One of the best writing tips I ever heard is usually considered bad advice in the writing community. This writing tip won’t win you any awards, and it certainly isn’t a way to create the best books, blog posts, or essays in the world.
What is the tip?
Just write something.
Even if you have practically nothing to say, you are still
better off writing something down.
Why? Because writing is rarely about extreme talent or
having something clever to say. Writing, like many things, is simply a matter
of practice. The more practiced you are, the easier it will be. The best way to
become practiced at something is to do it. When you pledge to write, no matter
what, then you will preventwriting procrastination and get farther than you ever thought possible.
This month, I am participating in National Novel Writing
Month (NaNoWriMo) and National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). If you are
unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it is the challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel
in one month. You have to write about 1600 words a day for this to happen. NaBloPoMo is simply committing to post
something every day on your blog.
NaNoWriMo has the slogan, “No plot, no problem.” I think
that is the key to finding the motivation
to start writing. You don’t have to worry about content, structure, or even
whether or not your idea is any good. Those things do not matter at first. It
doesn’t matter if you have the best plot or most developed background universe
for your story, or hundreds of ideas for a blog. If you never put words on
paper, you are actually worse off than the person who has a terrible plot but
actually wrote something down.
As you continue to write, you will find that clear concepts,
ideas, and stories emerge from your ramblings. You will findyour writing voice, and give meaning to what you write. It doesn’t take a
whole lot to sit down and write something on a page. When you do that often
enough, you may find that you come up with more than you ever thought possible.
So, as we enter NaNoWriMo, even if you don’t want to commit
to writing 30 blog posts this month or 50,000 words, commit with me to write
something. Anything.
You won’t be sorry.
If you do participate, make sure to share your progress
along the way! I’ll be posting my results on the Daily Mayo Facebook page. I look
forward to seeing you there!
I came up with an idea for NaNoWriMo, but I haven't had time to work on it.
ReplyDeleteI'm SO trying to motivate myself into blogging more regularly. Perhaps bad advice is the key...
ReplyDeleteGood advice!
ReplyDelete