|
…habits are
said to be made or broken in around a month… …ignore the
internal critic and just write… …don’t describe – experience… … try using
present tense instead of the usual past tense… …occasionally,
you may strike gold… …don’t allow
the Internal Critic to turn into the Demon Self Critic… |
Linda Acaster WRITER, TUTOR,
COACH
Full-time writers don’t wait for inspiration to strike. They
set an appointment with their Muse every day, and they expect their Muse to
turn up and perform, every day. It does because they…
MAKE IT A HABIT © The overwhelming need is
to write the best we can produce. But which word to begin? Which thought to chase?
It’s easy to dither. It’s much easier not to write at all, to wait until
inspiration strikes, whenever that might be. Possibly tomorrow. Probably
never. The trick is to get into the habit of writing, no matter the
standard of the end result. Taken seriously, habits
are considered to be made or broken in around a month, but a determined stand
needs to be taken to achieve this, first in prioritising our time, second,
and probably more important, in rationing the voice of our internal self
critic. By using timed,
free-flowing writing, we knock on the door of our subconscious and ask if
anyone wants to come out and play. To receive an enthusiastic response we
need to make a habit of knocking on this door, which is why the
universal advice is to write every day, preferably at the same time every
day. Perhaps you do this, but
it isn’t helping. It might be better to break with a routine that is leading
nowhere and create another. If you tie yourself to a computer each evening
after work, your creativity is already jaded. Try being stingy with your
lunch break and share it with no one but your Muse. The physical change of
writing with a pad and pen, in a park, or even a noisy café, could be enough
to push open that sticking door, and all the exercises suggested below can be
completed in under an hour. But an hour is a long
time, so let’s start small. For the first week write continuously for a
minimum of five minutes – Come on! Everyone can write fiction for five
minutes – Do not stop. Do not edit. If your mind goes blank resort to a
stream of consciousness or describe your surroundings. For the second week
increase the time to a minimum of ten minutes, the third week to fifteen
minutes, and finally to twenty minutes. To remove the
responsibility of deciding where to start, below are 28 first lines to begin
the process. Some are statements of fact, some offer a first or third person
viewpoint character. Others suggest a setting, a sound, or an emotion. A
couple are distinctly dialogue led, others concentrate on description.
Several offer past or present tense, and there are a couple of clichés to
make you smile. The list is not exhaustive, nor is it the thirty best first
lines imagined. Its aim is to start you writing, to knock on the door of your
own subconscious. The reason for the
exercise fulfilled, theoretically the pages can go straight into the bin. But
why waste material? Read what you’ve written. Some of it you may consider to
be drivel. Some days you will consider all of it to be drivel, especially
at the start, but this will have more to do with your internal self critic
than your ability to write. Besides, what does it matter? You are forming a
habit, not writing the next Nobel Prize for Literature. Occasionally, part-way
through an exercise, you may strike gold. The character given suddenly has a
substantial voice and problems that need solving; the bald descriptive phrase
has developed a tone chill enough to make you shudder. Go with the flow. Make
notes as scenes and dialogue race into your head so that when you do have
time to sit and commit it to a keyboard you will have a foundation to build
on and scaffolding to climb. Don’t discard the safety
net too soon. When you’ve reached the bottom of the list, start again from
the top, but this time choose a genre to write in. Continue the first line as
if it is… a Crime story, or a Western, a Romance, or a Fantasy. But what about this
internal self critic? Do we need it? Of course we do, otherwise our writing
skills will remain static and never improve. What we don’t need is the benign
self critic to become the Demon Self Critic, under-cutting confidence in our
own ability by dripping derogatory sarcasm into our ear each time we place a
noun or comma in a sentence. Never forget, writing is supposed to be
enjoyable. So enjoy! First
Lines 1 He stood on the opposite pavement, a tall man in a
calf-length overcoat 2 The scent of the sweet peas was overpowering 3 She didn’t look anything like he expected 4 ‘Do that once more,’ I warned 5 Johnson laid across the corner of the crumpled bedding 6 I walked to work today 7 The wall felt sticky beneath my palm 8 The gate holds a hand-painted sign 9 ‘So, do you want to come, then?’ 10 A mother’s love doesn’t change 11 The ringing phone filled her with dread 12 Mrs Jeffries’ house is a receptacle for the bizarre 13 Jocelyn Armby liked to be frightened 14 Furniture was sparse, but elegant 15 He paused on the staircase, the smell igniting memories 16 I am a fox 17 The whistle was so loud and so shrill 18 One was missing 19 I knew what I’d done as soon as the door closed 20 The wind was exhilarating 21 All that was visible was the tail 22 ‘Hello,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’ 23 I remember the day 24 Her gaze followed me across the room 25 My mother never 26 ‘Do you come here often?’ 27 It wasn’t that bad, not really 28 Closing my eyes, I pushed my nose into the bag of © Linda Acaster A version of this article
appeared in the UK magazine Writers’ Forum | Home | FAQ
| Tips & Links | Articles | Email | |