you already have everything you need
a few quick tips for writing when it's hard + November intentions
Welcome to Write More! This is the monthly intentions email, which goes out the last Sunday before a new month starts. Last month, we talked about reconnecting with what you love about your writing practice. This month, I’m sharing some quick tips for writing when life is hectic.
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Hello there! I am deep into structural revisions of The Good Mother Myth, and, depending on the day, I’m either really excited about how it’s all coming together, or I’m panicking about how I’m ever going to get it done. I have lots to share about the revision process on a big project, complex project like this (so many words! so much research!), but right now, I need to, uh, do the work. I thought today I’d share an old post (from this newsletter’s earliest days as a semi-regular column elsewhere) and some of the strategies and resources that are helping me get my work done and slightly keep it together during this busy season.
Quick Fix
Four practical tricks, if you’re feeling stuck, plus a slightly more philosophical bonus tip.
When it’s hard to get started:
Set a Timer
Having hours and hours to write, uninterrupted, is magic, but if you don’t have that now (most of us don’t, now or ever), do what you can with what you have. Set a timer for ten or fifteen minutes, and see what you can do. I have the browser extension “tomato clock,” and it counts down in 25 minute chunks, or pomodoros; seeing the time moving can be very motivating.
A quick example: last week, my older son was distraught about his art assignment and how complicated it was and how it was going to take him forever, and I told him to just set a timer and work on it for ten minutes and then, whatever he had done in that time, he could turn in and move on with his day. (Read: play Minecraft.) He worked for ten minutes, showed me how much he’d done, and then happily continued. A small amount of time – ten minutes or fifteen – is enough to get you started and often to overcome the inertia of not-writing.
A timer works especially well for showing you how much you can get done in limited time. If you only have 10 minutes, you can still use those 10 minutes to write. Victoria Chang wrote Barbie Chang in her car while waiting for her children at language classes and school pickup.
when you’re feeling stuck in the middle of a project:
Switch writing medium
If you’re lost in the morass of a word document, it can help to switch medium. A printed draft is easier to grapple with and mark up; you can cut it, tape it back together, and scrawl in the margins. I often find that if I can see the whole thing at once, as a set of pages spread out on the bed or taped to a wall, I can see where I’m circling the same idea or where I’ve managed to avoid, even over 6000 words, saying the thing I’m really trying to say. An example: Katie Gutierrez, whose novel More Than You’ll Ever Know is forthcoming in 2022, shared this picture recently of a printed draft of her book along with scissors, pen, and tape, an old-school cut and paste. [ed. note: the book is so great, and I’m buying a couple copies of the paperback for Christmas gifts! if you’ve got a reader in your life who’s into smart true crime, it’s a great choice.]
And sometimes even getting started in a Word doc can feel too hard. When I was writing my dissertation, the word doc often felt really high stakes, like I am writing A Chapter, so it has to be Good. (This is why I never write in nice notebooks – too much pressure!) Instead, I did a lot of drafting in Evernote, where you’re just opening a new “note” rather than starting with a fresh, official Word doc. The interface in Evernote was unfamiliar enough that I could tell myself I was just taking notes, just jotting down ideas. Then, I’d print out all scribbly Evernote “notes” and have text to work with for revision.
If the blank screen itself is stressing you out, switch to hand-writing. If a whole notebook page is too much, I’ll try a post-it or an index card. Sometimes I need more space, so I’ll use the large post-its I have taped to my wall to outline a project and see the connections.
when you’re struggling to clarify your ideas
Talk about it (even if it’s only to yourself)
When you’re writing, you’re working to communicate something, whether you’re telling a story, or figuring out a problem, or making an argument. But it’s easy to get so stuck in the particulars of word choice or so lost in the steps of a complicated argument that you lose sight of what you’re actually trying to say.
I used to share writing regularly with a good friend from grad school, and when I was getting ready to send something to her, I’d find places where what I’d written wasn’t as sharp as I wanted, or where I wanted her help. I’d start by opening a comment box and writing, “what I’m trying to say here is . . .” and, often as not, what I’d write, after I started talking to the version of my friend I’d conjured up, was what actually needed to go in the essay, so I’d just cut and paste from that comment box into the main document.
Talking to someone – even if it’s just yourself, even if it’s an imagined reader in the margins – is one of the quickest ways to get unstuck. Try explaining what you’re saying out loud, or record yourself with your phone or laptop. You can use the comments in a digital file; starting with “what I’m trying to say here is . . .”
When the words finally come:
Say Yes
One of my favorite moments from last summer’s #1000wordsofsummer series was Carmen Maria Machado’s discussion of how she’s taught her brain to make more ideas. In that newsletter, Machado wrote that she’s never struggled with writer’s block
because I am constantly nursing my obsessions: reading about what excites and interests me, rejecting ideas of high- and low-brow, letting myself indulge in narrative pleasures however and wherever they appear. And I’m constantly stumbling across ideas: riding the trolley, walking through my city, reading books, driving, cleaning. And the minute they come to me—no matter what I’m doing—I write them down.
It’s that final part – recording the ideas – that really matters. If you have an idea, if you have a sentence, if an image or a voice arrives to you, record it. Teach your brain that those words matter, and you’ll also teach your brain to make more of them. Sometimes this means pausing mid-run to type something into a google doc on your phone, or getting out of bed as you’re falling asleep to capture the sentences that have finally aligned when your brain relaxed. This summer, I’d been working on an article for a week straight and was in the horrible phase of drafting where I was sure I was just too stupid to get it all to come together, when, at bedtime one night, my brain finally clicked it all together. The words were running through my head, and while I might have sometimes told myself I’d remember it the next day, during my real writing time, I’d just read Machado’s newsletter, and I got up and wrote, and that nighttime drafting became my Poets & Writers article about revising a poetry manuscript.
If you’re feeling down:
You have everything you need
This final tip is more of a mental reframe than a writing tip. It’s easy, especially with the way writing circulates online, to confuse writing with publishing, and to always feel like everyone else is doing more and having more success than you are. But the reception of your work – by editors, by readers, by reviewers and people who screen for fancy prizes – is largely out of your hands as a writer.
And more than that, it’s not your job.
It’s your job to write the best poem or essay or story or book that you can. It’s your job to make the weird gorgeous thing that only you can make. And here’s the thing: chances are, no one asked you for your writing.
You already have everything you need. As writers, our materials are simple: pen, paper, laptop. Maybe post-it notes and colored pens, if you’re feeling fancy. Time.
No one has to publish your book or buy it or review it in The New York Times. But that’s also a gift. You don’t need anyone’s permission or approval to do your work. No one owes you and your writing anything. No one can stop you, either.
and two encouragements from elsewhere
on the good-enough draft. (she’s writing specifically about academic manuscripts, but she includes four questions that I think are a great gut-check for all writers) on How Imperfect Action Can Help You Get Sh*t Done, which I read this week at just the right time; her message about “bravery and a beginner’s mind” was just the reassurance I needed, so maybe it will help you, tooNovember intentions
One question to guide you as you think about your writing life this month:
What can you do to make your writing easier this month? What might you do to bring more pleasure to your writing practice?
This might be a kind of technical thing—maybe you’re going to just record a bunch of ideas in a little notes doc, or in a voice memo on your phone, or maybe you’re going to stash a couple notebooks in all your bags and on your bedside table so you never have an excuse to not jot down the thing you’re thinking. It might also be a reframe of what you expect from yourself. You’re probably not going to get to a perfect draft1 of anything before Thanksgiving. And perfect is overrated, anyway. If you set aside the dream of perfect, what might you work toward instead?
What does your writing life look like this month? What are you doing to bring more ease and pleasure into this busy season? I’d love to hear your good ideas!
this month in Write More . . .
✨ “you will find your way, because the pull of your creative work will continue to be there,” a good creatures interview with poet and health and parenting writer Wendy Wisner
🗨 we had great chats about rest and ways to pep yourself up
🥳️ on my birthday, I shared a prompt about finding pleasure in writing
✨ “caregiving has given me a stronger belief in my creative capabilities,” a good creatures interview with novelist and podcaster
✏️ poet Heather Bowlan described using erasure and collage to inject play and experimentation into her writing practice
✨ “remain open to the ways you will evolve to become a different kind of creative person with new rhythms,” a good creatures interview with poet Eugenia Leigh
and an upcoming reading!
if you’re in the Philly area, I’ll be reading at Tattooed Mom on Tuesday, November 14, along with Claudia Cortese and Raena Shirali to celebrate the release of Erin Hoover’s new book, No Spare People. (I haven’t read Erin’s new book yet but am excited to get a copy. Here’s the description: From poems about finding autonomy as a queer, unpartnered parent by choice in the South to those chronicling a generation's economic instability, Hoover rejects so-called "acceptable losses" stemming from inequalities of gender, race, and class. The book asks, what happens to the woman no longer willing to live a lie? Doesn’t that sound like a book you need to read?) I’d love to see you there.
and a chance to write together this winter . . .
I’ll be leading a poetry incubator workshop at this year’s Murphy Writing Winter Getaway, this January 12-15, 2024, near Atlantic City, NJ. I’ve gone to the Getaway for years, as both a participant and a workshop leader, and it’s really a special place—welcoming and supportive for writers at all stages of their writing lives. (Several of the poems in Pocket Universe had their start at the Getaway!) I’d love to have you join my workshop—and there are so many other great workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, songwriting, playwriting and more. You can read more and register at stockton.edu/wintergetaway
Write More, Be Less Careful is a newsletter about why writing is hard & how to do it anyway. I’d love to hear from you. Reply to this email, comment below, or find me on instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).
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I read something really beautiful this week about not trying to make writing perfect and how the imperfections can be what makes writing great. Anyone know where that was?
I'm going to devote November to reading a lot of poetry, with a notebook next to me, so I can jot down words and phrases that I love. I'm shifting from a fiction project to a poetry one, so I think/hope this deep dive into the poems of others, and this focus on "gathering" language, will be a fun and fruitful way of getting back into writing my own poems. And even if it doesn't, I'll still have read a ton of poetry :)
Thank you-this was really helpful!