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Just a few days ago, I started my new novel. On Monday, I wrote about some of the things I had to stop doing in order to get myself to the page. There were also several things I had to start doing. Here are four of them.
Give myself permission to write badly.
No matter how long I’ve been writing, I still have to remind myself of this very basic, very important maxim: It is okay to write badly. To get to this place, I repeat to myself two simple truths:
a. Everyone writes badly some of the time. The most elegant of novels started out as an awkward draft.
b. You don’t have to write everything well. You just have to write some things well.
Repeat those two truths a few times, and I’m ready to write just as badly as the next person. No judgment. No bad feelings.
Set aside expectations.
I can honestly say that nothing I’ve ever written ended up the way I expected it to. Everything takes on a life of its own—and my current novel is no exception, even in these early stages.
If I start out with rigid ideas about where I’m going, I’m soon stuck—slightly bewildered at the place I’ve ended up and not sure what to do next. So one of my first steps is to sweep all expectations aside and just go with the flow.
Be present.
It’s hard to define this clearly, but it’s something I feel very vividly when I’m ready to write. I feel present. My mind isn’t wandering to the papers I need to grade or the cat food I forgot to buy. I’m not thinking about what’s happening with my other projects. I’m not planning or figuring or remembering or ruminating. I’m just here, with the page in front of me.
Have fun.
Like a lot of writers, I have a tendency to come to the page with all the free-spirited playfulness of a Romulan commander. I often find myself peering at the page with my brow furrowed and my jaw set, as if I’m doing something very serious and slightly dreadful.
Yes, I actually have to remind myself to have fun. The good new is that, once I let myself go, I have a lot of fun. And my writing is always at its best when I’m having a rollicking good time.
So, my newest writing adventure has begun. I have no idea where it will lead or what it will bring—but that’s the nature of adventure. It’s what keeps us trekking—just to see what’s over the next hill.