Weekend
Writers
Guild
Writing Tips For The Weekend Writer
Stick to one message
Writing is transforming things in your head to written words. And whatever is in your head is created by some kind of a stimulus. The challenge of writing is simple. Write, type, jot down or record on tape whatever you feel during this period of stimuli! That is, if you aren’t doing anything else!
Then the tricky part begins. Whatever it is you are writing about, whether it is explaining the process of photosynthesis in your favorite garden plant or narrating events that happened to you at the grocery store with that rude cashier, you start with one basic question: What is the message I would want to tell my readers?
About 99.97% of the time the writing process either stops or is defeated at this first hurdle. There is a wide spectrum of reasons for failing to arrive at a coherent message. On one end you have individuals that may conclude that the stimuli was not worth writing about. For instance that rude cashier at the grocery store is just one of life’s nuisances so lets forget about it and move on. On the other hand, you have individuals that may make the message so complex and intricate such that at the end of the day, a single, focused message is lost. Going back to that rude cashier at the grocery store, some individuals may associate this with the arrogant culture that has been created by electing a Republican president! While this hypothesis may be valid, the whole subject is worthy of a thesis. For the uncomplicated reader we want to captivate, this may not be his cup of tea.
The great majority of us have difficulty in simply defining what our message is. My best advise: Focus on one - just one - simple message and go. Don’t complicate things.
Back to the rude cashier story. My main story line would be something like this: A single act of unkindness costs businesses money. (From my point of view, it is going to cost that business my patronage that’s for sure.) Once the message is established, writing begins to follow a guideline and gush a “flow” of thoughts, since all words are now focused on one single focus.
Plan
We are bombarded with stories of writers going to a secluded, soul-invigorating, scenic hideaway to create their literary masterpieces. An inspiration suddenly hits and wham, the writer is transported into a writer’s nirvana where the space and time continuum ceases and the masterpiece unfolds in crisp, book-bound pages. I guess literary geniuses work that way but you and I have to do things differently.
I write most of my stuff very early in the morning when everyone is still asleep or very late at night, right about the Tonight Show. But before I embark on some literary trip, I normally plan out what I have to say based on the single message I decided on.
Nothing fancy about the writing plan. Just a one-half to one page scribbling of the main points I want to talk about. Oftentimes, these are just key words or phrases. More like a list than an outline. Sometimes, you have to research on a topic to sound more credible. I would post a sticky note on my writing plan and do the research well before I sit down to write.
To many people, this step is not important. Nowadays we are trained to think on our feet. To illustrate, we mindlessly tap away at our computer keyboards all the thoughts that rush in our heads, when writing an email to a friend. It all comes so instinctively!
To me, a literary piece is several notches above an email, and a plan guides me on what to write about. The most important function of the writing plan is to keep me on track. Thus it makes me more efficient. Saves me precious time. And more time to spend with family, friends, golf and other of life’s trivial pursuits!
Write on!
Have you ever stopped in the middle of your writing because your mind has gone totally blank? Or have you buckled down to write and nothing comes out from that brain of yours? This mental blackout is quite common. A lot of people are inhibited from great writing because of concerns regarding style, grammar, political correctness and all sorts of sensitivities. It is normal to have one part of the brain just bursting with a ton of things to say and write about while another part of your brain steps in abruptly and cautions about all these constraints. The net result : a systems crash! Can you imagine one part of your brain tugging in one direction and another part, the opposite direction?
The best strategy is just write on. With your writing plan as a guide, type in all the thoughts that rush in your head, as you would when writing an email. Forget the spelling, grammar and other writing norms. The important thing is to first transform all those thoughts into words. No matter how incoherent or illogical or poorly constructed.
I try to trick my brain with an imaginary deadline. So a great part of me just wants to get this over with, fast! Like my life depended on it! The other trick I use is the OK trip. The OK trip is my way of telling the cautious part of my brain that it is OK to have misspelled words, and to have wrong sentence construction and be totally devoid of sensitivities. All this is OK because this is the first draft. I tell the cautious part of my brain that I have all the time to go back to my work after all my thoughts are laid down. Then I could work and focus my undivided attention to the fine nuances of writing.
Remember the old saying “It is easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission”? Similarly, bear in mind that it is easier to write unconstrained and uninhibited material, and then review the same material after a period of time for correctness, censorship or any other flaws you may want to consider.
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