What are your bare necessities?

“The hardest part of writing is writing,” said the legendary Nora Ephron. To me, the hardest thing about writing is getting started.

Word count: 303                       Reading time: 1-2 minutes

When I finally get down to work, the walls recede, the rat stops gnawing the door, and I forget everything but the characters in front of me. Why is it so difficult to get out of the starting gate? Are there physical things that draw a person to the desk? Over the past week, I made a list of things that seemed essential to writing on different days:

• a cup of green tea
• a mug of strong coffee
• a glass of wine
• none of the above – water only, please
• a tidy desk
• a desk heaped with notes and reference material
• a free writing warm-up
• jumping right in
• a good pen and a friendly notebook
• a laptop
• sunshine
• rain
• reading a couple of poems aloud, listening to the diction, tripping out on the images, enjoying the poet’s playfulness
• reading no poetry
• a quiet corner
• music
• complete silence
• incense
• open windows and fresh air

So the list revealed nothing more than the lack of a magic formula. In the end, the main thing that gets me working is a looming deadline, usually a self-imposed one. Without it I could and would avoid the pain and the joy forever. After all: writing is 90% procrastination, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It’s a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. ~ Paul Rudnick

What makes you get started? Do you have a favourite spot that gets your story spinning? Or do you like variety, somewhere new every time? Do you have routines or physical comforts that that entice you to work?

Comments

[lynn crymble]

somebody said there were three secrets to writing. I just can't remember who or what they were.

[Maggie Bolitho]

I've come to the conclusion that's there's only one real secret to writing and that is 'do it'. I'm quite good at doing many other things while thinking about writing.

At least I'm thinking about it!

Maggie

[Allison]

I wish I knew the three secrets Lynn mentioned. I really could have used them today. I worked for hours and never really accomplished much.

[Maggie Bolitho]

Oh that awful feeling of spinning your wheels! But it's as much a part of the process as writing in a blind fury when the words pour out.

I've had those dark hours and then, when I've gone back to the novel the next day, I've found that the tiresome excavation opened a road to somewhere else, somewhere I hadn't even seen before.

I hope today's work points you in a wonderful direction tomorrow.

Maggie