Writing Tip #1

Limit yourself.

Wait, don’t click away yet! This is a really good genuine tip, I promise! Without this tip you won’t be able to accomplish the #1 writing rule.

I’m not saying ‘limit yourself’ as in ‘limit your imagination’ or ‘limit how good your are/can be’.

No.

I mean – Limit Yourself.

Give yourself a SET TIME.

A certain amount of pages.

A minimum (and maximum!) daily word count.

Set. A. Limit. (you can make it the sky if you want!)

Trust me, with this tip you will be able to achieve the #1 writing rule of WRITE EVERY DAY.

Cause, let’s face it – writing every day sounds easy enough (you know, even getting a few words down on the page is good work), but what about when we’re reeeeeally tired? Or, we’ve got too much laundry to do? Or the ideas just aren’t coming?

Well, if you LIMIT YOURSELF – telling yourself that you’ll only write for 20 minutes a day, or 1 page a day, or 500 words a day – then suddenly, that daunting task of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keys) becomes a doable feat.

Even is you only write for 5 minutes, or a single sentence, that’s something and it keeps the momentum going so that when the muse strikes – it will strike a lot sooner and more often if you’ve kept up the daily habit.

Also though – limit yourself on stopping after reaching your maximum word count, page number, time limit. You’ll get a lot more done if you write a little something every day then if you burn out in one intense night (just like with working out, eating right, praying daily or any other habit).

So – let’s make it a HABIT and remember – WRITE DAILY – LIMIT YO’ SELF! 😉

bye 🙂

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The Best Writing Advice!

“CUT WHAT YOU LOVE.” – Joss Whedon

It sounds pretty extreme but truly, if you’re ever working on a project and you’re stuck or you’re just not sure how to take it to the next level then – CUT WHAT YOU LOVE.

That doesn’t mean anything crazy or Hitchcock, not at all!

It means look at your work and take your favorite scene or character or even plot-point, the one that you keep re-reading, re-editing, re-working, re-living and – cut it.

Right out!

Pretend that it doesn’t exist and continue the story from that point on. If you’re really lucky, then when you’re going back through and editing everything, cleaning it all up and fine-tuning the rough spots you’ll be able to re-insert that favorite scene back into the story in an even better, more special, more beautiful way.

I did it. I was stuck, about 90 pages into my story and I just kept re-working those first 90 pages, fixing the spelling and the grammar and changing the locations around and the characters names, but never progressing any further.

Then, while I was mindlessly browsing the internet one day, I came across this bit of advice from Joss Whedon, whom you might know as the creator of the cult classic Firefly, or as the writer of the first Avengers film.

I was shocked and appalled at the thought of cutting my favorite scene, the part that I loved the most, that excited me and made me happy, out of my story, but I did it, and then suddenly the rest of the book flowed on its own out onto the page.

And, I was lucky enough to be able to go back and fit my favorite bits back in later. 🙂

So, if you’ve got a creative project that you’re stuck in, give it a try, cut what you love, and see what happens!

Writer OUT 🙂

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