The Secret of Writing That Real Writers Know

[Emily Wright]

"The Secret of Writing That Real Writers Know"

 

(From Steven Pressfield's book "The War of Art")

 

"There's a secret that real writers know that wanabe writers don't, and the secret is this:

 

It's not the writing that's hard.

 

What's hard is sitting down to write.

 

What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance*."

 

*(and "Resistance," Pressfield explains in his book, is not laziness.)

[James Schendel]

"I keep writing. Sometimes I am pleased.' - Tennessee Williams. If you want an inspiring book on writing, (to help break through the resistance) try "Zen and the Art of Writing" by the recently deceased Ray Bradbury. What is so inspirational is that as you read these words, you see that the idea of resistance or writer's block simply did not occur with him. It was not a part of his reality. He was driven by a passion and a desire that was unquenchable. For more than 20 years, as detailed in this book, he wrote one short story a week. He had a very strict schedule, something like title and idea on Sunday, first draft done by Tuesday, 1st rewrite on Thursday, finished work on Saturday and so it goes. If what you have to say is important enough, you will be driven forward like a half back who has just been given the ball. He doesn't think "gee, I wonder if I should try to gain some yards. I don't know, there's a lot of resistance against me." No. he grabs that ball and hits the line full force with one thought... Move ahead and don't stop till you get to that goal line. (gee I'm channeling Knute Rockne now) but the point is... if something is pulling you forward, you can't help yourself from hitting those keys again... that story has to come out. If there's resistance it's because the story does not excite you enough. So make it more exciting.

[Emily Wright]

Good post, Jim!

I will follow up with Steve Pressfield's definition of "resistance" later. "The War of Art" is a wonderful book and a quick read.

I recently read that a fear of inadequacy in writing (vis a vis comparing your writing to that of others) is baseless. Each of us supposedly has a unique inner story to tell that no one else can tell.

I think this is a load of feel-good you know what.  Good writing isn't God given.  It's practice, practice, practice.  And sometimes the best practice is to imitate the writing of someone else, someone you admire.  Sooner or later, you find your own voice, your own style.

[James Schendel]

so the key is to overcome resistance.. the question then is why are we resisting? I believe it is because we have to give up our fantasy of being a brilliant writer whose words flow off the page as if we were "touched by an angel" and our work was divinely inspired..

But no. we have to face the fact that writing is difficult and the words come slow.. or we have to write even though we know that what we are writing now is mediocre.. and we hope and pray that we can make it better in rewrites... so we have to face our own inadequacies and it's painful... we have to accept the fact that it's not about being brilliant, it's about improving... If you can improve on what you did before, that's the key. It takes courage and it takes patience.. also, maybe after chapter 15 of our novel or page 78 of the screenplay, we are bored to tears of these characters and situations and we just want to finish because we are sick of it... then we have to take a long walk and think "What do I really have here?"

And so rather than face all of that, procrastination seems a much easier alternative... but if a certain time is set aside for writing every day, even if it's only 20 minutes, it will make a world of difference. Tennessee Williams said that he wrote every day from 9 to noon, no matter how late he stayed up the night before or what sort of debauchery he was involved in.

[Emily Wright]

Warning:

Pressfield's book, "The War of Art" is often referred to as a "kick-ass" (tough-talk) book on overcoming inner inhibitions and procrastinations to realize your creativity. "God" and four-letter words are often used in the same sentence.