March 20, 2024
Part One: On entering writing contests
In drafting a contest entry, I think I’ve finally discovered part of the solution to my loss of confidence and flow. It’s taken me awhile to realize what to do.
The story starts with my cello performance years, in which I learned that between the practice room (where I was alone) and the concert hall (where I was in front of an audience) I could expect significant gaps from practice to performance. Until I adjusted, this was always a shock.
However, the higher I elevated my skills, the smaller the gap. Sometimes I played my best, or even well above what I thought my best, possibly due to the adrenaline of performing.
Next: How did this carry over to writing?
July 19, 2023
Get flow first, and cut later
Seeing what to leave out of your novel, memoir, or essay begins with including everything. It’s essential to let yourself go when writing your early drafts because—if you’re like me—you’re bound to put in all the material that’s important to you. Why fight this urge? You can always go back and cut.
Those unrestrained first, second, and third drafts are a crucial expression of your creative drive. If you let your artistic impulses steer your work, it’s much more likely to be your best.
June 21, 2023
How did I see what to leave out?
How did I see what to leave out?
Realizing what you can leave out of a story is a fine art that can make your work more inviting to readers. For years I struggled over what to leave out of my memoir-in-progress.
I knew I was writing about things important to me, but how significant would they be to the reader? How could I tell?
The answer illustrates the importance of two things: 1. Get flow first, and cut later; 2. Down-time for the brain.
Next: Get flow first, and cut later
August 16, 2018
Keeping a journal
Keeping a journal, although not quite as unstructured as freewriting or wander-writing, is still an important form of undirected writing. Here you get to write down your thoughts, feelings, and ideas in any order you wish, and as often or seldom as you want.
Presumably you mean to write somewhat coherently so that later you can refer to an entry and make sense of it. Freewriting and wander-writing require much less structure, if any. Therefore, journal-writing may not benefit you in precisely the same way as freer types of writing, and should not replace them.
This is because when we try to govern what we’re writing, even on the minimal level of a journal entry, we lose a degree of freedom and momentum. We experience these two elements only when we’ve removed all rules and expectations.
If we want to progress, freedom and momentum are the most important in our total writing experience, because they will find their way into all our writing efforts. Then we will discover their entire value.
July 18, 2018
Freewriting
Freewriting is probably the “purest” form of undirected writing. In freewriting, you have no goal except to write. Whatever comes into your head, you write down. Even if it’s vapid, banal, repetitious, dull, or meaningless, you just keep transcribing your thoughts. This may feel like an empty exercise, but it isn’t.
In freewriting you’re writing continuously, gaining momentum as you go. How often do we get this flow of language during our consciously directed writing, whether it’s a draft of an article, essay, short story, or novel chapter? Not often enough make it a habit.
The regular experience of effortless flow is practically guaranteed to make all your writing easier. Therefore, the more consistently you do your freewriting, the likelier it is that the rest of your work will improve.
Music of Writing 