Half the advice seems to be to take a break and refocus yourself, but I’m going to argue that’s counter productive and what you need to do is write more in order to develop both a solid foundation and confidence. However what, when and how you write might need to be addressed…
The first thing I’d suggest is to consider your writing habits and the environment you are writing in. Is your writing space clean and organized? Do you have music or the TV on and is it distracting you? Have you come up with an outline for your story and have a clear picture of what you want to write in your head? Are you tired or in poor health and incapable of putting forth your best effort?
Sometimes it’s something simple like getting up early to do your writing before work rather than doing it at the end of the day. Sometimes it’s having the discipline to turn off your phone and close your social networks so they don’t distract you when you’re already struggling. And sometimes you realize you didn’t have a great grasp of what you were writing so you grab a beer or a glass of wine and start brainstorming up ideas so you can come up with a solid outline. For the record I’m a strong proponent of brainstorming while drinking, while writing with tea or coffee.
In the realm of practical advice I’d recommend an exercise I call Stream of Consciousness writing. I can’t say it’s original because I got it from a writing book years ago, but it’s a good daily habit. I don’t do it every day but I try, and after a few days of doing it in a row I find my mind clearer and my writing comes easier.
Sit down with either a notebook or open an empty word document. Set a timer for a half hour and write whatever comes to your mind with absolutely no filter. Don’t pay any attention to things like proper grammar or sentence structure, keeping thoughts organized or any sort of style. You goal is to vomit every thought that comes into your head onto the page with absolutely no concern.
When you first begin it’s normal for your fears to be more common then your hopes. When you’ve had a bad day you’ll find yourself recounting what happened and when you have a good day it might be something you celebrate in your words. It literally doesn’t matter what you write, just make yourself write.
This is something you never share with anybody and I wouldn’t recommend looking at it again yourself until you’ve waited a couple of weeks. Don’t throw it out, just put it aside. It’s literally just practice making yourself write. If you come up with ideas for your writing projects I recommend you rewrite them in a separate notebook/word document after you’re finished rather then referring back to your Stream of Consciousness document.
This exercise works best when you set yourself a schedule and stick to it. Writing is work and even if you do it for fun you should treat it like a craft. By writing that makes you a craftsman, and you should be proud of it.
There’s other advice I can think of but I don’t want to get preachy and I certainly don’t think I have the best of habits. For the record I consider myself a Writer but since I haven’t taken the plunge and published online I don’t consider myself an Author. I’m planing on releasing my first book on this site by the end of the year, but until then it’s a title I don’t dare claim.
I’m going to close with a quote from David Gerrold’s book on writing ‘Worlds of Wonder’, which while maybe not the best writing guide I’ve read over the years it was the first I read and it has a special spot in my heart. He said “The first million words don’t count. They’re practice.” At the time I read it I took it as a bar I needed to cross in order to consider myself an author, but some years later I realized it meant there wasn’t any pressure so I found it very empowering. Hopefully they offer you the same sense of freedom.
