I’m currently mentoring a gifted fourteen-year-old author who’s writing a novel. Each week, I share a quote with her from a writer that I’ve found either helpful or humorous. Some of my favorites include:
“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
-E.L. Doctorow
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
-Somerset Maugham
Or, more seriously:
“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
I would have to say, however, that my favorite writing advice comes from a self-help book written many years ago by Susan Jeffers called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway. I am an anxious writer. Anxiety hits me each day just before I start writing. And my anxiety is at its peak when I’m beginning a new project and facing that blank page.
Apparently, I’m not alone. In her classic text, Writing Fiction, Janet Burroway reports that whenever she asks writers what they find hardest, “a significant number answer that they feel they aren’t good enough, that the empty page intimidates them, that they are in some way afraid.” She also comments: “It helps to know that most writers share the paradox of least wanting to do what we most want to do.”
The key, though, is that writing is something we want to do, and for many of us, something we need to do. So, rather than telling myself I need to stop being fearful, I’ve found that what works is to say to myself, “Okay, so you’re scared. Big deal. Get going anyway.”
To help kickstart the process, I’ve developed a few writing rituals. I shut the door to my home office and always begin by reading a page from Walking on Alligators, Susan Shaughnessy’s book of meditations for writers. I light a candle and make sure my coffee and water are close by. Once a writing project is underway, I begin by reviewing the previous day’s pages and doing some light editing on them. And if I’m just beginning a project, I start by reviewing my copious notes on my characters and thoughts about the opening scenes.
The strangest thing is, once I’ve actually gotten started, things happen, even when I’ve convinced myself that I’m simply “not in the mood” to write that day. Somehow, the words spill out as I get caught up in the imaginary world I’m creating on the page. Those times when I go “into the zone” while I’m writing are intoxicating, well worth the struggle to take on my fears.
So, even though Susan Jeffers didn’t write her book specifically for writers, I’ve found her advice incredibly helpful, right up there with “Butt in Chair” and my other favorite, “You can’t fix a blank page.”
I’d love to hear what writing advice ranks among your favorites!
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Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, Lynn earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. She is the award-winning author of five young adult romantic mysteries: MISSING MOM, DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, AND WHILE I DANCED, as well as an adult mystery, MISSED CUE. Lynn lives in Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel.
Website: https://lynnslaughter.com
Universal Buy Link for MISSING MOM: https://books2read.com/u/mqOKB9
About MISSING MOM:
Never mind the circumstantial evidence. Seventeen-year-old Noelle, an aspiring ballet dancer, doesn’t believe her missing mother would ever have committed suicide and undertakes her own investigation. Meantime, she’s dealing with growing romantic feelings toward Ravi, her best friend and fellow dancer, as well as worries about why her little sister is so reluctant to visit their dad.
Threaded throughout the novel is also the story of Savannah, a young woman nearly twenty years earlier whose escape from an abusive marriage turns out to be related to Noelle’s investigation.
Thanks for sharing such sound advice.
Excellent advice. I’ll pass on something I learned from Erik Larsson: Stop in the middle. The middle of a sentence, a paragraph, a scene, a chapter. That makes picking up the next day so much easier.
That’s a great idea. For me, it would have to be a scene. Anything else might be too confusing or embarrassing when I can’t recall what I was going to say.
Ahhh… those writing rituals. My brain needs the signal, and they are the switch!
Excellent observation.
I love the idea of writing ritual, but the best part is when you tell yourself it’s okay to be afraid and to do it anyway.
That’s probably the hardest step to take forward…. Thanks for your comment/observation.