You need to write something. Maybe you’ve put it off for a while and it’s due soon—like tomorrow. Or maybe it isn’t due for a while, but it’s a larger assignment that you know you need to break into pieces, or you something you just want to get a head start on in order to relieve your anxiety.
Often, when it comes to writing, getting started is the hardest part. Joli Jensen, in her encouraging and accessible book on academic writing, Write No Matter What, talks about the importance of consistent, low-stress contact with any writing project. That idea has been super helpful to my own writing practice, and I’ve made it one of my regular writing mantras. But how do you manage consistent, low-stress contact with a project when you can’t even bring yourself to get started?
Use these ideas to ease your way into the writing process and begin writing before you allow any resistance to build up.
Big Idea 1: Set yourself up for success
What do you need to be comfortable enough to write? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Strive to hit a happy medium where you are neither over- nor under-caffeinated (easier said than done, I know). Take some time to think about your physical needs and set yourself up for success. In practice, this could look like a variety of things:
For example, I like to have a thermos of ice-cold water next to me when I write. I recently invested in the best thermos I’ve ever owned and I do not regret one cent of that money. Cold water is soothing to my nervous system and I feel better when I’m hydrated. If a fancy thermos helps me achieve this, well, then, that’s money well-spent!
There is also no point in sitting down to write, study, or anything else that requires mental focus when you will be hungry soon. Eat something filling before you start, and avoid foods that you know may give you a crash or that you don’t digest easily. If I’m going to be writing somewhere away from my kitchen, I like to bring a snack with me: apple slices and cheese, a protein bar, almonds, yogurt with frozen fruit…or a bag packed with all of the above! If you find that you’re on a roll with your writing, having a snack with you will ensure you don’t have to stop just because you’re hungry.
Big Idea 2: Choose a Writing-Conducive Environment
Think about where you work best and what kind of environment will best support your writing. Personally, I love to work in my bed. I can write for hours leaning back against pillows and feeling the warm weight of my duvet pressing against my legs. Other people would hate this! Or immediately fall asleep. My husband, for example, needs to sit upright in a chair at a table, and he prefers to work with the happy noise of a scrum surrounding him. I, on the other hand, need total quiet to focus. I can’t write when the TV is on, or around other people, unless they are total strangers and I feel no obligation to respond to them! If I’m home alone, I often choose to write in complete silence. If others are around (hi, kids!), I like to put my ear buds in and play soft, instrumental music that has no lyrics. The important thing to note here is that your preferred writing environment is very individual—no one way of working is better than any other. What matters is that you reflect on this—what types of environments appeal to you? What has worked well for you in the past?— and then go on to test different things out. It might take some time, or a process of trial and error, to figure out the best writing environment for you.
Big Idea 3: Clear the Decks
This idea works best if you have a bit more time before you have to submit your writing assignment—in other words, I wouldn’t recommend this idea if whatever you’re working on needs to be finished by tomorrow! I was once very lucky to attend an online writing workshop led by the wise and wonderful Anne Lamott, and she told us (on the topic of getting started): Before you sit down and write, do whatever it is you need to do to be able to sit down and write. For example, she talked about how she has to have washed her face, and she can’t write with dirty dishes languishing in the sink. Now, this list can’t be endless, obviously, or else you’ll never sit down and actually, well, write. But I think there’s some value in clearing the decks—whether it’s in your physical space, your mind, or both—so that you can sit down, focus, and get to work.
When I was a senior in college, I went back to campus a week early during spring break, ostensibly to work on my senior thesis. (I was very lucky to attend a college that had what seems in retrospect an extravagantly lengthy two-week-long spring break.) However, rather than writing, I spent the early part of the week emptying the contents of my bedroom into the hallway of my shared apartment (no one else was there to mind that all of my belongings were clogging up the hall), sorting through everything, throwing lots of stuff out, and then completely reorganizing my room as I put things back. I didn’t start any actual writing until the middle of the week but, when I did, I was incredibly productive. I wrote solidly for the next five days with very few interruptions until my roommates came back to campus and classes resumed.
Lots of people will tell you that this was mere procrastination, but I think reorganizing my room served a very useful purpose. Sometimes you need to get your environment sorted before you can sit down and sort out the ideas in your head, especially if you need to present them linearly with a logic that others can understand. Clearing away clutter and reorganizing your space shifts the psychic energy of your environment somehow, making you feel lighter and more capable. Cleaning can serve as useful thinking time on your project as well, especially if you’ve already begun some work on it. If you’ve done some reading, or begun to gather sources and ideas, your subconscious may be working on your topic the whole while you’re reorganizing your environment, even if you’re not consciously thinking about your project while you clean.
Big Idea 4: Fire the Judge and Hire the Witness
Whenever we start anything new, there’s a feeling of vulnerability that we have to be willing to wade through if we are going to make any progress. At the beginning of a writing project, whether it’s as big as a dissertation or as small as an email to a mentor, there is an element of uncertainty. We don’t know how it’s going to turn out. Will it be any good? Will we regret having done it? Is it worth the time and effort it’s going to take? The anxiety of not knowing the answers to these questions and all the others our worry-mind serves up can paralyze us from ever getting started.
I can’t remember where I first heard the saying, “Fire the judge and hire the witness,” but I think it was in the context of a yoga class. I quickly started using it with my writing students. The idea behind it is this: Write first. Don’t judge what comes out. The editing comes later. Your first step, the only thing you have to do, is merely to produce, to get words on the page.
In her memoir, A Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes talks about this as “laying track,” which I’ve found to be a useful phrase, especially when writing fiction. You’re just getting something down. You’re getting your characters from A to B. You can go back and finesse it later. Returning to Anne Lamott for a second, in Bird by Bird, her classic book on writing, she tells students to imagine they have a small, 2x3 inch silver picture frame on their page—their task is to write as many words as will fill up that frame. Only that. And then to do it again. And then again.
So, here’s to filling one small frame at a time. The world needs to hear from you. Put your thoughts on paper. Get them down.
Here’s to getting started!
Bonus Big Ideas
Quick Tips for Getting Started, When Getting Started Feels Like the VERY Last Thing You Want to Do
Schedule your first work session in your agenda. Put it in there and keep to it like it’s an actual appointment. Make it relatively short, so it feels doable, but still long enough to get something done—20 minutes is probably about right.
Plan ahead of time what you will accomplish during this first work session. Your goals will vary depending on the task, but regardless, these goals should be very easy to accomplish, almost too easy. The idea is just to get your feet wet and ease into this assignmen
For example, if it’s a class assignment, maybe your goals for your first work session consist of: 1) reading the assignment language from the professor and taking notes in your own words on what you are meant to do, 2) creating a file on your computer where the assignment and any related documents (your sources, for example) will live, and 3) making a list of 3-5 next steps to continue your progress with the assignment the next time you work on it.
If you’re feeling a lot of resistance to getting started, use a pomodoro timer, which you can find for free online. This work method consists of setting a timer and focusing on one, discrete task for 20 minutes, and then taking a five-minute break. If you like, you can stack several pomodoros together, taking 5-minute breaks after each 20-minute work session, and then taking one longer break (e.g., to get up and take a walk outside, or to eat something) after you’ve completed several rounds of work.