The same is true for ideas. You will find over the course of time that something you jotted down six months ago would dove-tail nicely with this new bit of conversation you overheard today at the restaurant. When you complete a notebook, consider numbering the pages, and on the inside cover write down the dates covered and a brief table of contents that allows you to see at a glance what the notebook contains.
Write Often
As you get in the habit of showing up at the page and writing down ideas—any ideas—you’ll begin to cure the panic that comes from staring at a blank page. Cultivate a habit of writing, even if at first all you can work for is quantity. When the habit is firmly established, then you can concentrate more on improving quality.
A blank page shouldn’t scare you. It should invite you. But that doesn’t happen until you show up at the page and write regularly.
Know Yourself
Thomas Uzzell contends, "Your best writing will be that which is most you."
Take some time to contemplate what’s important to you. What are your ambitions and dreams? What turning points have you experienced in your life? What did you learn from them? What factors led up to and away from that key event? You can turn these experiences into stories; imagine what would happen if you chose another path. Imagine an obstacle you might have faced but didn’t. While the people you put in your story might be different from you, the emotion and issues will be authentic and written with the authority of your voice.
Stay away from the idea that events worthy of being woven into stories only happen in strange and distant places and to people who dare to do things like bungee jump or sky dive. It’s simply not true. Your own life is interesting and important. You can—and should—dig for the gold that is buried in your own backyard.
Be a People Analyzer
Again this is something that is easiest to do at home. Study the human-interest problems that may seem at first glance very commonplace. Know that the issues your spouse, children, relatives and friends face can suggest story ideas which you can manipulate with your imagination.
You can also become intimately familiar with a phase of life if you closely observe what those around you are moving through. Whether it’s starting school, graduating, getting a new job or retiring, the people around you are constantly moving in and out segments of their life. Note how they cope. Who do they talk to? Who are their role models? What inner personal struggles do they have to overcome? What obstacles do they find in their path? You can build what might happen on what did happen, and still have the personal observation to make the story ring true.
Remember, don’t just think about these things. Write about them.
Write to Discover
Thomas Uzzell writes, "The important thing to bear in mind is that you cannot begin to understand a human situation in its larger aspects until you have attempted to express it….You must record in full detail the character’s behavior on innumerable occasions….You will begin to see relations between various details which you missed in your first formless thought about the person. The writing brings out the significance."
Consider your writing a journey of discovery. You never quite know what you might find just around the corner.
Learn From Writers Who Have Come Before
Don’t just read what they wrote and study how it’s put together. While that’s an excellent way to learn the craft, it helps also read about how they did it. The more you know about the processes that writers go through to achieve their success, the more different ways you can turn if you feel stuck. Any time you get the chance to read an author interview, do it.
There is no one right way to write anything. Frustratingly, what works perfectly for one piece may fail utterly for the next. When you have alternative things to try, it’s easier to move directly from failed plan A into potential plan B before fear starts creeping in, or your loud and obnoxious internal critic gets the upper hand.
In the end, the best piece of advice is to begin. In closing Uzzell writes:
"Nearly every beginner postpones too long the hour of beginning. He hopes for the beautifully finished plot, the perfect work, the high aspiration. The greatest writers…cannot afford to do this; the beginner must not do it. In these moments when it seems your mind literally will not formulate ideas good enough for a plot, you cannot do better than to write what you do know. Put away what you have written. The day of inspiration will come."
©2005Dekat
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©2004 Carolyn Dekat
Last Modified: May 17, 2006