As a great brand once marketed, the best advice I can give for you today is to "Just Do It." As writers, this should be our motto.
I understand it's difficult to Just Do It when you're stuck in a rut. I mean, where do you even begin? You might have some great idea, but not the right words to start. You might have a great start, but at some point you get stuck and can't continue. Or, you might go back and realize that you want to change everything. Whatever you just wrote doesn't work anymore. What a truly heartbreaking feeling that unfortunately every writer goes through.
Writing is no simple task; in fact, it's one of the hardest disciplines to truly master!
But by implementing this Just Do It method, you will be able to write the thing you want to write in no time.
First of all, how do I even begin?
The thing is, you don't have to. Most writers don't start writing at the beginning of the story. Instead, they'll begin to develop the story in increments where the ideas are strongest before actually writing in chronological order. This method is best if you have a hard time keeping the story relevant and have an ever-changing idea process. By figuring out the body before you even begin, you'll have a solid framework to build the foundation under. Your story will have some sort of start that can get the clockworks moving in your brain.
Well, what if I don't even have a single idea?
Simple! The easiest part of writing is forming the idea in the first place. The hard part is writing the thing. So to form your idea, all you need to do is think of what's important to you. Why is that thing important to you? How did it become important to you? Who was involved? Can you tell someone about this thing of importance in a way that they will understand? Is this thing unique to you, a story that only you can tell? And what do you want the audience to take away from your message?
Forming the idea is a matter of self-reflection. You must evaluate what your goal, purpose, and values are. Find your reason for writing and try to think about why you're the only one in the world who can tell this story of importance. If you truly cannot find an idea, then turn your attention to reading books and free-writing in your journals to inspire some thoughts. You can even search up writing practice prompts on Google. As long as you stimulate your brain with actual brainstorming instead of thinking, I have no idea what I will write!, then you will eventually find your story.
Okay, so I got my idea, I made a start. Now what? How do I stay consistent?
The hardest part in the writing journey is not giving up and/or scrapping your work entirely. As you go on writing, you become a better writer than you were when you just started. What you thought was a genius string of words and an excellent story is actually the work of an amateur that needs to be edited. This leads you to want to stop your writing process and change everything completely, sometimes even starting new.
If you have these thoughts, STOP what you're doing. Leave your work alone before you gut it out, especially if you haven't even finished it yet!
One of the biggest culprits of giving up on projects and losing consistency is re-reading and editing your work constantly as you write. In fact, I recommend to be totally against these two bad habits as long as they are unnecessary! By reading back on your words several times, you may lose confidence and track of thoughts. You might want to change things, which will disrupt the order of your story. You go from a consistent writer to a consistent editor, polishing and perfecting an incomplete story. Most of all, the flow of writing ceases and now you're stuck in a rut all over again.
That story in the works does NOT need to be edited before it's even written out fully. Instead, write as much of it as you can. Try to even finish the writing before you even look back and edit. I guarantee that you will have an easier time maintaining the Just Do It mindset, which will lead to the eventual completion of something you can be extremely proud of!
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