The Best Productivity Skills of Famous Writers
Contrary to our romanticized notions, writers don’t just sit all day drinking coffee and scotch and waiting for inspiration. As with any job, they need to be disciplined and productive. While it takes a lot of coffee, it also takes hard work. This is how some famous authors held on to the whetstone.
Getting started
It’s not just writers; we all tried our best to create something from scratch . It can get tedious looking at a blank page, spreadsheet, or presentation. Striving to create something amazing makes the process harder than it should be.
Toni Morrison: Change Your Definition of Failure
In an interview with the National Endowment for the Arts, writer Toni Morrison spoke of the failure. When you change your mind about it, she says, getting the job done becomes much easier :
Pay very close attention to failure rather than getting depressed, nervous, or ashamed. As a writer, failure is just information … I admit failure is important; some people don’t do it – and they correct it, because it’s data, it’s information, knowledge of what doesn’t work. This is why writers need rewriting and editing … You have to define the procedure and what went wrong, and then fix it. If you think of writing simply as information, you can get closer to success.
This is good advice not only for writing, but for any project. When you are afraid to start, it is usually because you are afraid of failing. When you think of failure as a necessary part of the process , you have the motivation to start because failure has a place and purpose.
Also, when you reimagine failure as “gathering information,” you are looking at your work objectively and analytically, which makes it easier to improve.
John Steinbeck: focus on the system, not the goal
It is sometimes difficult to start because your project is so large that it is difficult to imagine that you will ever finish. Here’s a trick by John Steinbeck to make a huge goal more digestible:
Give up the thought that you will ever be finished. Forget 400 pages and only write one page a day, it helps. When the work is over, you are always surprised.
Write freely and as quickly as possible, and drop everything on paper. Never fix or rewrite until everything is out of order. The rewriting process is usually seen as a reason for rejection. It also interferes with flow and rhythm, which can only arise from some unconscious association with the material.
In other words, focus on the system , not the final product. Steinbeck thinks it also helps break down your work into smaller steps .
Neil Gaiman: “You learn by finishing things.”
Perfectionism is another reason we have a hard time getting started. We analyze our work to death because it has to be perfect, then we are paralyzed and never start at all , or we give up the project halfway through. Neil Gaiman has some great advice on how to beat perfectionist procrastination:
When people come to me and say, “I want to be a writer, what should I do?” I say that you have to write. And sometimes they say, “I’m already doing this, what else can I do?” And I say that you have to follow through … You learn by completing something.
Of course, there is a reason to give up things . However, when you finish something, even if it is not perfect, you will gain valuable experience. You know what works and what needs to be fixed. It will be easier next time.
About staying focused
Once you start, you have to continue, and that takes discipline. You need to deal with distractions, even if you’ve stopped working and lost your initial motivation . Here’s how three famous authors did it.
Zadie Smith: Cut Off Distractions
At The Guardian, writer Zadie Smith provides some simple, practical advice to writers. But this applies to almost everyone:
Work on a computer disconnected from the Internet.
I stumbled upon this in-flight trick myself when I couldn’t connect to wifi. I was working on an assignment offline and was surprised how much faster I was able to complete it without periodically replying to emails or checking Twitter.
Obviously, if your job requires Internet access, this is not possible. The point is, if you want to focus, it helps you do your best to avoid distractions .
Jerry Seinfeld: Don’t break the chain
Software developer Brad Isaac recently told us this Jerry Seinfeld story :
He unveiled a unique calendar system that he uses to force himself to write. This is how it works. He told me to take a large wall calendar with one page showing the year and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to obtain a large red magic marker. He said that every day when I write my problem, I must mark this day with a big red cross. “In a few days you will have a chain. Just keep going and the chain will get longer every day. You will love this chain, especially when you have a few weeks behind you. Your next challenge is not to break the chain. ” “Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.
You can apply this tip to almost anything from writing a novel to starting a business. It helps nip procrastination in the bud with daily visual cues. It also plays an important role in your discipline.
Raymond Chandler: Write or miss
If you only work when you are inspired, chances are you will not do much. You should make time for your projects, even projects that require creative thinking.
The problem is that we often schedule time for our projects , but then we just don’t feel it, so we use that time to go for a walk, check email, call an old friend, or play with some other distraction.
Raymond Chandler reportedly had a rule about this. He set aside time in his schedule for writing, and if he didn’t write, his only recourse was to do nothing.
In other words, write or miss .
About protecting the writers’ block
Writers get writing emphasis, and if you’re in any other industry, you’ve probably come across something similar. It is just a mental block preventing progress. Maybe you are not inspired. Maybe you just burned out. Either way, here’s how several well-known authors have overcome these obstacles.
Coulson Whitehead: Adventures In An Embrace
Colson Whitehead’s advice on overcoming writer’s block is one of my favorites. In a satirical New York Times article, Whitehead suggests :
Adventure … Stay one step ahead. Come out and see the world. It won’t kill you if you trim it a little. Book passage by steamer. Rustle of dysentery; it’s only worth it for feverish dreams. Lose a kidney in a knife fight. You will be glad you did.
Obviously this is a satirical post, but it’s still good advice! I mean, you probably don’t want to get involved in a knife fight, but taking breaks can make you surprisingly more productive . For example, a study published in the Psychological Review found that the best violinists practiced no more than 90 minutes at a time, took breaks in between, and slept for 20-30 minutes in the afternoon.
Plus, when you step out of your comfort zone and agree with things , you find other, smarter ways to work. It’s also easier to brainstorm and use your creativity. You are learning new things and challenging your confirmation bias .
Ernest Hemingway: Stop Mid-Sentence
If you like the conclusion, this tip can be difficult, but it is incredibly effective: Stop writing in the middle of a sentence . Or, if you’re not a writer, stop while you’re aware of what you’re doing. As Ernest Hemingway put it :
The best way is to always stop when you are doing well and when you know what will happen next. If you do this every day … you will never get stuck. Always stop while you are doing well, and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start writing the next day. Thus, your subconscious mind will constantly work on it. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it, you will kill him and your brain will get tired even before you start.
You don’t have to literally stop in the middle of a sentence; it is more like the middle of an idea while you are in the middle of your flow. This trick also makes it much easier to get started when you return to your work. You get rid of the pressure of a blank page and you can get started right away.
Ann Enright: Imagine Your Death To Find A Problem
Sometimes we get stuck when we feel disconnected from work. Maybe you’re writing a book and you don’t think it’s worth writing anymore. Maybe the project you were working on now seems silly. Here’s a trick that author Anne Enright suggests to overcome such a block :
Imagine that you are dying. If you had an incurable disease, would you finish reading this book? Why not? What annoys this “me” with 10 weeks left to live is what is wrong with the book. So change that. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Light. And nobody was supposed to die.
I like this idea because you are not leaving the project; you understand what’s wrong with that. Instead of giving up, think about why the project isn’t working or you don’t care, and then continue. Thus, he will be left out of this large pile of unfinished projects.