an hour to an hour and a half. Usually I just scribble the first page and a half to sort of set my mind to the tone I want and then line out an outline, with notes. I usually just put everything including the kitchen sink in to start, and then revise down hard. I prefer that it is quiet, and usually end with a still full but cold cup of coffee by the keyboard. But that gives me an excuse to get up and move around when I get stuck.