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August 8, 2015

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Life, Writing

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Why You Should Write All The Damn Time

Alright beginners, let me tell you the magic secret to becoming a better writer.

“Write a lot, and read a lot.”

No, don’t you dare. I see you raising your hand in the back. I see you scoffing at me and rolling your eyes. You, slinking behind the buffet bar, don’t even try to run. The metaphorical door is locked and guarded and I hid the key underneath my fedora. Yes my fedora. I know it’s a pretentious hat, but I like wearing it.

So sit down. All of you. Let me disillusion you of some notions.

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“I don’t want to write till I’m inspired.”

I shudder when I hear you say that. It’s not “write when you’re inspired,” it’s “write UNTIL inspiration hits, and then keep going.” People let their muse control them, when actually you control your muse. She’s sitting inside your head, twiddling her thumbs, and waiting for you to give her something to work with. Those little random bursts of creativity are her getting fed up and clawing at your brain-pan.

“I don’t want/like/have time to read.”

Seriously? The birth of a writer starts from a person who loves to read. So if you’re against it, I think you need to come up with a different goal. It’s not even hard to do. Books are the best choice, but if none are available then read articles and fan fiction and blogs. The important thing is that you consume words like it keeps you alive. Because it sort of does.

“I’ve got writer’s block.”

Okay fine. I get it. You’re stuck on something in your current project. It happens. So write something else! Anything else! Short stories, essays, poems, reviews, love letters, erotica, fan fiction, songs, or even your will. Just write something! Anything!

“But I’m not any good at writing.”

Neither was I. Art takes practice. It takes a lot of practice. That’s why you have to write all the goddamn time. Writing constantly will teach you technique, it will teach you what works and what doesn’t. It will let you find your voice. It will teach you how to continue to be inspired. It will show you what kind of person you are. It will make you confident in what you are doing. It will make you into a goddamn artist.

###

Ignore the guy crying in the corner. I think I broke his mind. For the rest of you, do you understand now? Do you feel the twitch in your fingertips you’ve ignored for so long?

Good! Then go write some words.

—

Special thanks to: Collin Pearman, Dylan Alexander, Jerry Banfield, Michael The Comic Nerd, Pulsatilla Pratensis, and Zeony.

Did you like the article? Dislike? Tell me about it in the comments. I would love to hear your opinions! If interested in specific articles, or want to write as a guest, you can message me at scifibrandonscott@gmail.com. If you want to help keep this blog going, consider becoming my patron at https://www.patreon.com/coolerbs. Thanks for reading!

12 thoughts on “Why You Should Write All The Damn Time”

  2. Excellent advice, Brandon! Someone once wrote that as a writer, you need to warm up, just as a musician does. That’s what got me to loosen up and just start writing. If you just write, eventually you’ll get in gear and something good will emerge. Then you can trash the beginning, which was just a warm-up. A blank page or blank computer screen can be daunting if you don’t break the ice by doing this. I also tell people that even if they’ve never written anything good, if the urge is there, they’re writers and just need to find their voices. As for coaching people on writing, the most effective method is to find what’s good in what someone wrote — even if it’s just one line — and validate the hell out of that. Ignore the bad or mediocre stuff. Find the guy’s strengths or suggestion of strengths. He will blossom from there.

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    • Thank you!

      Exactly! Actually that’s how I got started. I had one person who praised the s%$t out of what I wrote, and even though in hindsight the stuff was not very good (like at all) it gave me the confidence to write like a madman.

      Everything else came from practice and persistence.

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  3. This is so very true.
    I have a friend who always waits for her muse. I’ve told her to just sit down and be determined to write at least 250 words whether she’s inspired or not. Moving from nothing to something is the hardest part. Once something is there, it becomes far easier.

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  4. Good post. Picasso said that inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us show up to work every day.

    Someone posted on g+ a quote by the author of “Ragtime,” E. L. Doctorow. He said that when he started writing that book, he had no idea what to write about, so he started writing about the wall in front of him. It was part of an old house, so he thought about the city at the time it was built, and so on, and out came a novel. That’s how you get ideas. You work every day.

    (BTW, “alright” is not a word. It’s “all right.”)

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    • “usage: The merging of all and right to form the one-word spelling alright is first recorded toward the end of the 19th century (unlike other similar merged spellings such as altogether and already, which date from much earlier). There is no logical reason for insisting that all right be two words when other single-word forms such as altogether have long been accepted. Nevertheless, although found widely, alright remains nonstandard.” So it’s a word — just not considered standard yet. Looks like it will be some day, though. IMO, there are WAY worse grammar infractions than that! For instance, “nother” is DEFINITELY not a word! 🙂

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