Mridu Khullar

1. Try freewriting. One of the most effective ways of making that internal editor shut up is timed freewriting. Set an egg timer for about five minutes, and write anything that comes to mind. While this is something you might not want to do for specific projects, it is something that when done on a regular basis, makes you less self-conscious and frees you from the demon that is the fear of the blank page.

2. Don’t be a first drafter. Most writers, knowing they’re capable of it, try to get everything perfect and right in the first draft itself. There’s no need to put that kind of pressure on yourself. Aim to be a rewriter. In the first draft you outline, in the second, you fill in the blanks, in the third, you do the actual writing, and in the next two, you edit.

3. Get over the fear of judgment. What paralyzes most writers is thinking ahead to the future and fearing what will become of the piece. Will the editors hate it? Will my readers think I’m too boring, too whiny, too self-absorbed? Will they eventually figure out that I’m just a hack and can’t write at all? Relax! Presumably, you’ve done it before and survived. Remember that.

4. Have some bloody confidence. Another fear is of rejection. So it’s easier to simply delay the inevitable, right? What you don’t submit, can’t be rejected. This is probably the number one reason for missed deadlines, stalled projects, and procrastination at its finest. My only advice? Get over it. Get over yourself. Stop standing in your own way. The more you write, the more you send out, the better you get at it.

5. Write in a journal. Along with freewriting, writing in a journal can be a terrific way to free up the blocked creative muscles and to have the inner editor shut up. Psychologically, we believe that the journal is for our eyes only and so we tend to let loose. Sometimes, without intending to, the best nuggets of gold appear in the journal for this reason. If nothing else, journaling too, helps you face the blank page regularly and stop fearing it.

6. Move forward, don’t reread, let it go. While you’re writing, you don’t want to keep going back and rereading what you’ve already written. That’s quite the temptation, not only to edit but to feel worthless and untalented. Some writers find that switching off the monitor helps. If that doesn’t work, try writing with a white font color on a white page, so that you can’t actually see what it is that you’re writing.

7. Make little notes in the margin and move on. If you simply can’t help yourself, mark little X’s in the places where you feel you need rewriting or editing or more information. Instead of stopping in the middle of your writing to fix it, just mark the place as something that will be fixed later. Also, don’t let the number of X’s annoy you!

8. Write as fast as possible. Make it about the word count and nothing else at all. Your goal is to put X number of words on the page. That’s all. Keep the fingers moving.

9. Don’t leave it to the last minute. Two hours before deadline is when the inner editor is bound to be at her worst because now you’re required to get the work done, and fast. Instead, by working on a piece days or even weeks in advance, you’ll know you have enough time to play around, make mistakes, and experiment. You won’t feel the pressure to make it right the first time, and ironically, will free up more, making the writing easier.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.