The blank page sits ominously in front of you. It has this uncanny (and unparalleled) ability to induce writers’ block. As a result, you sit motionless, and completely overwhelmed, staring at the page wondering why nothing is coming out. Every creative has been here. But what did they do to get past it? Lucky for you, here is a handy list of insightful and helpful pieces of writing advice, from people that have braved the blank page and lived to tell the tale.
1) Take it bird by bird. – Anne Lamott
In her 1995 book ‘Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life’, a meditation on writing and what it involves, Anne Lamott shares an anecdote that can be directly applied to the writing process.
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said. ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'”
This reassuring anecdote suggests that a writer might manage to get more done by just taking it one step at a time, rather than allowing themselves to become overwhelmed by the sheer size of the task that lays ahead. By taking it step by step, laying down word after word, one after the other, these will eventually stack up.
2) Don’t start out with writing novels. – Ray Bradbury
In his 2001 keynote address at Point Loma Nazarene University, Ray Bradbury talked about the importance of starting out with smaller projects before venturing on to take on bigger ones like novels. He reasons this by saying that novels take too long to write and can often turn out badly because you haven’t yet learnt the necessary writing skills to attempt something like that. Instead, he advises aspiring writers to first “write a hell of a lot of short stories.” He continues, “If you can write one short story a week, doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing. And at the end of the year you have 52 short stories and I defy you to write 52 bad ones. It can’t be done. At the end of 30 weeks or 40 weeks or the end of the year all of a sudden, a story will come that’s just wonderful. That’s what happened to me.”
3) Stop when you are going good – Ernest Hemingway
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.”
But, if you are currently writing a novel, Hemingway offers sage advice to prevent writers from getting stuck and becoming discouraged by the mid-story blues. He suggests that writers stop writing while they still know what follows in the plot, so that when they pick up again, they know exactly what they are writing.
4) Your first draft is not important. – Neil Gaiman
“It doesn’t matter. Nobody’s ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonizing over but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed. You can fix it tomorrow or next week. For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, and then fix it.”
5) Inspiration comes from regular effort. – Mario Vargas Llosa
Lastly, in an interview with the Paris Review, Nobel winning author Mario Vargas Llosa said, in response to a question about how he continues to come up with new ideas:
“If I started to wait for moments of inspiration, I would never finish a book. Inspiration for me comes from a regular effort.”
Here, he emphasises the importance of starting and staying committed to a writing schedule, and how any writer would benefit greatly from doing this as it would help them to stay inspired and creative.
There you have it, five pieces of writing advice from the greats! I hope this has helped you become more inspired and put you well on your way to getting back into the swing of writing.