Strategies to make yourself write

How do you do it? How do you get your butt in that chair and make your fingers do their devilish tango? Does your chair have a seatbelt to keep you strapped in? Do you have personal servants who fan you as you write the novel that will shape the nation? Do you have an actual strategy to trip yourself into actually spilling a few words onto the page?

Mine’s aren’t official (think patented) but they work well enough. It’s simply a matter of having one of several Ations. What is an Ation you ask? So glad you asked.

Desperation. Perspiration. Inspiration. Motivation.

Those are a few. I’m sure I could think of a few more. I suppose motivation is the most general of them. It might even be what the other three are. If I know why I’m working on a particular story (fun? editing? first draft?) then I get a clearer picture of what I need to do with it next. If I’m desperate enough to write, I will. It’s honestly like an addiction attack where I get anxious and shaky until I have me a nice sit down and do the tippy-tappy with the keyboard. Some days, however, it requires brute force. I workout. I practice Shaolin kung fu. Have been for…oh, almost five years. Nice thing about it is that my mind tends to keep going long after my body squeals for mercy. So I workout until I’m exhausted and the only thing I can do then is slump in my chair and let the brain drain into ink. Inspiration is, of course, self-explanatory. That supernova burst behind the eyes that sets your veins on fire and the only way you can extend the muse-ical high is to sit down and ride it out on a wave of words and story.

Those are a few primal ways I find myself at the craft, some of the deeper channels. Now, if we’re talking specific ways I focus myself on a story, well, here are a few methods of madness:

– I unplug. Internet disconnected. Cell phone off. Music playing. Door shut. Drink in hand. Sometimes diet coke, sometimes water, sometimes juice. Depends on my mood. By the time I finish shutting off, tuning out, and blocking away all the noise, I tend to find myself pretty focused and ready to go.
– I go on a writing excursion. I take myself somewhere beyond my apartment…could be a bookstore, a park in nice weather, a cafe. This becomes writing time, and I most often manage to squeeze out something during it because I’m otherwise afraid of wasting the time and disappointing my inner schedule manager (who is a crotchety ol’ bugger, I’ll tell you that).
– I promise myself a treat (I do this rarely). Anything from jellybeans to an hour of computer gaming to Chinese takeout to a new book. Whatever perks me up and sparkles my muse’s eye.

Those are a few personal strategies that tend to work for me. Maybe they’ll work for you, maybe they won’t. We’re all different. Want some more creative ones? Check out this link: 50 strategies for making yourself work

I see that smile.