how to write without writing
resources to help you accomplish your goals even when it's difficult
i didn’t grow up with dogs, so it was only last year, when my anxious chihuahua chewed through most of my underwear that i realized that “my dog ate my homework” was an actual albeit unlikely thing that could occur in real life. it never occurred to me to make excuses about completing homework as a child because i am at my core naive and fearful of rule-breaking.
as an adult who (hopefully, please, god) finished my post-secondary career at age 21, it’s been a long time since anyone’s set a deadline for an essay or assigned ambitious lengths of literature for me to read. but i never outgrew the habit of working towards a deadline, so i’ve kept giving myself homework into adulthood.
it’s with this mindset that i believe anyone can build learn how to do practically anything. below are my steps to creating my own writing practice, and i’ve shared some recent resources at the bottom. i hope they to inspire you :)
step 1: decide what kind of want you have.
what do you want to accomplish? this can be a general like “write realistic characters” or specific, like “submit ten short stories this year.”
the first kind of goal is of the never-ending, lifelong variety; the second has a clear end-point. it really doesn’t matter which type you select, but shape your goal into one other the other to suit how you want to study. it’s okay to pursue something for just a season; starting and stopping a hobby isn’t a failure. but it will feel like one if your goal is of the lifelong variety and your interest peters out in three months. mislabeling your wants can create the bad sort of tension overachievers and the self-employed suffer: the constant nagging feeling that you’re not doing enough, because you could always be doing something.
for this reason, i suggest turning anything nebulous (be better at X) into something concrete (do X for 30mins three time a week) and adjust to suit the realities of your life.
step 2: expand your definition of writing.
i wager that time, energy and inspiration are the fast, cheap and good of a writer’s life. there’s never enough of all three at the same time; best case scenario is you manage two at a time, and you thank the universe for that.
in order to overcome the crushing feeling of not having enough of of the three ingredients required for flow-state writing, i expanded my definition of what writing could be, and i’ve been happier for it.
when i’m short on time but have the energy and inspiration, writing becomes multi-tasking:
cooking or cleaning = listening to audiobooks or text-to-speech versions of my own writing while my hands are busy
travel-time or on errands = recording conversations with myself while brainstorming (iOS can create auto transcriptions of your Voice Notes, saving time on transcribing)
when i have time and am inspired but don’t have the energy (or am physically unable to write), writing becomes doing homework while resting:
reading, listening to an audiobook, watching a TV show or movie = take the thing i was going to do as rest and make it related to the work (same genre, era, related tropes, place of origin…)
socializing = mining conversations and the madness of life in general for nuggets to use later. keeping a note on my phone of words and phrases is great for this
meditative forms of working out = going for a long walk, stretching or other forms of physical activity that activate your body but don’t require much brainpower are a great time for…
…headphoneless daydreaming. no music, no podcasts, just raw-dogging your thoughts. highly underrated creative activity, imo!!
when i have time and energy but lack inspiration, writing largely becomes work:
butt-in-chair sprints (quality is not the goal: numbers are)
reading about writing (critical works, non-fiction)
watching 'how-to’ YouTube essays
taking online/Zoom classes
fulfilling prompts
beta-reading/editing for friends
going to a concert, museum, gallery, dance performance = there is to be no guilt about doing something fun ‘instead of writing.’ this counts! you have to live a full life to have anything interesting to say about it.
very little of the above is the writing part of creative writing, but all of these things together form the three points on the triangle that is my creative practice. when time, energy and inspiration collide, i’m ready to sit down and spew words. the rest of the time, i’ve got an arsenal of activities to choose from to keep from losing steam.
step 3: put yourself first.
the hardest part about doing something for yourself is probably convincing yourself that you’re allowed to treat this activity as important. work, school, and the bonds of family and friends are the holy trinity of importance in most of our lives. in my experience women especially struggle to squeeze myself into their own top-ten list of priorities.
admitting you have a desire is step one; figuring out how to make that desire tangible is step two; step three is creating the conditions to make attaining your desire possible.
you have to take yourself seriously, even if nobody else does.
pretend the time you’re going to carve out to attain your goal are the hours required to complete a university course. pretend you’re paying thousands of dollars to take this course. what would you do in this scenario?
you’d probably put it in your calendar. you’d turn your phone off during class time. you might build in travel time to get to and from campus, bring the materials you need with you to be able to read on the bus or your lunch break at work. you might stay up late to finish readings after everyone else is asleep, or say no to social invitations to give yourself enough time to study.
do the same thing here. lie, if you have to. lock a door, leave the house. if you don’t treat yourself like you’re worth it, nobody else will.
resources.
general writing resources & tools
Chill Subs / Sub Club - s/o Michelle Cyca for putting me onto the Chill Subs ecosystem. click around, subscribe to their newsletters, make an account. my fav of all their many things if The Forever Workshop, which has moved to weekly workshops this year.
Scrivener - like Microsoft Word if it was good (and built specifically to house enormous, branching projects like a multi-book series). you probably do not need this, but by god is it a delight if you do.
Voice Memos (Apple iOS app) - ramble to yourself; let the app transcribe it. like journaling or talk therapy
ProWritingAid - writing analysis tool. creates special reports on things like echoes (odd words or phrases you repeat in your writing). freemium software with lots of bells and whistles at the paid tier.
Grammarly - don’t use it anymore, but it’s a helpful first spelling and grammer (SPaG) check
Publishers Marketplace - paying for a subscription for a couple months is a helpful way to see 1) what’s selling 2) to whom 3) for how much and 4) how it’s described
Libby + Anna’s Archive + Kobo - request your reading material from your local library; if there is a huge wait and/or you are on a budget, visit AA; if budget isn’t a problem, the author is living/debut/from a marginalized group/a fav, buy from Kobo (> Kindle, becuase fuck Amazon, and if you buy from Kobo the book is yours whether you end your subscription or the book is removed from their database or not)
author-created resources
C.S. Pacat substack - YA and adult fantasy author substack; paid tier = monthly 1-2hr long Q&A on her works plus info about the publishing landscape
Maggie Stiefvater’s Writing Corner - eight hours of video seminar on her writing method, plus worksheets to accompany. for $30, a deal.
youtube channels
Hartwell - screenwriting doctor with fantastic ideas re: character building and story structure. mine the back catalogue - recent vids aren’t on-topic.
Gina Denny - paid Patreon gains access to hour-long seminars on specific topics. free resources also available, plus she gives great advice on her Tiktok and YouTube
Abbie Eamons - writer/youtuber with tons of free resources. introduction to topics.
books
non-fiction
The Anatomy of Genre by John Truby - i’m kind of obsessed with this book. s/o to Loreina and Cherie putting me onto this last year.
On Writing by Stephen King - why was this so good?? already looking forward to giving it another read in a couple years.
podcast (just one, lol)
Writing Excuses - episodes are 15-30mins and each ends with homework. hundreds of back-catalogue episodes = plenty to mine on your niche topic of interest
Thanks gracken