You Don't Have To Struggle For Your Craft: Alternative Processes to Approaching Writing
“If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.” - Dorothy Parker
In almost every writing book I read, the author will come back to this idea that writing is a struggle. I recently wrote about the lessons I took away from Anne Lamott’s book Bird By Bird, and while it was mostly enjoyable I have to admit that I found myself feeling exasperated at the ways she described writing as this anaconda-like beast she found herself wrestling with day after day.
I don’t know about you, but it all sounds rather exhausting.
I want to push back on this romanticized idea that writing has to be something you fight and battle it out with, day after day, bringing yourself to the brink of creative madness just to get a story down on paper.
For me, writing should be a joy, something you find yourself eager to return to, and you shouldn’t feel embarrassed if you’re not having to be dragged, nails gouging the floor, to your laptop every day to begin.
Below, I’ve collated some of the processes and methods I’ve gathered that help me find purpose and fulfillment from my writing process over struggle and headaches.
Keep a Notebook of Ideas
I’ve just started reading Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, which is a great little book with short, sweet chapters to encourage writing. Goldberg advocates keeping a notebook filled with ideas and this is actually something I’ve done for a while. I find ideas come to me during the day, whether it’s a sentence I overhear or an interaction I observe. I’m often busy and forget these moments by the time I get home, so keeping a notebook where I can jot a sentence or two for an idea helps when I’m finally ready to write. I simply thumb through my notebook and let an idea catch me.
Goldberg’s book contains an excellent starting list but she encourages you as an individual writer to come up with your own and to keep adding to it over time.
Use Writing Prompts
This one might not sound ‘alternative’ but I wanted to include it because it’s something I’ve previously turned my nose up at, but recently decided to give it a go with great results.
I signed up for The Literal Challenge 30-day writing prompt challenge, where they email you a short brief and you have 24-hours to submit a story based on the brief. I thought I’d get bored or find the prompts silly but it turns out I’ve been flooded with vivid ideas. I’ve written stories I would never have attempted without the prompt, and I’m keen to go back and revise some of them when the challenge is over.
Not all prompts are created equal and you do need to find a set that works for you, but if you want to avoid the ‘struggle’ I highly recommend giving it go.
“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.” ― Jodi Picoult
Get Out Of Your Head (And Home)
If the writing isn’t flowing, why force it? Why sit in a room feeling crappy? Because you feel if you don’t sit and suffer you’re not a ‘real writer’?
Get out of your own head, and better yet, your own home. Go for a walk, go sit in a cafe and people watch, go hang out with your friends. Or, if you can, go on an adventure. Book a flight, get in the car, go and live your life. Remove the burden of writing and enjoy life. Maybe you’ll uncover an idea, maybe it will spark a memory of something intriguing to explore, or maybe you won’t.
The point is our best writing and stories come from the life we live, not the rooms we shut ourselves in. Without living actually it, your writing will always be a struggle.
Don’t Write For Anyone Else
I have a few writer friends who only write for someone else. By that I mean, they’re always writing with a specific publication in mind or because they want to enter a prestigious competition.
There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this, but if this is all you focus on you’ll not only always find writing a struggle, you’ll also miss out on the opportunities that come from writing for yourself. Writing for ourselves makes room for our voice to emerge, that voice that’s hiding, fearful, in the back somewhere. It’s the voice that often has our truest stories to tell but it won’t come out if we only focus on writing for someone else.
Spend some time listening to that voice and writing for your eyes only. You’ll probably be surprised by what comes out.
“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.” - Octavia E. Butler
Be Indulgent
When I feel at an impasse with my writing, I throw all my usual ideas out the window and strike out in a different direction. I’ll write a cheesy romance story or draft the plot for a children’s book. I’ll write from the perspective of my dog or spin a short story from the narrative of an old man eating his favorite soup. I indulge myself in writing I wouldn’t normally turn to and have a lot of fun with it. It’s not perfect, it’s not for anyone else’s eyes, but I always walk away smiling and relaxed.
If you’re stuck, try simply being indulgent and going ‘there’ with your writing - a place you would never normally and write something terrible you would never want to be published. Have fun with it. I find it nearly always breaks the spell of ‘wrestling’ with that blank page.
Although these ideas work great for me, we all approach our writing differently, so if they don’t work for you that’s okay too.
The main point I wanted to make in this piece is that struggling for your craft is not something to aspire to. Finding a balance between finding joy in the process and the right amount of challenge to push you to the writing you really want to create is.
