So, it’s around 11 p.m. and I remember frantically I have an article due in an hour, so I haul myself out of bed and plunk down at the keyboard and start writing—doesn’t matter what—cursing all the while because I have one job that doesn’t take long and really shouldn’t be this difficult. Yet some days, it is. And every writer will tell you: Some days, you just stare at the blank document and wonder what the hell you’re going to talk about for the week. It needs to be interesting—or at least be operating under the guise of interesting—and you should strive for quality with it. And yet, your mind wanders; you’re thinking about some arbitrary fan theory about a hot new TV show, perhaps, or you’re planning out your week for school…anything except focusing on this damn article. You’re drifting, you’re distracting yourself. You’re not writing.
How can you fix this? What might motivate you, short of a hard drink and being really pissed off for no reason? Stephen King said in one of his non-fiction books that you can read all the writing advice you want to, but if you really want to write, you just gotta put your ass in the chair and get to it, ‘cause like anything else, if you don’t actually do it, it isn’t happening.
So, instead of working on that essay, or writing that abstract, take a breather and instead read these handy points on how to potentially improve your writing. Because nothing says “improvement” like hypocrisy.
Outline
There’s the old idea that writers lean either more to the planning side or to the go-with-the-flow side of writing. I’m a go-with-the-flow kind of person myself, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say something about outlining. Outlining is actually wonderful. Once you have all your ideas out on the page, group them up and organize them. I think one of the reasons I’m so averse to outlining is because I feel it takes away a portion of the discovery and adventure that I myself experience when writing, particularly with fiction. But academia thrives on contrivances, so go crazy with outlining for school. Hell, you don’t even have to follow the outline at all, but knowing that one is there, knowing there’s a road to travel back on if you find yourself stuck in a writing corner, that’s extremely helpful. Broad outlining is something most people find works well; a broad outline is hazy enough to be malleable, but it’s also a thing I’ve now set down and have in the back of my mind—kind of like my current outlook on sustainable income.
Edit
People sometimes think the writing process is fun. It’s not. It is for like the first half hour and then you’re like “shit, I need to make this into something” and every good feeling gets replaced with criticism and cynicism and sadness. And I think editing is the engine these feelings fuel because it’s so hard to write something when you’re really feeling it and then come back to it a few days later and realize that it’s trash. Because it’s your trash. It’s beautiful imagery that doesn’t amount to jack shit, but dammit, look at the wonderful word play and the really cool character introspection! But it has to be cut. And you feel like you’re just killing a small part of your brain every time you nix something. This is also why peer editing is good, but self-editing is a skill that should be put to more use by people, because I think it’s important to know your limits and to know how to look at your own work critically—not destructively so, but reasonably, being sure that this is necessary and relevant to the point you’re trying to make. Knowing your skill level is very important and self-editing can be a useful way of finding that out.
Use a green pen to line edit
It sounds like a small thing, but it helps a lot! This advice comes from James Gunn, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” writer, who brought this up in one of his writing advice Facebook posts. I liked his reasoning behind this: Red pen gives the author the idea that they’ve somehow failed. It’s a harsh color and so the author will associate that with their work being terrible. And yeah, maybe the work is terrible, but putting it in green somehow makes things more optimistic. I’ve both edited in green and have been edited by people using green, and it’s helped my outlook a lot. Marking up your own work in green is good too; while self-editing is important, it’s good to remember to not be overly hard on yourself.
Make the topic clear
This article’s topic is writing. If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now and better late than never, right? Giving the reader the point you’re trying to make right up front is enormously helpful and cuts down on so much time and energy that could be better spent on developing a point or strengthening an idea, instead of meandering about for paragraphs on end until finally reaching the point…at which point the reader has already figured it out and doesn’t care anymore because they have better things to do. Cut to the chase, then go into detail. Introductions are awesome! I love writing them, but that’s because mine are often self-indulgent and who the hell would want to read that? Introducing your main topic--and your views on it--up front gives you more time to elaborate and saves your reader a great deal of eye rolling and internal grief at the sight of so much tangential text on the page. For fiction, I feel the philosophy is precisely the opposite. To pull from Chuck Palaniun and this awesome essay, you really should avoid telling readers that your character is thinking. Show them that they're thinking by delving into their heads.
Pull from other writers (but also cite your sources!)
“Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal,” said Stravinsky and it’s true… somewhat. While it’s obviously true that art in any medium will feed into itself and draw inspiration from others of its kind, there’s a big difference between inspiration and just ripping something off. The best works of fiction tend to take something that someone has already explored or developed and put a new spin on it. They give you something new to think about. Drawing inspiration from others is a great way to get the blood pumping and the ideas rolling in your brain; but don’t just plagiarize, add to something. That’s the entire point of an argumentative academic paper: To present your own ideas and thoughts about an issue, but use the works of others as backup. In fiction writing, authors will take something firmly established in our culture, present a new angle on it and twist it to suit their own vision. And if you’re stuck, you can do the same thing.
