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How To Just Write': Write Any Old Drivel. For A Lot of Would-Be Writers, Writing Is

This document provides advice on how to start writing regularly without worrying about writing well. It suggests beginning by writing "any old drivel", such as fan fiction or travel blogs, with no pressure for it to be good. This allows one to build a daily writing habit without the discouragement of trying to write perfect prose. It also recommends starting with a low word count goal, such as 400 words per day, which is achievable but still builds the habit over time. The document stresses that making time for writing regularly, even if just a small amount, is an important first step to becoming a writer.

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89 views3 pages

How To Just Write': Write Any Old Drivel. For A Lot of Would-Be Writers, Writing Is

This document provides advice on how to start writing regularly without worrying about writing well. It suggests beginning by writing "any old drivel", such as fan fiction or travel blogs, with no pressure for it to be good. This allows one to build a daily writing habit without the discouragement of trying to write perfect prose. It also recommends starting with a low word count goal, such as 400 words per day, which is achievable but still builds the habit over time. The document stresses that making time for writing regularly, even if just a small amount, is an important first step to becoming a writer.

Uploaded by

nobody
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to ‘just write’

This is not about how to write well. If you’ve come here for expert
advice on how to refine your art and create beautiful, engaging
prose that scintillates and inspires, I’m sorry. You’re clearly in the
wrong place — I just used the word scintillates, for Heaven’s sake,
and I’m about to start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction.
But if you want to know how to knuckle down and write any damn
thing, this post is for you.

There is plenty of advice out there on how to write well. Before


there is even the ghost of possibility of writing well, one first needs
to know how to just write. Not just at the basic level of acquiring
the literacy skill required to know how to put together a
grammatically correct sentence (although, obviously, there’s that),
but how to actually do that on a practical level, in sustained
stretches, regularly. Daily, even.

There isn’t so much advice out there on how to make writing part
of your life, other than just do it. So here are my suggestions on
how to just write.

Write any old drivel. For a lot of would-be writers, writing is


more than just a hobby; it’s a calling, a latent but significant aspect
of their deepest authentic self, which when finally given the time
and opportunity to develop into its potential will be the complete
expression of their identity and place in this world. That’s a lot of
pressure to put on a talent that you haven’t really practised since
that 3 chapter novella about dinosaurs eating chocolate you
laboured over in third grade. The link between perfectionism and
procrastination might be overstated but I know that waiting to
write when I’m ready to really be a writer held me back from
actually writing.

Start by writing some trashy fan-fiction, terribly derivative fantasy


stories, or travel blog monologues about your nothing-new
spiritual awakening in India. Whatever gets you actually writing. I
started by writing terrible erotica that was never meant to be a full
expression of my real writing talent. there was no pressure for it
to be good. I also started journaling. Building a daily journaling
habit has been hard, but the immediate value for my mental well
being was a motivating force. Journaling is still a valued part of my
personal development and self care routines, and my journal is
fertile ground in which to allow vague notions to grow into actual,
usable ideas.

Start with a word-count goal first, then progress to


project goals. By project goals, I mean aiming to complete a
whole text — something like, ‘write How to Just Write for
Medium’. The problem with project goals is that they are as long
as a piece of string. If it’s the kind of thing you’ve never done
before, it could be short and achievable, but also, it could
potentially be very long, approaching infinite, with revisions and
reworking and deleting then adding, deleting then adding.

So, there is a high chance of failure and discouragement as you


realise that this writing thing isn’t as easy as it should be, you’re
not as full of untapped talent that just needed an opportunity to
gush forth as you thought you were. Clearly, you don’t know what
you’re doing, and now that feeling of creative genius ready to flow
from your speedily tapping fingers feels like some swelling mass
inside of you that you don’t have the strength to be free of. Or so
I’ve heard.

So, project goals are not the best way to start small and build up
gradually. A word count keeps it confined and measurable. I
started with the meagre goal of 400 words a day. A pittance,
something possible to hack out on a google doc on my phone
during my lunch break at work. Yet even that was hard at first. I
managed 4 days in a row, then got a miserable 272 words on a day
where I just didn’t have time.

There’s the lie. ‘I don’t have time.’ Actually, I just


didn’t make time. Making time for writing is the hardest
stumbling block for a lot of people. You have time to read this
blog, so you have time to write. Stop reading now, go pump out
400 words. Write any old drivel. Come back when you’re done, I’ll
still be here.

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