Practice

One of the reasons that I decided to start this blog was as a form of practice for writing. It is easy to get into the mindset that what you are writing is important and should be your best work - and I can see reasons for striving for that, but most of the time what you write won't be your best work and frankly won't be that important. But if you don't do the work of writing that is either unimportant or your best work it is unlikely that you'll ever arrive at your best work.

Putting in time in front of my notebook or in front of the computer can be difficult. You want to write when inspiration is hitting you hard and it is easy for the words to come out of you, but more often than not when you first sit down that isn't the case. I used to often sit down and stare at the blank page willing something great to come out of me. Once I realized that I didn't need to let greatness always be escaping my brain it got easier to start, but not always. I'd still have days where I just wasn't ready to write when I sat down. And if I don't have time scheduled to write than I'm probably not going to get there. I only have so much time in the day and so I need to not only schedule my time to write, but also to make it is as productive as possible. So what to do?

Warm-Up Exercises

One of the ideas that hit me was that in most things I do there is a small period of warm-up where I am not actually in the process of working yet but I am getting there. In sports or exercise, I usually have a pretty clear warm-up routine I don't want to start off with cold muscles because I know I won't get the best performance. It is also a way to get my brain cued into the space I want to be in to perform those actions.

But writing feels different. I mean how do you warm up for writing? Well, I guess in the same way you would for sports, by doing similar but scaled down versions of how you want to perform. Writing something that you either plan on deleting or that you aren't going to share with anyone (I prefer just filing it away because you can sometimes still get gems out of prewriting). I'm often not even prewriting about anything that I am planning on working on that day. Frequently I'll just start off with a little bit of journaling and see where that will take me. But other times I'll need to a little more guidance in my prewriting and that's where I like to do some rough outlining. Where do I want this piece to go? What kinds of things do I want it to say?

But really the greatest part about this step is that it is just for you. This is where I like practicing intentional mistakes. I've realized that life as a perfectionist is a lie - nothing is perfect so I shouldn't pretend that I'm striving for that kind of work. This doesn't mean that I should produce low quality work, but only that high quality work and perfection are not the same thing. That is to say that I can produce high-quality work without worrying if it is perfect. Because it won't be perfect, there is no such thing. And so I practice not being perfect now. I'm not going to lie, it felt dumb and painful at first. I'd fill my daily planner out with different color pens - which I know sounds to some people like nothing at all, but was a big first step for me. And not a big step in that I was allowing more color into my life, but rather that I was going to be okay with things not being "just so".

I don't want to intentionally put mistakes into what I'm writing but I've also got to be okay with things not always being "perfect". There is always going to be more to correct, better ways to say things - and you can even go overboard and make stuff much worse with your editing. This is another wonderful thing about blogging. You've got to just put stuff up sometimes. It might have a few warts on it, but that's okay. You can't endlessly polish that turd.

So prewriting can help me develop that mindset - and after spending quite a bit of time developing these habits I find that I don't rely on them nearly as much. I sat down to write this piece and thought about doing some journaling but my journal is all the way... wait no it is right there next to my desk, I don't even have to move to grab it. Well, that's okay. I'll do some post-writing journaling I suppose - journaling is a habit that I am trying to develop a little bit more.

But I think it is also important to note that prewriting isn't the only thing that is important to making writing an easier practice to sink into. One of the most important things I've found is to make sure that my writing area is ready for me. If my desk is covered with papers and I can't easily get settled in that is a problem. I'm either going to get distracted by something I don't need to be doing right then or spend time cleaning up my writing station when I'm supposed to be writing.

I recently started the book Work Clean by Dan Charnas which is about the culinary term mise-en-place and how it can be applied to life outside the chef's kitchen. A quick idea of what mise-en-place is is simply gathering everything you need for what you are cooking that day and having it prepared and ready to go when you need it. Of course, that doesn't do it justice, but there is an entire book dedicated to the idea so I don't one sentence will ever get the entirety across. But this is a great idea for when you are getting yourself ready to write. Is the area you going to write clean and clear of distractions? Are you going to listen to music? Do you know what music? Do you have headphones? Do you have any references you are going to need? Is your cellphone set to do-not-disturb? Do you have water or snacks you want to have while you are working? This list goes on. But coming into a writing session prepared is going to make life so much easier than having to get up 20 times because you want to grab your headphones but the ones you like are across the room.

Mise-en-place also pairs well with another idea I've come across called Clear to Neutral. In fact, if I remember correctly clear to neutral was inspired by the culinary world as well so it may come from the idea of mise-en-place. The idea behind clear to neutral is that you want your work station to be ready when you come to work at it so you clear it to a basic state where you won't be distracted beforehand, like cleaning off a cutting board. For me, it just means doing the prep work well ahead of time. It is something that I'm still working on as I often let my desk accumulate things that simply don't need to be there, but don't really have any other place to go.

There are a lot of things that you can do for your writing practice, but for me the most important things I've found are scheduling the time to write and then being prepared to use that time so that you don't squander it.