“Stalking the Blank Page”

Every writer faces the same beast everyday…the white wall of the blank page.  The white monster.  The blank screen.  For troglodytes who write longhand, the empty pad.  Whatever you want to call it, every writer sweats a little getting up in the morning, wondering how today is going to go…I’ve got that deadline, I’ve got to churn out 2000 words or 5 pages or whatever it is.

Over the years, I’ve developed some tricks to help me get motivated and stay in the story and get my motor running at the start of the day.  Here are some….

1.     Study the previous day’s work before you go to bed.  Fix the last sentence or two in your mind. Let your unconscious ruminate on it.  I find myself lying awake in the early morning hours, with words and snatches of sentences circulating through my head.  In fact, if I do this right, I find I can’t wait to get these words that have been bugging me all night down so I can go forward and see what happens next.  Often, it just takes a sentence or two to get the juices flowing.

2.     Tell yourself it’s only a page (or 2 or five…).  You can do at least one (or more) pages.  Or maybe you’re on the hook for 2000 words a day.  Whatever the grind demands, if you can convince yourself it’s not really that much and won’t take that long, you may well find yourself in a better frame of mind.  In my case, for the Nanotroopers series, I’ve set myself a goal of 2 good pages a day.  Doesn’t sound like much—and it isn’t, truthfully—but it adds up.  It’s more important to have a schedule that works and adhere to it faithfully, even when you don’t really feel like it.  Then, you can feel satisfied seeing the pages pile up.  And I do print out what I’ve written, just to see that.

3.     At the end of the writing day, stop in the middle of a sentence.  This helps keep the story fixed in your mind.  I find that whatever I need to do to ‘stay in the story’ is helpful.  I might spend a few minutes the night before just scanning my notes, or drawings or maps or background materials…whatever it takes.  I rely on my subconscious a lot to percolate ideas and stir them up like a big crockpot.  Trust your instincts.

4.     Follow a daily schedule.  Do things you need to do to get ready.  Every writer is different in this area.  Me…I’m hyper-organized.  I stick to a schedule like bad news to a politician.  I have papers organized at my workplace just so.  I set up files, even computer files, the same way and keep them up regularly.  If you do this, you’ll find that your brain slips into idea mode as a matter of course, when it knows what to expect.

5.     Have an outline but don’t be afraid to deviate if the story seems to pull you in another direction.  I’ve covered this in previous posts but it’s really important to me and being motivated.  See points 1 and 2.  This is all about not being afraid of the blank page, because you already really know what you’re going to do…it’s just a matter of doing it.  Most writers fear not knowing what to say or write, not having the right words flowing out.  Young writers sometimes get bad advice about letting the words just flow.  Let me tell you: that seldom happens.  It does happen, but it’s also more likely to happen to a  well-prepared mind.  Now, there are plenty of writers who swear by having no outlines and just write, putting one word after another, and cleaning up the mess later.  Nothing wrong with that.  But it’s wasteful and time-consuming to my hyper-organized mind.  I motivate myself best by telling myself that the next day’s work is just a matter of fleshing out an already-existing outline.

6.     Write every day…at least 5 days a week.  This goes along with working to a schedule and staying in the story. Writing and story-telling comes a lot easier if it’s done regularly.  That shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone.  Anything you do regularly is something you’re almost bound to do better than if you do it in spurts and fits and starts.  Writing, exercising, cooking, marriage…you have to work at all of them every day.

7.     Finally, take breaks.  Do something non-writerly for awhile.  Get your exercise.  Do something where your brain can disengage and free-wheel.  For me, some kind of physical exertion…I happen to be a swimmer but this could be anything…works well.  Mow the lawn, weed the garden, paint a mailbox…anything that doesn’t involve a lot of mental horsepower will work.  This is like letting off the clutch on your imagination and allowing it to spin freely.  I find that anything I can do like this helps me get ideas, concoct plot deviations, create knockout sentences, and generally get to the end of the first draft faster.

All of these tricks work for me.  I use them regularly.  Other writers have different tricks.  I offer them to budding writers as a way of working that will help grease the machinery of imagination and keep you churning out prose that sings. 

Next week’s post to The Word Shed will look at why you have an outline (which I’ve covered in earlier posts) and why you sometimes have to deviate from it. 

See on April 25.

Phil B.