Just do it...

[Sam Clemens]

From what I've found, the process of writing is one of those "just do it" phenomena. Nothing is more intimidating than a blank sheet of paper, and nothing is harder work than putting something coherent on it.

I see writing as involving several steps:

1) Getting an idea -- maybe the most important and difficult part of the process.
2) Research -- easy to get stuck. Many topics can be researched for years. If you write about something you know, your research is minimal, just used to back up and put statistics and facts behind your ideas.
3) Outline -- Layout what you're going to write, with topics and subtopics.
4) Just write -- once you've done the above, a book almost writes (almost is a big word here) itself. If you have 20 chapters, each broken into 5 subtopics, you have 100 minipapers to write. That's only 2 pages each! Do 2 pages a day, and you finish your book in a little over 3 months.

People who talk about their great idea for a book usually never write it. The difference between authors and dreamers is just the willingness to pound a keyboard.

[Kelly89]

That is such a helpful post...

I just find I have a really hard time getting the words to paper interestingly enough so that someone else would actually want to read it. I used to write news articles, and am having a hard time switching over to writing something more creative. I find writing creatively quite frustrating, really. Any ideas?
~ Kelly

[writerfrank44]

From what I've found, the process of writing is one of those "just do it" phenomena. Nothing is more intimidating than a blank sheet of paper, and nothing is harder work than putting something coherent on it.

I see writing as involving several steps:

1) Getting an idea -- maybe the most important and difficult part of the process.
2) Research -- easy to get stuck. Many topics can be researched for years. If you write about something you know, your research is minimal, just used to back up and put statistics and facts behind your ideas.
3) Outline -- Layout what you're going to write, with topics and subtopics.
4) Just write -- once you've done the above, a book almost writes (almost is a big word here) itself. If you have 20 chapters, each broken into 5 subtopics, you have 100 minipapers to write. That's only 2 pages each! Do 2 pages a day, and you finish your book in a little over 3 months.

People who talk about their great idea for a book usually never write it. The difference between authors and dreamers is just the willingness to pound a keyboard.

The one thing I've found that really gets me flying along is forgeting about all the rules. To hell with gramma, with trying to make that sentence read perfect! Just keep writing, keep the thoughts flowing. You can back after each chapter or when the book is done and fix that other stuff up. Else you will be limited to maybe 2 pages a nite etc. I usually put down a chapter or two of more in one sitting. As you can tell, I let the gramma go with this too.

[J. Winters von Knife]

Gentlemen,

I took a 'writing class' at U.T. Austin in the early 70's.
The title of the class was 'writing'.
The first day the teacher stood up in front of the class and said:
Welcome to writing 101,
alright class, 'write',
and sat back down at her desk and continued with her book she was reading.

One big guy asked:
write what?
The teacher said:
you are the writer, I can't tell you what to write.
The guy thought about that a minute and got up and left.
I understood however,
and just started writing and have been writing ever since

Thirty years later I was murdered
but survived because I was just too tough.
Reported "dead" by the policeman
who was called out to my motorcycle wreck at sunup the next morning.
"That was the deadest man I ever saw" he said.
"That motorcycle helmet looked like a truck had run over it,
a great big one." And stared at me with wide eyes,
especially when I told him that 'I had died',
but God talked to me and sent me back."
He was of Mexican ancestry and they really do
believe in God.
I was hurt pretty bad but 'God sent me back'
and I have my orders, I told the Policeman.
He was shocked and just stared at me for a long time.

I woke up from a five week coma in Baylor Hospital.
And I started writing in rehab.

"Write a story about 'what I did in rehab yesterday"
My therapist Luis Castineda, told the class one day.
Luis, I replied, "we don't do anything in rehab".
"We sit all day and drool, stare at the wall, go take a leak,
give us something more interesting to write about.
"Some of the class aren't as educated as you Jack,
and others are Mexicans and don't write that well.
We have to have a subject which is easy enough
for every body to write about."

I thought to myself:
I will write about what ever I want to write about.
And thought of a story I had told a hundred times over the years.
'The Story of Old Sport' or...
'The Devil Coon of Frozen Muddy Hole'

Luis said:
"Jack read your story next,
I have to leave the room and I'll be right back."
{Perfect, I thought}

I started reading the story and was just finishing
as Luis came back into the room.
"Jack, that isn't the subject I told you to write about."
"What are you going to do about it, flunk me"
Huh?
What are you going to do about it,
Luis my friend?
Make me do next summer over?

But everyone loved the story and we all had a good laugh.
Compared to the other 20 versions of 'what I did in rehab yesterday'
anything would be better.
My story was great and I was inspired to write more.

I came home from rehab about eight months later,
and since 2001 have written down every story that's in me.
Then... about that time I was falsely arrested and assaulted in jail by the jailers.
Resulting in severe, permanant and inoperable spinal damage
to an already disabled coma patient with no criminal record.

I spent a year writing, 24 hours a day.
The certified letters were all sent out
and resulted in an investigation which tore the town apart.
Five short, fat cops are going to prison for 99.5 years each,
and I put them there.
And it was easy because they were stupid.
I am assured by 'the Rangers' and 'the Sheriff' that:
"they have absolutely no defense,
they are dead".
Unquote

So writing served me well.
I am a mastermarksman and could have just gunned them all down.
Still may in fact, but I had something to write about and did well.
I busted five cowards and they'll die in prison.
And 'I did it with my pen'.
So it is true that 'the pen is mightier than the sword'
I had a story to tell and I told it.
{I can always gun them down}



J. Winters von Knife
and Sandymay