Instructionals: Writing With Your Rhythm

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Once you've got your ideas, outlines, desk environment, schedule, and goals all together, it's time to stop procrastinating, and start writing! The only way you're ever going to get your project finished is by sitting down and actually writing! And of course, you'll start with a first draft.

Drafting is sometimes the best part of writing-- you can put the pieces any way you want, throwing together all of your ideas in a mad hurricane of words, pages, and deadlines. But sometimes, it's difficult to sit down everyday (or however often you write) and focus on pushing out the words. It's a pain, especially if you impose word counts and deadlines on yourself.

Writing daily is important, and in most circumstances, regular practice is the only way to continue to grow your skills. You should at least sit down and write something each day, whether it's a blog post, a journal entry, a NaNoWriMo entry, or a school assignment. Putting your thoughts into words and sentences is easy-- but putting good thoughts into good sentences, and crafting a consistent writing voice, will take some work. Although I admit to not writing everyday, I know I should, I know I want to, and I know that my writing gets better when I do. That said, I strongly encourage you to find something to practice on every day to keep your creativity at its highest, and your skills growing.

The Fun of Writing

For me, drafting is the fun part. You have your roadmap of where to go; an outline and some research from your planning phase. You have a checklist of scenes to be written, a wealth of characters to use, a pool of ideas and concepts to draw from. Now, you get to pull everything together to form the rough version of the piece. It's a little like putting the outside edges of a puzzle together (the easiest part). You know that all the straight-edge pieces go on the outside, and the fun of putting everything in place begins. There's no confusion of 'where does this one go?' or 'this doesn't fit anywhere,' because they all go on the edge, and you know it. Drafting is simply putting all your thoughts into the vague idea of a finished project-- it doesn't have to be perfect or finished, it just has to be there. It's the jump start to getting to the end.

Writing With Distractions

As I write this post, I am sitting in a college library. You'd think it would be quiet and peaceful, right? With all of the shushing librarians and whispering college kids? Well, it's not. There's a side room with loud conga music playing, and every time they open the door, a blaring party echoes through the high-ceilings and bookcases. There's an internet cafe in the corner, and every five minutes, someone has to order a smoothie and the blender goes on, loud and grating. Study groups of kids are loud and obnoxious, and my two bored siblings have been hovering around the table for half an hour, tapping on the table and begging to go home. And yet, a miracle has occurred and I have been able to write three blog posts since I arrived today. My secret? Nothing. I've lived with noisiness my whole life, and I can't explain why my mom and I can tune out the world to write. It's hard for others, and I completely understand. But writing with distractions is something you'll have to deal with eventually, so politely smile, and dig into your computer screen. Write. Even when the rest of the world has crying babies and conga lines. Just write. Earplugs might help, though. And blinders. But if you can't escape, just write.

You will never reach perfection as far as your writing environment-- so please stop trying. It would be worth it to invest in some things, but what things depend on you. Do you feel more comfortable about writing at a desk, or can you work from the couch on a laptop? Do you like to print out physical copies for reference? If so, how can you effectively organize that in your writing area, so you don't have to deal with stacks of rough drafts everywhere? Or, would you prefer to keep your research digital? Keep in mind the relative seclusion of your space, obviously-- are you prone to being easily distracted, or could you handle to be out on your dining room table? I prefer to go out to a coffee shop or library to focus on writing, because I don't get distracted by general noise easily, but I can't write when people are talking to me. I also prefer to keep my writing portable and digital, because I don't have much space to spread out and store hard copies of my work. Find out what works best for you, and implement it. But again, don't procrastinate or make an excuse-- Anne Frank wrote her journal from a tiny bedroom decorated with her limited collection of pictures of film stars. There's no excuse not to write.

Taking Breaks

Writing is an arduous task. When you have something to say, when you're passionate about a topic, and when you're feeling the groove, writing is easy. You just type, type, type, until you start to get dizzy, or until you finish the piece you're working on.

But, when you are not feeling the groove, writing is an uphill march. Every word is painful, like taking a step going up a mountain when your ankle is broken. You force yourself to think about the scene, think about the characters, and put words on the page, and at the end, your writing is dry and stiff. It's hard to write when you're not feeling inspired.

Part of the solution to this is learning to work with your own creative rhythm, which applies to every artist everywhere. Austin Biel (yes, this is my father) spoke on creative rhythm in many of his classes. He said that artists need to find a rhythm in order to follow your own creative ups and downs-- learning to utilize those inspired moments, and be able to do something else that may be more productive in the dry moments, like dishes (or TV). "Every single person has their routine, and it's necessary to have that for artists. You get up every morning, you put your pajamas on, and you brush your teeth-- wait what's so funny?" He said. (Go ahead, reread it. True story.)

The point is to find what works for you. To write with your rhythm means to work with what you have, to take advantage of your strong moments, and to give yourself some grace during the weak ones. I am NOT giving you permission to procrastinate, but if you are truly feeling stuck, go take a walk, go wash the dishes, or go play Skyrim. Give yourself permission to fail sometimes. It's alright. Don't slack off, but don't force yourself to exceed your capabilities-- you don't want to get burned out on writing with your first project. Draw the boundary for yourself. Keep looking at the statement you made when you started your project;

I suggest putting a brief answer to the question "Why do I want to write?" on the wall above your desk, at the top of your computer screen-- somewhere nice and visible. When you get frustrated, look back to the answer; why do you write?

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