Six Steps To Get Started
Six Steps To Get Started
How do busy people find the time to write while keeping up with the rest of their lives?
It isn’t easy. Attempting any creative endeavor while juggling obligations like a full-time job is difficult. Creativity requires time, space, and quiet. Your thoughts need room to roam, unincumbered, unburdened.
While writers in movies often live in idyllic, distraction-free havens, reality rarely offers a Swiss chalet and friendly sheep as writing companions. Most of us can’t quit our jobs or tell our kids to fend for themselves until they’re eighteen so that we can write.
But there are ways for busy people to pursue their love of writing and unleash their creativity. Let's explore a six-step plan to help you fit writing into your jam-packed life.
1. Establish a Schedule: Select a time of day to write.
Consider your schedule and creative flow. Do you feel most inspired in the morning, in the evening, or in the afternoon? If you are a night owl, don’t set a five a.m. alarm to write. Instead, set reminders on a smart device or use a designated planner. This ensures you will remember and stick to it.
2. Allot a Period: Scheduling even 10-20 minutes a day is enough to get started. Commit to spending the entire time you’ve allotted to writing, not planning your weekend or making your grocery list.
Ten to twenty minutes may not seem like enough time to make the effort worthwhile, but you’ll be surprised how much you accomplish.
In twenty minutes, you can brainstorm a character's motivation, revise a scene, craft a key dialogue exchange, or even map out your story's central conflict.
A short writing burst can spark a much larger project, like my experience of turning a ten-minute piece into a 900-word story, an example I’ll share at the end of this post.
3. Pick a Writing Spot: While you don't need to be married to one location, designating a "writing spot" is essential. Developing an association between a location and writing will train your brain to focus more quickly. Ideally, this spot should be quiet with minimal distractions, but some writers can tune out the world once immersed
4. Select a Medium: Pen-and-paper, iPad or laptop? Some writers feel less inhibited when writing with pen and paper. Most writers prefer the flexibility of laptops or tablets. I personally use a laptop with a dual-monitor setup – one screen for my draft and the other for research or reference materials.
Remember that if you select pen and paper, the work will need to be digitized before submission. It's not a big deal, but it's an extra step, nonetheless.
5. Outsmart the Inner Critic: Staring at a blank screen or page is daunting. The most difficult step can be writing the first word. This is when our inner critic jumps in and voices their opinion.
To outsmart my inner critic, I set a timer for 10-20 minutes and write without stopping. This forces me to ignore judgment and write without second-guessing my ideas. Freewriting exercises like this can unlock creativity and help break through writer's block.
6. Pick a Topic: What do I write about? The answer is easy: Anything. It doesn’t have to be a big idea, your next story, or even something you care about.
Tap into your creativity by describing something ordinary: An object on your desk, a recurring dream fragment, the last walk you went on with your dog or even the taste of your morning coffee. These seemingly mundane events can spark surprising inspiration.
If this doesn’t work for you, search the internet for "Writing Prompts" or explore resources like Reedsy.com and Poets & Writers (www.pw.org) for interesting ideas.
Following these six steps will set you up for writing success.
In the next post, we'll explore if an idea will make a good story for you.
Cheers!
***
Writing Example:
I wrote this short bit about pomegranates as part of a ten-minute writing exercise for a class I attended.
We met at the grocery store. She was buying pomegranates. A cart full. Bag after bag. Purplish and red. Bumpy and round.
I hate pomegranates.
I was buying oranges—a sensible fruit.
I went to leave. I’d get my oranges later. Our carts bumped.
She looked at me.
Our eyes met and then deflected.
Pomegranates, I thought again, Why?
Oranges? she said out loud. You only have two. What are you going to do with only two oranges?
I stepped back. I wasn’t expecting a question. I wasn’t ready for the sound.
I—I’ll make orange juice, I managed.
Nice. I like orange juice.
I later rewrote the piece:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Uma3amJH6s68Qc_j3HzFLxQkZ9utW42sReAkOIB1uKo/edit?usp=sharing.
It has since been published in Lothlorien Poetry Journal, https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
