Many people don’t realize that writing is like exercising. When you first try to write, you’re not going to be good at it, but if you continue to write with regular practice, it gets easier. And by easier, I mean relatively speaking, of course. Just like how exercise gets easier with repetition, but that doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly be able to do fifty push-ups with no sweat. But you’ll be able to do more than you ever could.
Just as with exercising, when you first sit down to write, you’ll need to warm up. When you try to be productive, your brain will refuse to cooperate. It will whine and complain about how tired it is and wonder why you’re not on your phone right now and make you want to get up and do literally anything else. Just keep writing through all that, even if all you can get down at first is gibberish.
Your brain will wander. You’ll start thinking of things like how the memes were right and Scooby-Doo himself was the first supernatural-type encounter the gang ever had. Did they even know it?
Then you’ll shake your head and mutter to yourself about focusing and other such nonsense, then your brain will say, “Good idea! Let’s get [insert favorite drink/snack here] in order to concentrate better!” Then before you know it, you’re in the kitchen, not writing. Darn it! But snacks are important, so just as long as you grab what you need and meander your way back to your writing corner, it’s all good.
Once you turn on the flow, it gets easier and more fun. Yeah, you could still be writing gibberish, but you’re enjoying writing gibberish. The gibberish is flowing onto your page/screen/whatever! You are the master of the gibberish! It might look like gibberish to everyone else, but it all makes sense to you! Only you can decipher it!
Note: You are only the master of the gibberish for as long as you are writing it. Once you set it aside and return to it later, you’ll look at your gibberish and go, “Whaaaat?” Don’t panic, this is normal.
Once you’re in the groove, you can’t stop. You don’t want to stop. You musn’t stop. Your brain wants you to keep writing. You want to keep writing. You’ll try to take a break, but the words keep coming to you. Ideas pop up that you know are absolute genius, and you must write them down before you forget (trust me, if you don’t write them down, you’ll forget). You are forced to stop when you cramp up. You sit back and look at the clock. Wow! Time flew by and you didn’t even know! So much for that appointment you had.
Whoopsie!
Oh, well, your art is way more important anyway you try to tell yourself as you figure out what excuse to use. I recommend setting an alarm before sitting down to a writing session if you have somewhere to be. People don’t cut you a lot of slack if you tell them you’re late because you were being creative. They are also not sympathetic to your characters. “But my main character was lost in a forest and I couldn’t just leave her there,” is not a good excuse to people who are not writers.
But, wait! As you stand up to hurry off to wherever it is that you need to be, your brain goes, “But I’ve got another idea!” You curse your creative mind as you scribble the idea down on your shirt sleeve as you leave. I hope that wasn’t your nicest shirt because ink doesn’t come off. Next time, keep a notebook with you.
As your brain keeps giving you great ideas, you console yourself with the notion that you’ll be all set for your next writing session, only to begin all over again at the top of this post with your brain half asleep. But a true writer will keep returning.
You know how I wrote this post? After writing another post, and just as I was getting ready to turn off my computer, my brain went, “Wait! Here’s a great idea for a really funny post!” I acknowledged the good idea, and went to make a note of it for later, but my brain kept going. It spelled the whole thing out for me almost too fast for me to type. But I had a gibberish post in record time that I have edited into the much more understandable version you have before you now.
As I said, a writer always returns to their writing. That’s what makes a writer. Good luck!
Now go to the Keep and find a story.