I’ve wanted to write fiction for years, literal years, and I’ve made various stabs at it here and there, but there have always been things that get in the way of writing regularly and making real progress on any one creative project—parenting young children, deadlines at work that feel more immediate and important, not to mention the doubts that start to creep in once I get a certain point in the story and I’m no longer 100% sure where it’s all going…
But I’ve recently landed in a sweet spot with writing fiction. I’m actually writing, and I’m writing on most days which, as all writers know, is huge to making progress, so I wanted to share the tools that helped me get there.
#1 Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way (or really anything by Julia Cameron, ever). I first read The Artist’s Way several years ago, and I’ve returned to it in part or in whole, many times since. I find Julia Cameron’s writing so sustaining. I only need to read a few pages and, once again, I’m inspired—inspired to write my own pages, to get up early to write Morning Pages (one of her main tools for unblocking frustrated writers), to look around at my life and think about what could be an Artist’s Date, or how I could otherwise “treat” myself, which is to say—how might I go about my life in a way that fills up my soul with beauty or whimsy?
Julia Cameron has such a large presence in my mental life that I’ve taken to calling her “JC” in my Morning Pages. The other week, I actually wrote “What would Julia Cameron do?” at the top of my agenda for the week, as a reminder to choose creativity and self-expression as I went about my days. For me, this question was shorthand for How can I have more joy in my life? How can I move toward creativity rather than away from it? How can I live in a way that makes room for my creativity, and takes it seriously as an endeavor in its own right, no matter what becomes of it (i.e., detached from outcomes or the idea that it has to be published or make money to be valuable)?
#2. MV Frankland’s Write a Novel in a Year. I’m going to preface this recommendation by admitting that I haven’t even read this whole book. But I didn’t have to! The author’s primary piece of advice served to unblock me immediately and I’ve gotten started writing, though I do return to her chapters from time to time to use as writing exercises to flesh out my ideas about characters, plot, etc., and I plan to keep doing this.
But the magic contained in MV Frankland is this: her primary piece of advice is to write one page per day and to write it longhand. I think this is working for me for two reasons:
Filling up just one notebook page per day felt doable. And, because it felt doable, I was able to start. I actually started with the goal of writing 2 pages per day – a front and a back – because MV said that, if you do this, you’ll have a draft of a novel in 6 months rather than a year, and I guess I am an overachiever.
Writing longhand takes away the ability to edit quickly and this turns off my inner censor. (I also feel like it leads to better sentences—there is something about my brain being slowed down just enough to translate the writing from my mind through my actual hand, rather than going at the speed with which I can type, that seems to lead to better, more thoughtful prose.) In the past, when I have attempted to type a first draft of a novel (which is to say—all of my previous attempts), so much of my time gets sucked into editing and wordsmithing as I go, that it really impedes my progress. As an added bonus ("bonus" is a questionable term here, as I'm sure this won't feel like a "bonus" when the time comes to type it all up!), the messiness of my handwriting prevents me from going back and reading over much of what I’ve already written and thereby getting sucked into editing rather than writing. Typically, when I sit down to write, I reread the very last sentence that I wrote the session before and I’m off—writing new stuff and moving forward!
#3 Emily Henry. I hadn’t heard of Emily Henry until, suddenly, a few months ago, I started seeing her everywhere. After downloading and thoroughly enjoying a few of her books through the Libby app (where you can borrow library e-books and read them via the kindle app), I looked her up and read an interview online where she said that her first draft is all about getting the overarching structure of the story down on paper, and so she’ll often use filler dialogue and go back later to punch it up (the interviewer had complimented her on her use of snappy dialogue; I sadly can’t seem to find the exact interview where she mentions this, but I read this one at the same time and it’s very good!). This gave me the idea that anything can be filler in a first draft, anything can be punched up later. Can’t think of a name for the coffee shop where my character gets her coffee every morning? Use something silly and change it later. Not sure what a museum docent might say on a tour of a historical home? Don’t research it now (I can’t tell you how many books I’ve stopped writing because I got mired in the research process), write something general and make a note to look into it later (note to self: after the draft is written). It’s a version of Anne Lamott’s advice to write a shitty first draft. And it’s total freedom.
I hope the advice of these three authors is as helpful to you as it has been to me!
Happy writing.
