My equivalent to writing naked is choosing to write naked in public by deciding to serialise my memoir about boarding school on Substack. Instead of waiting for endorsement from an agent or publisher. Seriously! This isn’t just self-promotion. It’s been like hiring myself for a job. Now I’m enjoying doing the job to the best of my ability.
I dedicate my writing time to someone else using Joseph Chaikin’s words: “. . . for you, to you, in honor of you, I dedicate the next two hours. I may forget you as I am going through it, and I may consciously return to you; it may be nothing more than the gesture of saying ‘I’m doing it.’ I don’t know what my dedication to you will do, but I address you and share this time with you.” I wrote more about this here! https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/lindsey-trout-hughes-acting-technique-exploratory-writing
I get out of the house. A few years ago, I started journaling as part of The Artist's Way. What used to be morning pages is now journaling. So, any time I leave the house with the faintest plan to stop and get a coffee, or while waiting for the server to bring my meal, sitting outside on a bench, or waiting for my call to begin, I pull out my notebook and write as many words as I can. Most of the time it is just stream-of-consciousness run on sentences. But getting out of the house and doing something active helps my ideas flow more readily than sitting down at the "perfect" home workspace. This strategy doesn't work when I want to build or refine a chapter, but it helps me get the ideas or the dialogue out of my head and onto the page. When I transcribe it later, this is a perfect motivator to keep going.
It doesn't always work. Some scenes never leave my notebook. But the act is satisfying, and getting out of the house is a great trigger to start most healthy and satisfying activities in my daily life.
My own writing habits are sadly very vanilla. An early alarm, a cup of coffee and a tidy desk. How boring!
Perhaps I'm a writing voyeur - making up for my lack of quirks by spying on others.
My equivalent to writing naked is choosing to write naked in public by deciding to serialise my memoir about boarding school on Substack. Instead of waiting for endorsement from an agent or publisher. Seriously! This isn’t just self-promotion. It’s been like hiring myself for a job. Now I’m enjoying doing the job to the best of my ability.
I dedicate my writing time to someone else using Joseph Chaikin’s words: “. . . for you, to you, in honor of you, I dedicate the next two hours. I may forget you as I am going through it, and I may consciously return to you; it may be nothing more than the gesture of saying ‘I’m doing it.’ I don’t know what my dedication to you will do, but I address you and share this time with you.” I wrote more about this here! https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/lindsey-trout-hughes-acting-technique-exploratory-writing
I’m afraid I’ve got a real Patricia Highsmith approach. No cigarettes but otherwise, indulgences ahoy 🚢 🛟
I get out of the house. A few years ago, I started journaling as part of The Artist's Way. What used to be morning pages is now journaling. So, any time I leave the house with the faintest plan to stop and get a coffee, or while waiting for the server to bring my meal, sitting outside on a bench, or waiting for my call to begin, I pull out my notebook and write as many words as I can. Most of the time it is just stream-of-consciousness run on sentences. But getting out of the house and doing something active helps my ideas flow more readily than sitting down at the "perfect" home workspace. This strategy doesn't work when I want to build or refine a chapter, but it helps me get the ideas or the dialogue out of my head and onto the page. When I transcribe it later, this is a perfect motivator to keep going.
It doesn't always work. Some scenes never leave my notebook. But the act is satisfying, and getting out of the house is a great trigger to start most healthy and satisfying activities in my daily life.