Let’s talk about #writing! Specifically … How to Write a Book!
What do you want to know? Do you want to feel the smooth roll of my favorite Xtra bold ballpoint pen gliding against a stack of creamy paper? Do you want to mimic my rituals? Get a warm blanket, prepare a soothing cup of tea, make sure the conditions are just right?! The house is quiet and clean … yeah, right.
Do you want to spread notecards out all over the floor to follow a process or the dreaded word “outline” without animals or humans messing it up?
What the heck punctuation am I supposed to use? You start looking it up.
Before you know it, you’re so frustrated, you’d rather put away your growing pile of laundry than sit and #write. But really that’s all there is to it. #justwrite … Editing and specifics comes later. Just get your ideas down. Any way. Any how!
Then what? The simple answer is blunt and unglamorous. Don’t use a notebook!
Sure, notebooks and legal pads are inviting. And you can’t stop an idea when it just has to be written on the back of an envelope or my favorite, a blank journal … but then what do you have? You’re left with handwriting you can’t read and ideas you can’t find.
Use a computer. Trust me! At the very least use voice text or the NOTES section on your phone because then you can simply copy and paste into a document when you’re ready. Once you’ve written an entire book in a notebook, scratched out, re-written sentences up and down the margins, arrowed and renumbered to direct the sequence and more… now it’s time to type it all in? Great!!
That means you’re starting over … writing, editing it ..again! You can’t stop the urge to edit! You edit. You rewrite. You get tired. You put it down. And it takes you twice, three times as long.
So that’s my advice on How to Write a Book! Go digital. Save the notebook for brainstorming ideas, lists, and sketches. Ideas come when you’re soaking up salty breezes at the edge of the shore with your toes in the sand! But keep the detailed writing to something digital! You’ll thank me later! Enjoy! #writinginspiration #motivation #MichelleSpray
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