Do you hate writing? Is it hard for you to start writing and once you started, to actually come in a writing flow? I am going to help you in 4 steps to write with joy again.
William G. Perry, Jr, a well-known educational psychologist and Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School for Education formulated the writing process in the following words: ‘First you make a mess, then you clean it up.’ And that is writing. So no perfect outlines with numbers and roman figures and a’s, b’s and c’s. First you start to ‘write messy’. A bit like making a sand castle which then becomes a stone building. You start with sketching and not a ready made oil painting.
The first step is thinking about writing in a different way. It will greatly help you if you don’t fuss what you are going to write. Ignore spelling and grammar. Note everything you are fussing about (is this right, this doesn’t sound right, what will my supervisor say) in stead of quitting to write and starting to think to much. Use a different colour for al these ‘fussy notes’.
The main goal is writing, making sure all your thoughts, ideas and associations end up on paper. Just make a mess, it will be beneficial for the end product.
Which steps will help you?
- Create realistic goals. Producing two pages of ‘mess’ is great. Setting impossible goals will only diminish your writing.
- Don’t do more than you allowed yourself: it will be harder to reach your goal the next day.
- And maybe the most important step: write EVERY DAY, even if you don’t want to.
The funny thing is, most people prefer scrubbing the kitchen floor than writing. I can assure you though: the only way to achieve a writing rhythm is by writing every day. It is like going to the gym, the moment you are considering whether you should go, chances are you are not going. Setting a fixed time each week will increase the likelihood that you will go to the gym. The same counts for writing. So write every day!
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