Just Get It Done: Stop Putting It Off & Get Writing Now!
Picture the scene. You’ve had an idea for a story. No, not just a story – a novel. You’ve been tinkering with your idea for a couple of weeks. Maybe you’ve worked on the idea after reading writing books like James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure, or Larry Brooks’ Story Engineering. Best of all – the idea stands up. This could be a book – an actual novel. You could be its author! You can even imagine the Hollywood adaptation that will introduce your name to millions of potential readers, and bring you face to face with Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie.
Yet you’re still sat there with no book and just a fistful of dreams. Why? Because you’re putting off doing any real work on your idea. Brainstorming, outlining, mind-mapping – they’re all useful strategies, and they’re all valid ways of structuring your work in the initial stages, but they are not writing. They are preparation. You could say they’re still essential to ensuring the finished product is a well-structured story, but no matter which way you slice it, they are not writing in and of themselves.
Familiar Excuses?
- You tell yourself you need to buy a new notebook for planning purposes. I took this one so far that I could only buy a notebook from a particular store, and it was almost a relief when my local branch of the store closed, meaning I couldn’t buy a notebook, and I couldn’t possibly start writing yet.
- You need to discuss the idea with your fellow writers, which entails time on Twitter or Facebook, but somehow you end up clicking through someone’s holiday photos, or you become embroiled in one of the many hashtag chats. An hour later and you realise you haven’t actually discussed your idea yet, and you can’t possibly start until you’ve had feedback from others.
- You’ve run out of special note cards for jotting down scenes, and you can’t possibly start to write until you’ve got every scene accounted for, and in its correct place in the pile.
The Only Course of Action…
If any of these sound familiar then there is only one course of action. You have to start writing. I know, I know, you can’t start until the circumstances are right, but when it comes to writing, that moment will never come. There will always be distractions, and life will always throw you curve balls. There comes a time when you just have to stop avoiding the issues, when you have to leave your outline alone, and just start writing. No one is asking you to re-paint the Eiffel Tower with a toothbrush – they’re just asking you to get that story down on paper.
It’s alright, I understand how it is. You’re too afraid to start because if you do, it’ll cease to be that wonderful possibility in your head, and it’ll become a clunky, graceless first draft. I’ve already written about first drafts, but how do you overcome this fear and actually begin the real work on your story?
Take Baby Steps
Write a sentence. Now write another one. Maybe a third sentence? See, you’re writing! Now you have three sentences of your book written. You can’t possibly leave it there, so you’ll just have to write some more, won’t you?
Make a Pact
Humans work better in groups, so find a fellow writer who is also struggling to write a novel, and team up. The mutual support is invaluable, and you can set each other deadlines and targets. Writing a novel doesn’t feel quite so scary when you know you’re not the only one doing it. NaNoWriMo is excellent for this.
Hold Onto Your Idea
If you’re putting off writing because you’re worried you won’t do the original idea justice, then boil the idea down to its fundamental essence. Write it out and put it somewhere near your writing area. Maybe keep a copy in your notebook so you can continue to work on your idea or story while you’re away from your computer. If you keep revisiting your idea, it’ll help keep your writing on the right track, and keep your story closer to your original idea.
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Have you got any special tactics that help you get started on a major project? Please share your ideas in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Thanakrit Gu and purplemattfish.
Icy is a die-hard Northerner in old London town. She can still remember the days when she wrote her first stories in crayon. These days she favours a laptop, and cranks out weekly flash fictions, web-based serials and even the odd novel, usually about telepathic parrots, superheroes, Cavalier ghosts, and her own peculiar brand of steampunk.
Oh boy do I know this feeling Icy! My biggest obstacle, (which, yes, I created myself), was the fact that I felt when I wrote something specific to a scene, say someone answering the phone, I’d immediately think “Did they even have phones yet, or there?” and I’d start reasearching. Naturally the researching led me to all sorts of “interesting things I didn’t know” and several 1960s interviews with rock stars on You Tube, and two hours later I’d realize time had gone by and I hadn’t written more than a couple sentences. Yes, I’m the one you see browsing the shelves at the library for half the day.
Teaming up with someone is, as you say, one of the very best strategies there is. I did that for a while and it really helped me stay on track. The only thing that stopped me was a family emergency – I just never picked back up on the story and left my partner high and dry, (which I feel very guilty about).
Fantastic article with great advice, per usual!
I’ll have to follow my own advice this time!
My problem is just the opposite to this, Icy. I have no problem starting a story — in fact, I have about a dozen stories sitting on my computer that are just started. My novel is at chapter 6 and I haven’t written anything on it in weeks. I just get stuck. I have great starts that just stop. I know the rest of the story is in there; I just have to get it out. Maybe I need to get into some of that prep work to get me going. Of course I have dozens of completed stories and a lot of those are either at publishers or in contest waiting for some kind of acceptance, but I could have a lot more if I would just get to work and finish some of the ones I’ve started.
Same thing applies, really – you get part way and then think about the rest of the story, instead of finishing it. So get writing!
Yes ma’am. ;O)
MJ, I know this is a late response, but maybe you can look at your books another way. If you have trouble continuing with them, try writing them down as short stories (just as an excercise–no one has to see them but you). By approaching them in this vastly different format, you might be suprised by what you discover about your story. Just a thought.
These are a few pretty great tips to stay on track with your writing! Obsessing over the little details in the planning stage is a good idea, but there’s a point at which you simply have to start writing the real thing. Which will be a first draft, anyway – you’ll still have lots of time to make changes to it afterwards.
I also wanted to add that your suggestions, Icy, apply to just about anything creative, not just writing. I’m looking into developing a video game right now, and I’ve got a design document for it that’s getting longer every day. But I haven’t written a single line of code yet. :P
Indeed it does! It applies to anything creative….so get coding!
I love this post! I totally agree with you on the take baby steps point–I find, when it comes time to work on my next chapter, I feel stuck for quite a while, but once I get that first paragraph down, I tend to keep writing until the chapter is complete. You have to trust yourself, shut off the critical part of your mind, and only let the creative part do the work. Critical can come out to play for draft 2. :) While I have never been a part of NaNoWriMo, I took part in Script Frenzy last April, and I swear if it wasn’t for that competition, my script would still only be a concept in my mind I think about occasionally. Now I’m on draft 3, and am actually having fun with the revision process (who knew?).
My problem wasn’t that I couldn’t get started writing. I write web copy, articles, e-books, etc. for clients all the time, and I almost always come in under deadline.
My problem was that I was having a hard time getting started on the fiction projects I wanted to write. I even tossed up that tired old excuse of not having the time. In the end–I made the time. I used to take Saturdays and Sundays off from writing. Now I have decided to devote at least half of Saturday–and often more–to my fiction projects. It’s great to see the work finally getting done!
Great advice and well timed. I’ve reached the usual point where I get stuck–right around page 100–and then I flee the work like it’s burning down around my ears.
“You’re too afraid to start because if you do, it’ll cease to be that wonderful possibility in your head, and it’ll become a clunky, graceless first draft.”
Bingo! Yes, that is exactly it. And sometimes my problem is more in the progressing than the starting but, either way, it all goes to back the butt meeting the chair.
Great article. It’s amazing how much work we’ll put into making up excuses to delay something we want (or even need) to do.
I’m a big fan of the “make a pact”/tell everyone you’re writing approach. Once I’ve told people I’m doing something, it becomes a LOT harder to make excuses or simply bail on it. This worked for me last year when I ran my first ever 5K. All my coworkers knew I was training for it, so even when events conspired to make the timing of the race I’d signed up for somewhat awkward, I still carried on with it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
This is so true. I am so good at making excuses to not do something — anything. Once I have told people I’m doing it I will finish it if it kills me. It’s really a great tool for everything important. It sort of makes you feel accountable.
I need to print this out and tack it on my wall. I had the same problem today, where I spent a lot of time reading what I’ve written in a section and much less time writing it. Why do we do this to ourselves?
Thank you for the great advice!
I have trouble about spending too much time reading what I’ve written. Advice given by the “experts” is to just write and not to read till you are done — actually wait to read for a few days. Still, even though I know what is reccommended, I tend to read as I write and edit as I write. It really slows the process.
I have a friend (and no, it’s not me) who is currently writing a novel. She has written the first eight chapters of the book. And rewritten. And rewritten. And rewritten. She must have rewritten the first chapter at least a dozen times. The other chapters probably 5 or 6 times. The problem is, she hasn’t even gotten around to writing the first draft of chapters 9 to the end. They don’t even exist yet. She has taken years to get to the point she is at now. She will often go for weeks without writing, and then take it up again, only to rewrite the same chapters and never moving on to the rest of the story. I have told her that this is a terribly counter-productive way to write. But she’s stuck in this rut. So all you writers out there, listen up. Don’t be like my friend. Never, ever write like this. You might as well not be writing at all.
Let your book, novella, short story, poem be terrible. Let it be rubbish. Let it not be what you want. Let it have run-on sentences and punctuation errors. That’s the first time around. The first draft is just to get your ideas down. No matter how much planning and prep you do beforehand, that first draft is going to probably make you cringe. Let it. After you finish the first draft, that’s when the real work begins. That’s when you get down to the nitty-gritty and start perfecting it, changing it, adding to it, subtracting. Polishing. Just don’t let yourself become so obsessed with making it perfect, because it’ll never be. Just make it wonderful.