Writing "Rules" or Writing "Process"?
Just get in the "Zone" and Write
A woman messaged me the other day. She was distraught and filled with questions.
“I have some great ideas but I can't write anything. When I sit in front of my computer screen, all I can think about is what are the writing rules I should follow? Is there something I need to know about the whole process of writing?”
I don’t know who put that idea in her head. It sounds like it came from someone who’s jealous of her abilities, or someone who plainly doesn’t want her to write at all.
I told her she wasn’t missing anything, because there’s nothing to miss. There’s nothing need to know about writing. There is also no writing process, or writing rules to be followed.
Write, because you love it. Write because writing satisfies something in you. Write when an idea feels important and you’re filled with a need to share what you know.
This may go against what other writers might say or think, but when you write, just write —damn everything else, most importantly, your own self-doubts. That’s the last thing you need to worry about.
Nothing else should matter when you’re in the heat of writing —when in your writer “zone”.
Later, when you’re done writing go back and edit. That’s when you’ll polish it and make it glow. That’s when you can check your punctuation, paragraphs, and run spellcheck over it.
To me, the most important parts of writing are … #1. Your inspiration and #2. Writing about it.
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Reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg destroyed my desire for writing rules. I now can sit anywhere and write.
If you're full of self-doubt then write about your self-doubt.
Write about what blocks you - that's the golden rule. And when everybody does that then the golden *will* rule.