The Hardest Thing All Writers Have To Learn

Here’s a list about how writers go about their task of writing - and I generated this with prompts via Claude.AI. And this btw is the kind of task that AI is perfectly suited for. If this was a scholarly piece though, I’d make sure I had links and quotes to back up all the bullet points:

• J.K. Rowling wrote the early Harry Potter books in longhand at cafés, famously drafting parts of the first novel on napkins.

• George R.R. Martin wrote portions of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series using an older DOS word processor, but has mentioned writing some sections longhand when he wants to slow down his thought process.

• Stephen King famously doesn't outline his stories, preferring what he calls the "situational" approach where he starts with a scenario and discovers the story as he writes it.

• Jeffery Deaver creates extensive 80+ page outlines before beginning his novels, meticulously planning every plot point, twist, and character arc.

• James Patterson creates detailed outlines (sometimes 60-80 pages long) that map out the entire story, and then has co-authors draft the chapters based on these outlines.

• Ryan Holiday employs a methodical note-card system inspired by Robert Greene, meticulously collecting and organizing ideas, quotes, and anecdotes on physical index cards stored in boxes—he then arranges these cards to form the skeleton of his books, allowing him to develop connections between seemingly disparate concepts and historical examples.

• Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up at a custom-made desk, working intensely in the early mornings when his mind was freshest, following a strict daily word count (typically 500 words), and employing his famous "iceberg theory" of writing—deliberately keeping his prose spare and understated while leaving deeper meanings implicit beneath the surface, then ending each day's work mid-sentence or mid-paragraph to ensure an easy starting point for the next morning.

About the only thing that these writers have in common is….that they write. And they have their own process of writing. That works for them. Something I’ve never read much about, or seen taught much.

So let’s dive into this.

Here’s a video from screenwriter Glenn Gers (and nope, I’ve not heard of him either):

At around the 6.25 mark in the video, Glenn was asked how (writers) could find an enjoyable writing process for themselves. Here’s part of his answer…but you should watch the next three minutes or so of the video from that question:

The first important thing about this process is recognizing that it’s yours. There is not a right or wrong way. Some people write at night, some people write in the day, some people write in short bursts, some people write in long extended bursts.

There is no particular better or worse process.

An important thing about a process is that it’s something that you can do relatively easily for whatever reason it works for you and that means you have to spend time paying attention to yourself, trying different things, seeing which ones work and which ones don’t work and being really honest.

Glenn describes his own process like this:

I write well in very short bursts. I thought I should do more because when writing in short bursts it’s like Holy Crap! If I can keep doing this for eight hours I’d be a miracle! But I can’t and I would sit there and grind after the burst was running down…grind and not only would that be unproductive and disheartening but I would then start to undo my good work because when you start to grind in a bad way, you start to doubt, you start to feel bad….it took me a long time to pay attention to the fact that I do really well in short bursts and if I stop when I feel myself starting to lose it and take a break, take a walk, do exercises (whatever) I can then come back and do another short burst.

Getting myself to sit down again is rough but that is the thing I had to teach myselfin paying attention to what worked. I’ve gotten much more productive since I’ve learned my process.

And:

It’s not for everyone.

I’d love to tell you there’s a mail order shop in a run down section of Soho where you can order a writing process that you can use the way you might mod a character in your favourite video game. Of course that’s not only sarcastic, but it’s also a cheap knock off of Harlan Ellison’s answer to where he found his best ideas:

My answer is always the same – since there is no answer to this query. At least neither Plato nor Socrates nor Shakespeare could make the codification. When some jamook asks me this one (thereby revealing him/herself to be a person who has about as much imaginative muscle as a head of lettuce), I always smile prettily and answer, “Schenectady.”

And when the jamook looks at me quizzically, and scratches head with hairy hand, I add: “Oh, sure. There’s a swell Idea Service in Schenectady; and every week I send ‘em twenty-five bucks; and every week they send me a fresh six-pack of ideas.”

And wouldja believe it…there is always some demento who asks me for the address.

Talking of Harlan Ellison…here’s a message to Substack (and social media in general): Pay The Fucking Writers:

Tangent over….back to our sheduled program.

So if you can’t mod yourself or download a writing process, or buy it from The Idea Service in Schenectady, how can you develop your own writing process?

The answer is the reason that there are so few original writers: you have to develop it by trial and error. Which means: writing a lot.

Let’s look at this through the lens of ‘a million words of crap.’

The basic thesis of the need to write ‘a million words of crap’ is this:

• To learn how to write, you have to write.

• A lot of that early writing will be crap.

• You have to power through your million words of crap to emerge as a writer.

• The suggested ‘incubation’ period for a million words of crap is around three to four years.

If I put my Deliberate Practice Hat on….and yes, that is actually a thing, it’s not a metaphor…I know this isn’t true. For example no aspiring classical pianist is taught that they have to play a million scales badly and they’ll suddenly develop into acomplished musicians.

Sidebar: I use classical piano as an example often because the teaching system has been battle tested and refined over 250 years and if you follow the system with a teacher, correct the mistakes along the way, the system is guaranteed to turn out a musician who can play classical music to a reasonable level. Every time. So if you’re interested in learning how to learn…study the classic piano method of teaching.

So - with my Deliberate Practice Hat still on - it’s possible to use deliberate practice (and deliberate play) and take someone who is not a particularly good writer and turn them into a decent writer in 12 months. No doubts in my mind about that.

But where the million words of crap analogy is useful - especially in your early writing days - is to help you find your writing process.

And so we’re all clear, here’s my definition of a writing process: a defined set of steps that allow you to write your target number of words every day. Whether that’s 500 words. Or 5000 words.

Your early writings should be focused on just one element: does this help me become the kind of writer I want to be in terms of quantity? (Start with quantity….quality comes later.) And you should experiment with different styles of writing as to what works best for you.

You might know the answers to some of these questions already….if so, that’s a good thing. If you’re not sure….experiment!

• What’s the best (possibly most natural) way for you to write? Longhand? On a keyboard? Dictation?

• Are you an outliner or a discovery writer? (Or some combination of both?)

• When is the best time for you to write? Is it early morning or late night? Or in the middle of the day? Find your best time, and create a Golden Hour. (See Issue #70: Why Every Writer Needs A Golden Hour for this).

• Do you write best with writing music? or silence? If writing music, what’s the best kind of writing music for you? Stephen King writes with loud rock pumping. Peter Straub writes with jazz. There are writers who use soundtrack music that echoes the emotion that they’re trying to capture at that particular point. Experiment.

• Do you write in flow? (If not, research and experiment.)

• Does free writing first thing in the morning help?

• What ‘everyday events’ distract you? Keep a ‘distraction diary.’ Ruthlessly eliminate those. Turn your phone off. Turn the internet off. Have a computer that’s only for writing. Or write in a notebook by hand.

• How do you keep your ‘idea well’ filled so that you never run out of things to write? And you’re always exposed to new ideas, new concepts, new visuals?

If you’re already a writer - as in, you regularly produce some amount of writing - then audit your process. Work out what helps you get words on paper. And what stops you.

What you’re looking for is to develop a repeatable process that will support you for the next 10 days. And then the next 10 weeks. And then the next 10 months? And yep, then the next 10 years.

It’s the hardest thing about being a writer.

And it’s the one thing that every working writer has in common: they’ve all developed their own writing process that they rely on to get words on the page.

Even when you find a process that works, there’s no reason that process has to be set in stone. And can’t be experimented with and optimized further.

For example, I almost never write long hand. And most of my writing is done on the keyboard. But some days I find that my first writing session is not going well…so I take my B4LF for a walk and dictate for at least 10 minutes.

Then when I get home, and after I’ve put food down for the dog, I import that text to my writing documents and edit it. And chop it around and get it into shape. By the time those 500 words or so are refined…my writing muscle is fired up and back in action.

And if I can’t write at the computer for some reason…I’ll make sure I dictate so I’ve got words on the page. Even if those words are shitty or verbose (which dictated words for me are).

So while the first priority is to find a process that works and is repeatable….you can carry on experimenting and refining. If you’ve already got a process - and it works for you - that’s great. If you haven’t….that’s the task you should spend the next six months or more working out.

Once you’re getting words on paper on a consistent basis…everything flows from there.

Although I enjoy writing these newsletters at the kitchen table every Sunday morning…I’m becoming more and more disillusioned with Substack and most social media. I’ve mentioned before that I’m moving off Substack. That time is coming closer. Maybe more about that next week.