Writing Often is Far Easier Than Writing Well
By: Linda Caroll
Tags: Writing Tips, Inspiration, Creativity, Writing, Reading

A lot of people think it’s hard to write frequently.

That’s just a belief, of course. You know what they say; what you believe affects what you achieve.

Which is not to say believing means achieving, necessarily. I knew a guy that believed he’d be the Prime Minister some day. He’s got one foot pretty much in the grave now, and that ship has long sailed, belief or not.

It’s not so much what you believe, but what you don’t believe...

Because if you don’t believe something is even possible, the odds of it happening tend to shrink accordingly.

Tell yourself it’s not possible to write daily and you won’t.

It’s the Roger Bannister effect. Doctors used to say it wasn’t humanly possible to run a mile in under 4 minutes and not die. Until Bannister did it. Within a year, 4 more runners. Today, over 1000 runners have beat the 4 minute mile.

Turns out the barrier was psychological. But then, aren’t most barriers?

The proof is in the pudding… here you go…

Know why I don’t believe it’s hard to write prolifically? How often do you talk? Do you say you couldn’t possibly talk today? Is there a single day that you haven’t had an opinion about something?

No. It’s not the writing that’s hard. It’s facing down the blank page that’s hard.

I watched that when my daughter went to art school. The prof would say make something that evokes love, and they all got busy. Make something to evoke darkness — they all got busy. But if she just said “make something” without adding a prompt, they all froze.

What to make? What to make?

Creating is always easier in a container. Constraints are where the magic happens. Give a creative even a single word and they’re off to town.

Sit down one afternoon and write 50 prompts on little pieces of paper and throw them in a jar. And every day you pull one out and voila. Easy to write often as long as long as you don’t need to figure out “what” to write about.

Those times the muse shows up bearing words?

Those are the cherry on top.

Writing WELL…That’s Another Story

We tend to ramble. You know that guy who loves to tell stories, but he’s boring and draws everything out until your brain screams get to the point already?

Like that.

When I was pregnant, I used to fall asleep when my ex was talking. I never meant to. Pregnancy hormones. Tired, all the time. He’d start talking and it was like reading a Marcel Proust novel. Put me right to damn sleep.

On the flip side is the book you can’t stop reading. You know you’re going to regret it tomorrow, but as far as things you’re going to regret in the morning go, a book is a pretty safe option among the other choices available.

Compelling writing grabs you by the eyeballs like a Dan Brown or Tatiana de Rosnay novel and doesn’t let go.

GoodReads has a list of “fast paced” books and darn near every Dan Brown book is on that list. And Suzanne Collins and Leigh Bardugo, and a striving writer could probably learn a thing or two from compelling writers.

And you could. Spend hours reading compelling writers in the hopes of picking up that ability by strange osmosis, but there’s a faster way.

If it doesn’t fuel the story or feed the story, chop chop. That’s what God invented the delete key for.

Because 9 minutes reading Dan Brown and 9 minutes reading James Joyce or Marcel Proust aren’t the same 9 minutes, if you know what I’m saying.

Your mileage may vary on the author choices, the point is the same.