Writing Tips

(Or, "Advice I’ve gleaned from fellow Bloggers, NaNoWriMo-ers, and ROW80-ers")

1. Set small, specific goals.

It’s easy to get discouraged or overwhelmed if you have a huge goal that you are consistently not meeting.  And how can you meet it, anyway, if it’s so undefined?  I find that I shy away from the huge responsibilities like “write a novel,” or “clean the house,” or “clear out your closets.”  But I’m more likely to actually do something if it’s a tangible, focused goal.  The trick seems to be to focus on precise, quantifiable goals, rather than end-products.  Well-defined steps might actually happen, because they are smaller, more tangible tasks that won’t take hours and hours to address.  Tasks that constantly loom over me are huge and scary and vague and are to be avoided at all costs. 

Small goals that only take 15-30 minutes are automatically less threatening, especially if they’re something that you have to get to but don’t anticipate enjoying.  But I’m theoretically supposed to want to write, right?  And 1,667 words a day, while more than I usually write in one sitting, sounds like much less than 50,000 words in a month, right? 

I wrote a long post Saturday night, and then I stayed up late, and I was sooo tired.  It was soooo hard to envision a whole month of writing.  Even 1,667 words seemed like way too much of a hassle.  But if I look at things through a microscope, I do actually want to update my photo gallery, and write about neat things I’ve discovered on the internet, and I want to share my latest cute plushie ideas and my Jane Austen costume--they're fun, and I'm proud of them!  And that leads us to:

2. Look at things from a different perspective.

We all signed up to do something crazy like NaNoWriMo or DigiWriMo because we technically WANT to write, correct?  Some idea was so inspiring, or fun, or we just wanted to overcome the fear, or we wanted to connect to other creative people.  Last year, people from all over the world contributed to a single novel during DigiWriMo!  What a neat, collaborative, creative, technology-inspired idea!  So why can NaNoWriMo just feel like a guilt-tripping, overwhelming amount of WORK?

Personal Example: Decluttering

I am not a hoarder, but I do put way too much emotional meaning into belongings, and it is hard for me to let anything go.  Plus, I might NEED things like extra Q-tips or pretty ribbon, right?  But as I stated in my Sunday post, this last spring I got rid of over 30 bags of belongings.  How did I do it?  Well, to begin with, I knew I was moving.  And the stress of lugging boxes, and punishing other, helpful people by having them lug them for me, can automatically make things less precious (although I still moved plenty--thanks, again!). 

Secondly, I tried to subscribe to the “$20 or less rule.”  If it costs less than $20, and it’s easily replaceable and has no sentimental value, and you won’t need it for months, then it’s not worth the financial and mental effort of packing and storing and moving.  Why keep packing and moving scented soap and tiny glass vases, when I don’t even put them out to be used?  “I might need them?”  Well, I haven’t needed them, yet—I haven’t use scented soap since I had an allergic reaction, and my shelves are already full of books and artwork, and knick-knacks always need to be dusted, and even if I did put out more of my display pieces, I would choose something with more meaning than a $2 vase, anyway…DONATE PILE.  Spice jars and decorative tea boxes?  Now, those, I will use daily.  KEEP.

Thirdly, I started keeping a “Donate” box that I would toss things into, and as soon as it was full it would be taken to the donation center.  And I kept track of how many bags-worth had exited the apartment.  That way I constantly had a feeling of accomplishment and we had an increasingly roomier living-space.  While there was always plenty more clutter to be dealt with, it was really important to morale to see that progress was constantly being made (hence my NaNoWriMo-style progress graph).

Fourthly, a friend suggested that I actively GIVE some of my belongings to friends or acquaintances that I thought WOULD use them.  I donated a box of craft supplies that I had no plans for to a group of friends who make costumes on a regular basis, on the understanding that they were under no obligation to keep anything that didn’t seem useful.  I pulled my childhood stuffed animals out of the box they lived in, hugged them and took a picture of them, and then I donated them to a friend’s toddler on the understanding that if she did not love them, I would get them back.  Using this strategy, I started thinking of the donation bags as going TO someone who would use and enjoy them, instead of AWAY FROM ME.  I was not using those toys or craft supplies. I was preventing someone from enjoying them by keeping them in a box.

Fifthly, I started thinking about sorting through all of my clothes differently.  I pulled out all of the sweaters and dresses that I didn’t wear, and the clothes I’d been meaning to try altering, and I asked myself is someone else would enjoy them more.  Now, this is absolutely not to say that I’m a minimalist now.  I have tons of suitcases of clothes for various situations—one for camping and outdoorsy activities, one for sweaters, one for jackets, a couple garment bags of fancier things.  But “I might need this someday” did become “try on all the cute sweaters and remove the ones that don’t flatter you, because someone else will LOVE them.” “These are cute shoes that actually sort of fit me and it’s hard for me to find shoes and I might wear them someday” became “make a pile of the cute shoes that hurt your feet and therefore never ever ever get worn, and let someone else enjoy them, and you’ll finally be able to fit all of your shoes in one box, woo!” “Sure, you could chop off the bottom of that dress to try making it a shirt, but it’s been sitting there for 2 years, and someone else would look great in that cute dress, and it’s so tight at the mid-section that it always rides up annoyingly anyway.”  Keeping clothes that are comfortable and flattering, and imagining someone else finding a treasure you donated, is way more fun that “letting go of” pretty back-up items.

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo or DigiWriMo, you’re LETTING yourself be crazy and artistic and uncensored and obsessed about something for an entire month.  And you have the excuse that, well, “you’re a writer!”  If part of your novel feels like a chore, jot down a couple notes about where you think that scene is going, and then go write a character back story or a fight scene instead!  By the time you get back to the first scene, maybe you’ll have solved the mental puzzle and will have a better solution to whatever was torturing you, anyway.  Or you could try purposefully writing a scene that ends differently from your plotted storyline, or is told from a different character's point of view.  Maybe you’ll find that the villain is more interesting than your protagonist, or you’ll learn something about your characters, and who knows, you could always end up using both perspectives in your final novel, or turn one of the alternate versions into a dream sequence if it’s really good.

Or, you could be like me, and try writing NaNoWriMo Rebel-style on several social media platforms, and try to synthesize things you read into your own project.

3. “Learn to Fail Small”

As Kait Nolan says in this blog post, we tend to think of goals as “all or nothing,” which is very discouraging and not very helpful.  Instead, we should accept that life happens, we didn’t achieve a specific goal that one time, and move on.  Either accept that the goal was unrealistic and change it, or move on, and simply try not to compound that failure.  If you don’t write that day, make sure that you write the next day, so that you haven’t “failed” two days in a row.  And remember that you’re still making progress.  Try not to sabotage your goals, and focus on the now and the joy of writing and being creative, instead of the potential pay-off or the possible obstacles.  According to some sources, starting anywhere primes your brain and makes it more likely that you will continue or even finish the task.  And while some studies suggest that looking at something as a failure can prime you to give up completely, re-framing that scenario to focus on your accomplishments can keep you focused and motivated (see this list of the interesting studies that Kait Nolan is referring to).

4. When in doubt, borrow or accept help.

If you do a search on Twitter for #NaNoWriMo or #DigiWriMo, or you go to one of their websites, you can find dozens of ideas for writing or transmedia projects.  Maybe one of them will catch your attention.  Or you can ask other participants for advice or feedback.  And if you're working on a piece of fiction, there's a lovely forum where you can "Adopt" characters and plot suggestions that writers have lovingly "donated."  You can find the Adoption Society forum here.

Whether the idea germinated in your brain or someone else's, anything you write or create will automatically become a unique piece.  In art, we often call this "appropriation"--although keep in mind that it's important to acknowledge anyone who's influenced your work.  It's also important to learn the difference between appropriation and plagiarism!

DigiWriMo/ROW80 Goal Progress:
I'm currently ahead on my ROW80 goals, & behind on my NaNoWriMo/DigiWriMo 50k goal...

1. Blog Sketches: 10 sketches in 4 days!  So far so good.  Not sure I have enough ideas to keep doing “Fall” or “November” drawings, but we'll see.  I am also still trying to use the blog material to inspire at least one sketch per (written) blog post--at this rate, some sketches may continue to be posted independently.

2. Blog Drafts: Pre-writing blog posts for November & December: On track so far (3 done), although it’s only the first week—I am trying to move away from writing about writing, and back to writing about crafting.  But obviously the writing is a bit of a focal point this month, so we'll see.

3. Vlog (scripts & shoots): I have not done anything new with this.

4. NEW: Creative Writing. I wrote a character description that feels like the start of a story.  I have no idea what to do with her...
5. NEW: Tweet more Original Content.  I love re-tweeting, but I would like to continue making more of my tweets contain my own words, even if it's just me live-tweeting a movie, or quoting an author.