Lisa's 10 Rules of Writing
1. Show up and stay there. Stay in your seat. Nothing is coming to you, you say? You’re staring at a blank page or the blinking cursor on a white screen? Stay. Resist the urge to flee and do something else (check Facebook, text someone, eat something, do laundry, take a nap). Learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
2. You can’t edit nothing. Write something. You can edit something.
3. Give yourself permission to begin without it being perfect. I begin with pen to paper, writing in a loose, sketch-like, journaling, incomplete sentence form. This allows me to find a way into the “real” writing. I usually begin with what I’m unsure of, afraid of, pissed off about, dreading. I jot down a flash of a thought about what needs to happen next, what a character might say, and then and then and then. And then, I’m in. There’s something magical in the connection from brain to hand to pen to paper. Grab a pen and go. Let loose. Don’t be judgmental or afraid to be sloppy here. Julia Cameron calls this process “morning pages.” Natalie Goldberg calls it “getting the pen moving.” I call it “permission to begin.”
4. Tell the truth. Always. If you lie to your readers, they will break up with you.
5. Be present. Slow down and be in the moment within your story. What is there to see, smell, hear? What’s the temperature, the emotion, the energy? Go inside moment to moment. Breathe and really be there.
6. Believe it’s already done. In some kind of time-space continuum, I believe every book I write is already written. So why am I avoiding writing chapter 12? It’s already done. Show up, stay there, and get the words down.
7. Do your homework. This is not simply a Google search, people. Whenever possible, go to the primary source. Your story takes place at Yellowstone National Park? Go there. Your main character is a lawyer? Start hanging around a courthouse. Writing about a woman with Alzheimer’s? Get to know people who have Alzheimer’s, their families, caregivers, doctors. Three-dimensional research will breathe three-dimensional life into your story.
8. Cross-training. I write novels. I read everything—scientific journal articles, medical textbooks, spiritual texts, nonfiction, memoir, classic literature, contemporary fiction, plays, poetry. Listen to all kinds of music. Go to the theatre, the ballet, museums. Keep your senses open for what works and what doesn’t, what’s beautiful, what makes you care, what lights you up, for the universal threads of human experience.
9. Show yourself. Be brave. Be vulnerable. Open your heart. That’s where the real stuff lives and breathes. Now write.
10. You’re going to be dead someday. Write it now.
2. You can’t edit nothing. Write something. You can edit something.
3. Give yourself permission to begin without it being perfect. I begin with pen to paper, writing in a loose, sketch-like, journaling, incomplete sentence form. This allows me to find a way into the “real” writing. I usually begin with what I’m unsure of, afraid of, pissed off about, dreading. I jot down a flash of a thought about what needs to happen next, what a character might say, and then and then and then. And then, I’m in. There’s something magical in the connection from brain to hand to pen to paper. Grab a pen and go. Let loose. Don’t be judgmental or afraid to be sloppy here. Julia Cameron calls this process “morning pages.” Natalie Goldberg calls it “getting the pen moving.” I call it “permission to begin.”
4. Tell the truth. Always. If you lie to your readers, they will break up with you.
5. Be present. Slow down and be in the moment within your story. What is there to see, smell, hear? What’s the temperature, the emotion, the energy? Go inside moment to moment. Breathe and really be there.
6. Believe it’s already done. In some kind of time-space continuum, I believe every book I write is already written. So why am I avoiding writing chapter 12? It’s already done. Show up, stay there, and get the words down.
7. Do your homework. This is not simply a Google search, people. Whenever possible, go to the primary source. Your story takes place at Yellowstone National Park? Go there. Your main character is a lawyer? Start hanging around a courthouse. Writing about a woman with Alzheimer’s? Get to know people who have Alzheimer’s, their families, caregivers, doctors. Three-dimensional research will breathe three-dimensional life into your story.
8. Cross-training. I write novels. I read everything—scientific journal articles, medical textbooks, spiritual texts, nonfiction, memoir, classic literature, contemporary fiction, plays, poetry. Listen to all kinds of music. Go to the theatre, the ballet, museums. Keep your senses open for what works and what doesn’t, what’s beautiful, what makes you care, what lights you up, for the universal threads of human experience.
9. Show yourself. Be brave. Be vulnerable. Open your heart. That’s where the real stuff lives and breathes. Now write.
10. You’re going to be dead someday. Write it now.
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
A.K.
(new)
Jan 08, 2018 10:31AM
This is the perfect list! Such good reminders to have handy at the start of another year, at the start of another novel.
reply
|
flag
Great rules, almost all of which I follow....sort of.My version of Rule 1, is get up and move around at least once an hour - up and down stairs a few times, dance to one song, stretch - anything to keep my hips, back and knees from getting stiff! At almost 70 and with arthritis, I have to keep moving.
Number 10 is exactly what motivated me to write my first novel - published the same year I turned 65.
A.K. wrote: "This is the perfect list! Such good reminders to have handy at the start of another year, at the start of another novel."Thank you and good luck with your writing!
May this be your best year yet!
Lisa
Jan wrote: "Great rules, almost all of which I follow....sort of.My version of Rule 1, is get up and move around at least once an hour - up and down stairs a few times, dance to one song, stretch - anything t..."
Love that, too! You have to take care of the container you're riding in, right? Congrats on your first novel at 65! What's the title?
cheers,
Lisa
Lisa wrote: "Jan wrote: "Great rules, almost all of which I follow....sort of.My version of Rule 1, is get up and move around at least once an hour - up and down stairs a few times, dance to one song, stretch ..."
Hi Lisa, The title is I CALL MYSELF EARTH GIRL. Not doing too much on Goodreads and sales have slowed considerably - it came out in 2013 - but it has some decent reviews on Amazon. For some reason, I am finding this second one much more difficult. Perhaps, my awareness of all the mistakes I made the first time around....?
