I am working through a book I had throughout my undergraduate course: Creative Writing Workbook with Readings by Linda Anderson. I like to call this book the Big Red Book. At the moment it is going well in some aspects but not others, but the idea of the exercises are to create and build a writer's habit.
So what does this mean?
A writing habit is essentially as it says on the tin. Writing by habit, not by chore. If you are a writer, there is a chance that you have spent hours looking at a blank screen or page. I know for one I have. We call it the writer's block, because the words do not form on the page.
Well, Anderson discusses various techniques to build a writer's habit. Techniques to fight the writer's block, and yes, I do believe that it exists, as does Anderson. These techniques seem simple on the surface, but when it comes to actually doing them, sometimes it is hard to focus or to just set time to do it.
Here are some of the daily tasks that the book discusses:
Freewriting
This is my favourite type of writing. I am not going to lie. During my undergraduate, we discussed different types of writers: planners, plantsters and Pantster. NaNoWriMo also acknowledges these terms to describe writers. Before I tell you about free-writing, let me tell you about these writing types.
Planners
This is self-explanatory. Planners like to make outlines, then add details, maybe research, add more detail... all before they start writing the story. That's great, but it doesn't work for everyone, and some planners my also get lost and buried in their plans that they may never come out.
Pantster
Pantster is the opposite. A Pantster writer is one who will delve right into the story. No plan, just an idea and a character. They will type whatever comes to their mind. Natural freewriters. However, they may feel the urge to go back and edit a sentence, then another, then another. They may get lost on what is on the page rather than continuing their content.
Planster
A planster is the person in between. Maybe they start off freewriting, and then form a plan, or voice-versa. They may not go into as much detail with their plan until they have some content, or they may not freewrite until they have a vague idea. But like the two above, they can get lost —either by editing the raw content, or by burying themselves in research and plans.
All these types are useful in their own way. Personally, I am a planster. I have an idea, I freewrite. I get stuck, so I plan, then I return to freewriting... If I don't get lost in my plan and worrying about technalities.
7-day Freewriting Challenge
However, the free-write challenge is... it's pulling me from the rut. Previously, I have been feeling blocked. As a blogger and a writer. However, the book suggests writing for 30 minutes every day for a week. At the time of writing this post, I am on day 5, and I am going to write after this post is complete. But it hasn't been easy.
I'm lucky. I have a group of writers on hand from both of my courses. We like to keep each other in check, so if one of us needs prompting, we can ask for a stream of naggers. My friend, who happened to be part of both my university courses, helped me out yesterday. I just wasn't feeling it, so with a little push, she helped me to free-write.
Hopefully, I can keep it going for more than 7 days and create a habit. It does have specific rules during the 30 minutes that will affect the three types of writers above:
- Continuous writing—no pausing to read back and plan what should come next. It needs to be the first thing that comes to mind once you put that word or punctuation.
- No editing as you write. The raw material is exactly that, raw material. Editing can come along afterwards.
- Afterwards, highlight any of the material that you are pleased with or feel that can be modified at a later date.
I do feel that this technique has helped me pull out of a writer's block, more so than the others so far... but then I am failing at the others at the moment. I may need to get my team to nag me.
Daily Haiku
If you know me, then you will know that I am not a poet... of any sort. But the Big Red book has challenged me to write one haiku a day for a month... just one. 17 syllables. 5,7,5. Not a lot.
I did not get past the first hurdle for this one. Day 1, I made a haiku, day 2, 3, 4... I failed. I may need to get my team to nag me on this. However, the point of this challenge is to get our creative juices flowing. Not only so that we build on our writing habit, but so that we see writing in a different way. See words and images in a different way. I see the uses, I'm not sure it will work for my style, but I am going to retry it.
Read / watch the news
Ok, the book talks about newspapers, I haven't checked the publication date on the book, but I am guessing tablet newspapers were not a thing when it was first published. It's fine, it is still relevant. But again, I didn't get past day 1. Mostly because I just couldn't be bothered to look up news articles.
A friend suggested Life Science for articles, which is great because it doesn't mention the current pandemic. After all, that is what 90% of the news is about at the moment. The other 10% is politics and the royal family... and even then, that is about the pandemic. But Day 1 did lead me to some interesting articles on Life Science that were not about Covid which was great.
I didn't have an excuse for this one. Nor did I forget. I was not asked to write, just to find interesting articles to inspire stories... I just did not do it.
Again, I am going to retry this one. Hope to find some inspiration or some research material. We live in interesting times. Technology advances, societal changes, scientific discoveries. We know more about the creatures we cohabitate with now than we ever have before, and we know of our effect on the planet.
Sure, other times had interesting events too, I love history and its... glory? But there are stories to be told just under our noses that are interesting.
Want to have a go?
If you are struggling with your own writer's block right now, then have a go at these techniques. I am not even halfway through the Big Red Book yet, and I have found it useful—and hopefully, I am on my way to build a writing habit. Although these daily tasks have not been the only exercises. The freelance has so far been the one that has helped me most, as well as the tasks that lead to freelancing. More on that in another post.
If you have given these a go, or even if you are tempted to, do feel free to post in the comments below.
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