How can I be a more spontaneous fiction writer?
When talking with my therapist, the subject of writing is a constant. My obsessive approach to writing is a source of frustration.
I write well in my first language, and aspire to create short fiction . But I'm an over planner and way too critical of my own writing.
Anything longer than a single page is impossible for me because I'll obsess with editing and some misguided sense of "perfection", cutting paragraph after paragraph until I'm left with a decent micro story that you can read in two and a half minutes. Most of the time I don't even get this far.
So my question is, how can I force myself to be less self critical and obsessive, let things flow, and write longer stories? Are there any advices, books, courses, practices and exercises I can use?
This is the single greatest piece of advice I was ever given, so I hope it helps you (or anyone else): Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge.
Seriously, it's very short and very straightforward, but utterly changed my approach to writing, and because of this little mini essay, I have written two novels and am working on my third.
That is indeed quite helpful! Even though this text is more specifically about essays, I can see how it might be adapted for fiction as well. Thanks!
Also, what are your novels about? ;)
It's really hard to summarize things for me: it's definitely not my preferred medium! But to answer your question, the first novel concerns the survivors of a planet-fallen space ship and the relationships between those survivors and the new generations. The second is sort of a magical-realism rendering of Brazil's colonization, and how people from different parts of that process can relate to each other, and how they can't. The first I challenged myself by working with a lot of moving parts, whereas the second is really an exploration of linguistics (my academic background).
This is sort of like a fancy way of paraphrasing the old "write drunk, edit sober" Hemingway adage. I really like it.
Fantastic blog post, thanks for sharing it!
My goal any time I sit to write is to get into that flow state zone. Only the madman can go there, as soon as the judge comes in the anxiety starts and the flow is totally gone! I’ll be saving that post to remind myself not to let the judge butt I’m too early in the process
(not a writer, but I read a lot and listen to podcasts from writers)
My understanding is the answer is "Write More."
Do 30 minute writing prompts, write for 30 minutes (or more if you hit the zone).
I recall awhile back for school I used a special text editor which only let you type forward, no backtracking/cutting pasting or editing. To force you to just keep writing and prevent you from editing until the end. I can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but that seems it might be up your alley.
I think I used a program like this before. It wasn't very useful than, but things may be different now. Thanks!
Any podcasts you'd recommend?
Right now the main one is Kingslingers, by Doof Media, whom taught me more about literary analysis in Season 1 than I learned in all of my formal schooling.
A consant reader (of Stephen King's works) and a King newbie do a deep read of The Dark Tower, King's magnum opus. They do other deep reads in other podcasts, and one thing to note is that the newbie is a writer so they often talk about their own writing and the challenges they encounter and how King plays off them.
They introduced me to another that's in my queue, Do the Write Thing which may be exactly what you're looking for. Writing prompts, readings, and discussions
Do you ever practice writing absolute junk? It might be a good exercise for you: just write and write and write without stopping to think about what you're writing, knowing it's trash, maybe even turning off your screen and typing without reading what you've written at all for a set time. Start short at first and then gradually go for longer and longer. Then look at it and pick out the interesting parts. It might not be much, but if you get one good idea, sentence, phrase, etc. from each session, then I think it's worthwhile, and I think it'd eventually train you to not expect everything to be perfect.
As a former fiction writer, this is what comes to mind. Another idea is to fully accept your over-planning and just go with it, but forcing yourself to move on after a set period. The process is basically: 1: write something; 2: perfect it as well as you can; and, 3: move on completely. Repeat...for a long time. My own failures came from not doing this enough. From not treating it like the full-time job it should've been and from hanging on to particular stories for too long.
And as part of that process of writing, perfecting, and repeating, gradually force yourself to write longer stories. Be more ambitious with it or just add to the plots a little bit at a time.
But I've abandoned writing as a creative endeavor for about ten years, so take what I say with a grain of salt! I don't know what even motivated me to reply at all, since I don't think I miss it. Sounds like it's time for a bit of introspection on that topic.
I'm glad you replied that's really useful!
You won't find lots of advice for extreme over planners like myself because writers are usually the opposite, they seem to write a lot and have problems with editing. I never met anyone with my particular issue of over editing. What I find the most are tips on how to be more of planner, but I got that covered. So any advice is welcome and I'll absolutely try to write some intentional junk!
I struggle with many of the same things you do--perfectionism, obsessive editing, and that horrible paralysis known as writer's block.
...start a diary!
Every day, answer Marvin's Question, simply providing a flat report of life events directed at no one in particular. This is extremely liberating because unlike fiction--which is riddled with goals you must achieve through syntax and diction--there is no wrong way to describe your life. Spew it all out into your notebook, computer, grandpa's tape recorder, or campfire smoke signals. Then, slowly add a bit of color into the mix. Give your opinion on these events. Sprinkle in a few descriptive metaphors whenever they naturally come to mind. After weeks and months of these reflections, you'll significantly dampen that critical voice inside you, and far more likely to be able to hit a punctuation mark without reviewing the preceding sentence.
Of course, please know that I write all this under the general disclaimer of "everyone's different, do what works for you," but I found that this process made me significantly more comfortable with my own voice and more productive in general. And it only takes ten minutes, or however long it takes to down my morning cup of coffee. Good stuff.
That's awesome, thanks :)
I'll watch Marvin's Question when I get home.
I find may day-to-day life quite dull. When I tried writing a diary, I'd write things like "Woke up 8am. Had steak and pasta for lunch.". I do have interesting thoughts throughout the day I might write about, though. The challenge would be resisting the temptation of editing, even if only for myself, or the small chance that I might wanna publish some of it. There are programs which would prevent me from editing. I can always open the file in another program, but I think they would be helpful.
Hi OP. I'm an author of short stories and other works of fiction. Nothing fancy, a humble literary journal or activist magazine here and there. I've had similar struggles to you in the past that I had to work to overcome before I could start having any success in completing my work and having my work accepted for publication. In college I studied alongside a lot of other writers who had a similar problem. So take comfort - it's more common than you think and there are ways to make it work in your favor.
You mention you're a planner. This will work to your advantage for my advice because it requires maintaining familiarity with what ground you've covered and where you need to go next (eg, your next beat).
Some advice:
Since you're a planner I'll assume you are familiar with and use fiction planning techniques such as a 40 beat storyboard, 13 beat outline, longlines, etc. These keep you oriented to the true north of your story. Even if you don't know or call them by that name, I assume planning means you go into writing with at least a generalized gameplan of beats to keep you oriented to your story's true north. This means you don't need to refamiliarize yourself with what you've already written. Check off the beats as you go and don't look back until you're done.
Think of it like building a house. Every wall, stud, joint, and so on has a purpose in the frame. Removing one weakens the integrity of the whole structure. Nothing is removed or added unless the architect knows why it is being removed or added and what the impact will be on the whole structure. People who build homes know this. You are a writer, and so you need to know why you've written a sentence, paragraph, whatever. Since you're a planner, I assume you already know the big picture of your story. Know why you write any specific part, and know why you're removing it and how it will impact your big picture.
Being critical is good, but change how you think about what it means to be critical. Don't think about whether your segment is "good" or "bad" because, frankly, you are incapable of making this decision on your own. You're too close to your own story to make a proper judgement call. Instead, decide whether or not any particular segment serves its desired function in guiding the narrative to its conclusion. If it serves its function, it should stay whether you think it's "good" or "well-written" or not (for your first draft). Anything that serves function towards your story's true north must remain in the first draft - you don't get a say in this. As a writer you serve the story, not your own specific tastes. This will help you become more dispassionate about your work (which every writer needs if they want to build a story).
Treat writing like a job. This is what it means to have a writer's discipline. Forget whatever BS you've seen in media about muses and inspiration and whether or not it "feels right." You probably already know this as an experienced writer, but it bears repeating and remembering.
Writing and storytelling is not a mystical process that only happens when you're "in the mood" (as I'm sure you already know). It takes practice and discipline. Create a schedule for yourself and stick to it, even when (especially when) you don't feel like it. From X o'clock until Y o'clock, write. Doesn't matter if you don't want to write or aren't inspired, doesn't matter if you would rather edit what you've already written. If you've not done this kind of disciplined approach before, give it a month or so of an easy schedule before increasing. Start with a single hour and stick to it religiously. Then expand to 2 or 3 hours, then 4 or 6, etc. The hours between X and Y are meant for writing only. It is your job even if no one is supervising you, telling you to do it. It will not be fun all the time doing it this way, but you will achieve the results you're looking for.
Always remember to use your logline and beats to stay oriented to your story's true north. Every segment and sentence should guide the story in that direction. Even if you don't think a particular segment is "good," if it moves the story towards the next beat (and therefore, true north) you cannot edit it out.
If you can't articulate out loud to someone what the next beat is, you need to take a step back and find each beat until you hit the end (since you're a planner, you've probably already done this but, again, it bears repeating). Otherwise you'll just flounder editing over and over with no direction and probably no real idea what the destination is (beyond "...the end!").
Edit: lists are dumb and I suck at formatting.
I wish that was the issue. I don't have a problem writing non-fiction. When I write fiction, most of the time I don't even write the paragraphs that I was supposed to cut. I can and do write outlines, "beats", structures, loglines, and what have you. Things do have a purpose, maybe they have too much purpose. I plan way too much and when I get to the writing, I'm kinda bored of it already. Writing becomes mechanic, the demon of brevity takes over me, and what could have been half a page becomes one or two sentences. I have trouble understanding how people can write so much. I tried forcing myself to just write and write once but the result was not just bad, it was incomprehensible, barely language at all. Word salad. I couldn't use anything.
Planning is useful but can also be a form of prison. I obsess with these tools that are not really writing. I assure you that my issue is not a lack of planning, but maybe its excess. I never believed in inspiration.
I often wonder if writing long form is something I should do at all... maybe I'm just trying to conform to a standard that doesn't work for me. IDK.
In any case, the very act of writing without purpose is something I seem incapable of doing. Letting things flow and all that jazz.
Thanks for the advice ;)
I saw an interview with Stallone who has quite a bit of screenplay writing credits talk about his process which is very straight forward.
This is a short version of it. But basically get the main beats down then have fun in a rewrite
This may be a total stretch since it's not about writing specifically, but your description reminds me of the idea of being process- vs. results-oriented.
For what it's worth, I think we can learn to be more process- or results-oriented; they aren't immutable traits. Over the years, I've learned to be much more results-oriented, though I don't have any specific advice on how.
But considering this another way: if you love planning and process, you might find value in leaning into it. Maybe build a process to follow, where editing has it's place but it's not on page one. For example, you might start by mapping your story structure/storyboarding, so you have way-points to write toward, and then go back to revise for a pre-specified amount of time/effort.
Apologies if you're already doing these things or I'm way off-base. Anyway, I write, but not fiction :)
Look at random things in your home and write about them. I keep a ceiling fan controller next to me on my desk and I'm imagining other buttons it could have. Like, maybe it unlocks my door, Or yells at the guy that used to live here looking for his girlfriend that he stabbed in the head and spent 5 years in jail. Maybe another button that plays a song to soothe the the spirit of the man that died here that messes with me in the middle of the night. Maybe if you sit on a certain part of your couch, you get transported somewhere else. Or a lamp makes items disappear. Find something innate and turn it into something wild. Let your brain go crazy.
Don't try.
You can try doing solo RPGs, it sounds odd at first, but it can be a sort of journaling technique if that’s what you want it to be. There’s a lot of different systems, methods, and genres, but essentially the idea is that you’re getting some sort of randomized prompts (generated by dice, cards, random tables, whatever) and then reacting to it (and writing it all down). There’s no right or wrong way to do it and it can be as short or as long as you want it to be.
Thousand Year Old Vampire is a good journaling one that almost encourages you to read up on history in the process, as you write about the unlife of an immortal vampire throughout the ages. You only have so many slots for memories though and as time passes, you have to “forget” old memories to make way for new ones. This kind of leads you to prioritize what’s most important in your life as a vampire, but you also watch as parts of their life start slipping away with their humanity, really a neat concept all around. The book itself is gorgeous though, absolutely beautiful, and the game itself is an interesting exercise. Otherwise, Youtube is a good source for other solo rpg systems.