Camp Pep: Tune Into the Right Station

Camp NaNoWriMo is nothing without you, our incredible participants. Today, Camp NaNoWriMo participant Amanda Truscott offers you some advice for your first week of Camp:

Hi there, Writer Friends.

I have a trick for doing your best and most prolific work: pretend you’re a radio. All you have to do is tune into the right station. Now, if this sounds too “woo-woo” for you, that’s cool; I’m only asking you to humor me and give it a try. See what happens. Here’s how you do it:

Sit down with your computer or notebook and become aware of your  breathing. 

At this point, you might think something like, “I can’t think of anything! It’s not working! This is stupid.” Ignore those thoughts. 

Tell yourself, “I’m just playing. This is just a game. This isn’t work. All I have to do is show up and play with my book like a kid playing with a ball or blocks. I’m just experimenting. Trying things. That’s all this is.” The above is a mental game I play with myself even when I’m writing something “serious” because it lowers the stakes enough to take Fear out of the equation—or at least to hobble it so it’s easier to outrun. 

Breathe. Do your best to sit up straight and keep your shoulders relaxed. Our minds respond to what our bodies do, and slouching makes us feel scared and inadequate, as does shallow breathing. So keep breathing in and out, inhaling and exhaling deeply through your nose. Words will begin to suggest themselves. 

When they do, you might think, “What? That’s stupid. I’m not writing that.” Ignore those thoughts too. Write the words. 

Keep writing. Repeat steps 1-5 as needed. You’ll find the more willing you are to believe you’re “just playing”, indifferent to the quality of your transmissions (radios, after all, claim no responsibility for Taylor Swift, Limp Bizkit or Chopin), the more easily and joyfully the words will flow through you.

And the more easily and joyfully you write, the better and more plentiful your words will be.

But please don’t think about that part. Thinking about quality is a trap, and it loosens the hobbles on Fear’s ankles so it can catch up and take you down, whispering in your ear with its meaty breath, “The quality of what you do is important. It’s how people will judge you. It’s the proof of your worth as a human, and we already know you’re worthless. Do you want the rest of the world to know it too?”

At which point you can elbow it in the ribs with this thought: “This isn’t work. I’m just playing. It doesn’t matter what I write. It’s just a game. I’m just a radio.”

Breathe in and breathe out. Fear will roll off you, clutching its side.

You will get up. And you will write. And you will cross the finish line, victorious.

And now my own Inner Critic pipes up and says, “You’re mixing too many metaphors, Amanda. You need to be consistent.” So I tell it, “Shut up. I’ll mix as many metaphors as I want. This is my game, and I make up the rules.”

With love and hopes for the wings of your words,

Amanda

Amanda Truscott is the author of Creative Unblocking: Bypass Self-Doubt, Tap your Genius, and Complete Your Best Work. Her current novel is an urban fantasy about a Pomeranian shapeshifter who has to save her people from a cannibal that mixes their blood into a beauty cream. You can find her online at creativeunblocking.com, or offline playing in the wilds of British Columbia.

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from Juanky Pamies Alcubilla on Flickr.