Preparing to Write

Write With RCS:

             Start writing now and prepare later. 

                 Don't spend a lot of time preparing to write. The important things happen during your writing. Allow yourself to proceed without a full plan and allow yourself to depart from whatever plan you have.

                Try not to let whatever you have learned about control to interfere with your writing. Thinking about control leads to stuckness. Try to do as the psychologists say and let go a bit. Being free to choose does not mean making a single choice, the right one. It means being you; choosing and re-choosing.

                Digress and wander until your mind atrophies and falls off. Let yourself forget being discriminating and sharp. Let yourself be open and accepting.

                A good practice may be to choose a topic you truly enjoy and beginning to write out all you know about that subject. You may find yourself writing quiet a lot; perhaps some that even seems worth re-writing.

                Even if you have a topic  that has little fascination for you, you may make a productive beginning by writing all you know about the subject and then beginning to write out all you don't know about it.

                Start writing, then you can keep writing.

 

 

                                                         by Richard Sheehan

 

You Get Unstuck

Write With RCS: Get unstuck. Write out everything you know about the subject. What a good writer.

 

            Writing problems? Take a break. Do not throw away what you have written, yet. When you feel rested and calm or just really curious about that which you have written, go ahead and read it all the way through without correcting or adding anything. Take another brief break and read it again when you feel like it. As you read start making any additions and changes that feel right. Doesn't this seem like writing? Congratulations, writer!

 

                Keep writing. Set your timer for more than 10 minutes and less than half an hour. Timer or not, begin to write all you have to say on or about your subject or topic. Check your clock and do something else for five or ten minutes. No clock? Stop anyway.

            Now go back and read that which you have written. Make a few brief corrections and additions of use or interest. What a good writer you are!

            Get set to write for 20 minutes, and then take a short break. Now write. You may have already written about the nature of your task. So, now it may be time to reconsider and clarify subject or subjects. Write more about your subject as you have your task in mind. At the end of your 29 minutes, stop for a short break and then read what you have written and make some brief corrections and additions.

 

            Set up for another 20 minutes of writing. If you are tired, take the rest you need. Now, what has gotten you writing today or whenever? Let some of the thoughts or doings that have helped you get writing, move around a bit in your mind. you can consider beginning a list of your motivating thoughts and doings.

            Now start writing all you can say about your subject, your topic or even your task. Keep writing until you have no more to say. Just keep writing for a while.  Write until you have nothing more to say. do not over tire yourself. You have done good work.  

 

                Persistence is a way to get unstuck. It can be productive, but when it is not, it can be painful. There are many kinds of persistence and it makes sense to try those most likely to work. In posts on this blog, I am am attempting to put some which have worked, at your service. You and I can know anxiety. We can feel anxious. We can act. You can act effectively.

 

                You have acted to get yourself writing in a satisfyingly productive way. You act and produce satisfying writing and you can attend to how you do that. You can observe that which you do to produce which you are pleased to accept. You can remember a time you have produced creatively. Not only that; it is also possible for you to remember much of how you have done so. You can do well, feel well, and be grateful. Feeling relieved can be good.         

                     

                Go with what you have. If you don't have the inspiration, go ahead and write some uninspired sentences. A couple could turn out to be okay, or even pretty good. One could even be darn good. Keep writing for a while. Write something about the nature of your task or something very honest about what you are feeling at the moment. After writing for a while, stop for a while and then go ahead and read what you have written. Find what is worst in that writing. Then check to see anything that could be used sooner or later. Then write about all that was wrong, bad, useless, and uninspired. yes, all. You don't have to do this every day.

You are learning, growing and developing. writing is like that.

 

                Now get a little drink of whiskey and water, just plain water, some aromatic tea, or whatever you have. Sit down with your drink and think a bit about why you were interested in writing your recent effort. Do not get another drink, yet. Think, a bit, about why you did not feel like writing. Why did you want to write? What about?  

                It is often a good plan to go ahead and write, to just keep writing.  We often stop to correct and and to edit too soon and too frequently. I remind myself of this often. Its usually best to keep writing. The time to edit comes. Too keep writing when it feels impossible, you can write about that feeling. It can be useful to write about what is was that you didn't have anything to write about, and even to add the reasons you had nothing to say about it.

                You can write several pages before you correct anything or make any changes. Never stop before you complete a paragraph, can be a good rule. I use it daily.

                If you ever find yourself writing one word again and again be it a good word or a bad one you are stuck. So, try this. Start writing the word in complete sentences even if those sentences are not true. If you find yourself writing the same sentence over and over again, stop and consider why. Then you can write about not knowing why, you don't know why. Keep writing.

                Ah, your task. Do you have an incomplete writing task? Write about your task, in complete sentences. Try to pick out your three truest sentences. Try to improve those sentences..

                What is your task? Write out the nature of your task. Write out what you think you are supposed to be doing. You could go ahead and write out what you know about the subject of your task, but it might be worth while to return to the beginning of this piece and review it.

                You are writing. Good. Keep writing. If you have begun to write on task. Good for you. If you have clarified your subject, better yet. When you are satisfied that you have clarified the subject so well that your writing will clarify the subject for your readers it may be time to clean up and edit.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                            

                                                                    RCS

 

Writing: First Words

 We are born with talents. Writing is a developing skill
 

Skills are developed and maintained with practice. 

            As an aid to improving your writing skills you can keep a free-writing diary as a practice tool. You may also find that it is a great source of writing ideas.

            Keep your free-writing in a private diary, journal, or notebook. No one but you need ever read a word you put there. In that private place you can write whatever you want in any way you want to.  

            "Free-writing" is writing without judgement or criticism. Do no editing, corrections, or rewrites. All there is to it is to do it.

            Do not throw away what you have free written. You can use it to discover subjects you can enjoy writing more about.

            In your notebook, journal, diary, write. Produce a finished piece of writing. Keep a topic in mind. Digressions are okay, but when you find yourself digressing in this practice bring yourself gently back to the topic.
 

            Digression are to be honored and respected. After all they do come from your beautiful mind. 
                

            The idea in this practice is to keep writing. Do not stop writing. Do not stop for anything but the most serious and urgent reason. 
            

            You may say to yourself "Let's remember the topic," but do not let a little digression of yours bother you.  Gently practice the discipline of keeping the topic in mind as you honor and value your digressions. 
            

            It does seem that we writers are very much about digressions. They may lead us to our best writing. Still we do not want them to keep us from finishing a piece of work. 

            As an aid toward helping myself to finish a piece of work I have told myself to write down everything I can think about the topic at the moment.                     

            Later you can look for your digressions in you work above.  Do another writing exercise based on your digressions. Let your digressions enrich your writing. Your  digressions may give you topics that motivate the real you.

             Peter Elbow's book WRITING WITHOUT TEACHERS has inspired me know that it is truly possible to write better with appropriate practice and Useful attitude. 

            Use the "comments" section below to contact me. Do so by clicking on "comments." If you see "no comments" click on it.

            Thank you for reading.

            Keep writing.

 

                                                                             rcs