Six writing experiments

Six writers, six experiments - our first series of 'This Might Work' has wrapped. Here’s some bits we loved. Poll: what community writing experiment shall we do next?

Hey there, Bec here

When you ask a writer for advice, all they can ever tell you is what worked for them.

While there’s no such thing as advice that is 100% guaranteed, hearing from other writers can inspire you to experiment.

And sometimes that’s all it takes. Trying something small and quick, or something big and bold, or perhaps that’s fun and a bit foolish.

That’s why we started our podcast This Might Work. Because it’s natural to get stuck, blocked, bored and distracted when you’re writing (sometimes all at the same time). What you need is a way to keep going.

I hope that listening to the first series has inspired you to try something new or different and help shake things up a little.

🎧 Listen to all episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts.

Let’s run a writing experiment together

I had the most fun week in April running Peter Elbow’s four-hour freewriting model for the Breakthroughs & Blocks community. Over 100 people signed up - one of who was Jenny Cooke who shared her experience in: Can you freewrite for hours?

I’d love to get a community together to test out one of the writing tips from the first series of the podcast. What shall we do? Personally, I’m terrible at taking time off so could do with an artist date - we could brainstorm ideas and get some accountability to top up our creativity; a dating workshop of sorts, to explore ideas then come back later to share how it went. Or we could work on our drafts, perhaps using Oliver Burkeman’s starting afresh approach where we type from scratch (deleting the original is optional) or make an elementary art project like Mason Currey suggested.

Vote on the writing tip you’d like to try.

Thank you to everyone who has listened, commented and reviewed. Victor wins a coaching call for sharing his kind words.

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Best bits!

Oliver Burkeman kicked off the series with an approach that lowers the stakes. It doesn’t tax your soul - it’s just typing. He explains:

“I know this strikes some people as an arduous idea, but to me, it’s the exact opposite, right? It’s like I've written this thing. I'm not happy with it yet. I print it out. I type back in. Typing it back in is just admin work, right? It doesn’t tax my soul in some terrible pretentious writer way. It’s just typing it back in.”

- Oliver Burkeman

🎧 Listen to: Starting afresh with Oliver Burkeman
➡️ Read more: This Might Work: what happens when you start afresh?

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Emma Gannon blocks out time in her calendar every week to take an artist date. Inspired by Julia Cameron she likes to potter about with no plan.

“I call them solo creative boosts, like this idea of just being completely alone in your own company, having delicious solitude and just that ability to have utter freedom in not having any plans and just pottering around.”

- Emma Gannon

🎧 Listen to: Artist dates with Emma Gannon
➡️ Read more: Why does taking time off feel like a challenge?

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Benjamin Myers shares some writing advice he got from Hanif Kureishi.

“He said, ‘Get up earlier. The only way you're gonna be able to write is to make time to write.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but I'm going to bed really late because I'm out at gigs.’ And he said, ‘Doesn’t matter. If you're serious about it instead of getting up at half seven, you get up at half six and do an hour." Obviously, I was 22 and drunk all the time, so I ignored that.”

- Benjamin Myers

🎧 Listen to: The night writing experiment with Benjamin Myers
➡️ Read more: What time of day do you actually write best?

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Alison Jones is passionate about the power of exploratory writing. In just six minutes it can transform your writing.

“I just want us to discover that there’s this incredibly lightweight free available at any time tool that, that you have at your disposal at any minute of the day or night. And you will be astonished at its power and also at your ability to come up with answers if you just give yourself an astonishingly small amount of time and space.”

- Alison Jones

🎧 Listen to: Exploratory writing with Alison Jones
➡️ Read more: Ask a question of your writing project

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Mason Currey knows what is is like to get stuck and offers us a tip that shakes up our work-in-progress.

“It feels a lot more fun than working on the computer. It suddenly becomes sort of a funky art project and I’ll even sometimes use different coloured paper. I like to print it all out on white paper and cut out all the paragraphs. And then if a paragraph extends across two sheets of paper, I will tape those together. It just starts to feel like this sort of elementary school art project in a fun way.”

- Mason Currey

🎧 Listen to: Cut up your draft with Mason Currey
➡️ Read more: Make a funky art project of your writing

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Peter Elbow has helped writers worldwide get unstuck with his approach to freewriting. He said something about being stuck that surprised me.

“I say, ‘Come on, you have to keep writing. Keep writing.’ And they just pop into something odd or unusual or surprising. That’s where the creativity comes from. It’s the surprise. It’s the thinking of a thought you never had before. The surprise of a new idea is more available to unskilled writers than skilled writers because - because getting stuck is the key.”

- Peter Elbow

🎧 Listen to: Epic freewriting inspired by Peter Elbow
➡️ Read more: Can you freewrite for hours?

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Thanks for reading and listening, keep writing, Bec

🎧 Listen to all episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts.