Become A Writer

How often  have heard I the following: I’ve always wanted to write. I’ve heard it so often I can almost mouth the words before they are uttered.

If you’ve always wanted to write, then you should follow your heart’s desire, which is to write.  It’s simple, and you get better at it as you go along.  All you have to do is write.

Does the sight of blank paper turn your blood to lead?  It’s a sensation, not a reality.  Put your pen on the page and start writing. It doesn’t matter what you write, just make that pen go.  Start it moving and don’t allow it to stop.

Don’t think about what you’re writing, just keep that pen moving.  At the ten minute mark, stop.  Have a look at what you’ve produced.  In there somewhere is the core of your story and you’ll recognise it as soon as you see it.

Found the sentence or paragraph that makes you jiggle and feel like you’re on to something?  But now you’re getting yourself in knots trying to make each sentence make sense?  Stop that immediately. 

 Take a new blank page and write down everything you know about your core subject without stopping the pen, and write everything you don’t know about the subject.  And write everything you know related to your subject. Use your core subject as a prompt.  When the pen wants to stop, write again the sentence that is your core subject and allow the pen to write whatever words  come out.  Do not censor these.

Keep going until you have ten full pages of non-stop writing.  I’m expecting a lot of it to be gobbledegook and you should be pleased if it is.  If you now will go through your ten pages and hook out each sentence which makes sense around your core subject, and put it on a new page, one sentence under the other, you will have your basic story.

All you need to do now is put your sentences into logical order and then craft your piece. We’ll talk more about that next time.  The most important thing is that you have no judgement about what you have produced AND that you pat yourself soundly on the back for having written your first piece.

Congratulations.  I know you want it to be perfect and publishable, and maybe it is, but even if it isn’t, you have become a writer by the very act of writing.  Recognise this important fact.