Category: Writing

You don’t have to worry what to write about…

Neera

Recently, Austin Kleon, author of How to Steal Like an Artist and Keep Going, said in the interview with Madeleine Dore (Extraordinary Routines), “I think routine is so important, especially when you’re getting started creatively, but for me right now, I almost need checkboxes and rituals more than I need routine.”

Currently, his daily checkboxes include:

  • writing in his diary,
  • publishing a blog post,
  • taking a walk, and
  • reading a book.

Austin goes on to say, “I always keep a pocket notebook on me, I diary in the morning, and then create a blog post. Those blog posts will become talks, which then become books. You don’t have to worry what to write about, you just write every day and things begin to develop.”

What a great advice! No brainer! Yes. Do the actions (write, blog, walk, read) and you will become the noun (writer).

I added one more checkbox to it and adopted it as my daily ritual.

Lie to me!

Neera

There is so much to like about the Sydney Writers Festival this year. First of all this year’s theme – “Lie to me”.

This is what the artistic director Michaela McGuire has to say about the theme:

“In the second season of the greatest television show ever made, Buffy the Vampire Slayer learns a hard lesson about who she can really trust. At the end of the episode, as she’s standing bereft and betrayed over a friend’s fresh grave, her most trusted confidant asks Buffy how he can possibly reassure her. She responds simply: “Lie to me”.

How powerful!

“These three words,” says Michaela, “convey so much. They’re an admission of helplessness and complicity; a plea; a dare; a request for a bedtime story in a world full of monsters.”

In four days, hundreds of the world’s most exciting writers will gather in Sydney to examine the white lies and deceptions that are necessary for survival, and malicious lies that are spun with a darker intent. They’ll explore the ways that writing can be used to deceive others in an increasingly post-truth world, look at the lies that we tell ourselves and each other, and those we collectively tell as a country. 

There is an impressive line-up of writers – Markus Zusak of The Book Thief, Leigh Sales of Any Ordinary Day, Graeme Simsion of The Rosie Project (and now of The Rosie Result) and George Saunders the author of nine books, including the novel Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the Man Booker Prize.

I am particularly interested in Fatima Bhutto (niece of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto), who is doing the closing address and Alexander Chee of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel.

The festival is on from Monday, 29 April till Sunday, 5 May a must-go event on any aspiring writer’s calendar.

Dance…

Neera

“Dance….and for years later you’re dancing around your kitchen with a pint of milk in your hand. The windows are open wide, the neighbours are still awake, and they are watching you fall in love with being alive.” – Morsus Engel

Almost there…

Neera

Now that NaNoWriMo is close to finishing, I am ready to come out of self-imposed hibernation feeling relieved and ecstatic. Just short of 6751 words to win the challenge at the time of writing this post, I am fairly certain that I will be able to knock these down in the next two nights.

Now the question is – are these words any good? This question bothers many new participants and many of them do not return because they can’t see the point of all those late nights, social boycotts, and agonizing hours if by the end of it, they don’t even have a book they can publish.

I have three words for them: “they are dreaming!” If they entered the challenge with that thought in mind they better stay away from the challenge next year as well. No one, and let me repeat, no one, writes a novel in the first draft. It is true many seasoned writers are now aligning the writing of their first draft with NaNoWriMo, to channel in the energy generated by writers all over the world, but they too do several rewrites before getting to the stage where they can send it to a publisher.

These 50,000 words are exactly what they are supposed to be, and what Anne Lamott author of Bird By Bird calls them ‘shitty drafts.’ They are ‘shitty’ but they are on paper. A month before they were not even there. And that is a big achievement.

A participant from the last eight years and a winner for three (including this year) I am finding that the challenge gets easier with each attempt. For once, I am typing faster than eight years ago. I know more tips and tricks for the words to keep pouring in. For the past four years, I worked on the plot and structure prior to starting the challenge, which made writing easy. And this year I used 750 Words to pace myself, keep the word count, and keep my writing in one place. But the biggest trick I learned this year was: it is harder to write 1667 words in one sitting, but it is much easier to write 600 words three times a day.

I am exhausted but I am also excited that I will concentrate on the blog now.

The more I read, the less I write

Neera

Reading and writing are two integral activities for writers. A writer must read and she must write. But lately, I have found that the more I read, the less I write.

Why is that so?

There are a few reasons for that.

One, I get carried away, one article leads to other, one link has ten more, and by the time I am through I have used all the available time reading other people’s writing rather than creating my own.

Two, reading and writing engage two different parts of the brain. Reading is inherently a passive activity, while writing is an active occupation. Although, reading prompts writing if I don’t stop mid-sentence and pick up a pen and a pad, thoughts disappear pretty quickly.

One blogging guru once advised, “If you want to write good posts, stop reading other people’s posts (at least for some time).”  

There is a lot of truth in this advice.

As a writer, you first need to write what is in you. That could be utter nonsense, incoherent, good-for-nothing content. But it comes from the core of you and represents how you understand things.

After getting that on paper, you can research and find evidence in contradiction or in support.

It is possible, now that you are more informed, that you will change your mind. That is fine. You can do so. In fact, it will give your writing more authenticity if you can explain what made you change your mind.

It is also possible that other people have explained certain things much better than you.

Great. You can include their writing as a quotation in your own. This will strengthen your argument and give your post a boost.

You need to allocate separate time for reading and writing.

I write best first thing in the morning. As soon as I brush my teeth, I plant myself in my bed with a pen and a notepad and write. I don’t even make a cup of tea or coffee. I know fully well that if I go to the kitchen, the trance will break. Those two hours in the morning are gold.

Science supports my morning bout of creativity.

Studies have proved that soon after waking when the prefrontal cortex is most active, creativity is at its highest while the analytical parts of the brain (the editing and proofreading parts) become more active as the day goes on.

There are several writers who swear by their morning writing routine. But then there are a great number of night owls as well.

Charles Dickens was a lark. He would have finished his day writing (by 2 pm each day) by the time Robert Frost would just about getting started and often going late at night (and waking up the next day around noon). What each of these famous authors lacked in synchronicity, they made up in a routine. The daily schedule of writing is almost as important, if not more than the human body rhythm. 

I believe the same goes for reading. You need to set up a time for reading as well. Whether it is at night or during lunchtime or commuting to and from work. Allocate one to two hours each day to reading and stick to those. You find that you can go through a lot in that time.

Without realizing it, we give too many hours each day on the internet and TV. All you need to do is to claim them back and give them to your actual passions—reading and writing.