Grasshopper #7: Productivity and Writing
It has nothing to do with inspiration
There is an idea out there that writers, and other creatives, have to wait for inspiration to do their best work. To be blunt, that is bullshit, just an excuse for not doing the work.
Inspiration comes from doing, not from thin air.
A lot of folks who don’t write for a living remember writing assignments in school where we struggled to fill up the two or three pages the teacher wanted. And we took away the idea that writing had something to do with that, a struggle.
I do not struggle with writing, and if you do, you’ll be happy to know it isn’t necessary. Everyone has their own pace, but I’m doing a lot of words daily and every one is a pleasure…while, not every one. But I have a secret: it’s called the Delete key, the magical button that fixes things.
So, if you write 500 words a day, let’s look at what happens if you do a thousand. It might change your life.
If it does, you can buy me a coffee.
First, Fix Your Process
The way you do things may be holding you back
Developing habits, or processes, can be a way to increase productivity by creating a ‘zone’ where your subconscious says, ‘this is the time to do this’.
It took me a long time to learn this, despite every book, video, and Ted talk on creativity and working as an artist. But, despite that, I’m going to join those advice channels and attempt that message again.
You have to refine your process.
I had plumbers in my place this week doing a nasty job, replacing a bathtub drain in an old building. There is no fun way to do that. It’s a dirty job involving sawing up old pipes, crawling around in tight places with filthy water falling on you and then putting it all back together again.
Believe me, these guys had their processes down because no one wants to make that crap take longer. Plumbing is an ancient profession and plumbers learn tricks of the trade handed down from generations before them, all to get the job done better and faster.
Writing is also an ancient profession. But too many writers don’t take advantage of the collective experience available to them.
This is not a links newsletter so I am not going to give you a list of writing resources. There are many lists out there and they are probably better than what I could provide. There are a lot of kinds of writing, just as there are a lot of kinds of writers. The writer who responds to Annie LaMott’s Bird By Bird might not find Stephen King’s On Writing to their taste. Though I would argue that both are important reads for any writer, even if you don’t write fiction.
My suggestion if you have a writing question or something that is holding you up (blocking), is to get specific. In other words, Google it. For example, I was curious whether the novelist Michael Ondaatje had a plot in mind or just went with the flow. I Googled ‘Michael Ondaatje writing process’.
It turned up a Paris Review interview where he went into detail about his process (he goes with the flow). I was stuck writing my first novel and basically needed permission to not have a clue where it was going. Google fixed me right up.
So sometimes a quick search can break a logjam. Searching is now a part of my writing routine, especially with my current events pieces (on medium.com/@martinedic).
When we talk about productivity and writing we are talking about forming habits. Again, there are many good sources for learning how to consciously create a habit. Mine is generally to write before noon and my word count has crept up to between 700 and 1500 words daily, seven days a week, unless I’m on vacation. But writing no longer feels like work so I’m likely to be writing regardless of where I am.
But the real driver behind that level of productivity is another cliche: practice. This morning I noticed that I had just published my 670th post on Medium. That is a little mind boggling and a little frightening. Mind boggling because I never set out to do anything like that. Frightening because there is the potential for this to just become an obsession!
I’m not really too concerned with that aspect because I genuinely enjoy it and especially seeing my skills improve and my voice develop. That’s part of the reason I’m doing The Grasshopper. When I write for Medium I have my Medium voice and pacing, choppier, more skimmable, very direct.
Here I’m musing a bit more. Some writers will advise you to be more Zen about it, to not think too much, just make that brushstroke that illuminates. I happen to be a Zen person and I can tell you that master did a lot of practice and thinking before he or she could make that simple stroke.
But what 670 articles did was get me to the point where I do not have to think too much about what I’m doing beyond the point I’m trying to make.
So, I guess I just have two obvious productivity tips. When in doubt, Google it. And write and publish a lot.
One thing about that last bit. Online writing gives writers something we never had. The ability to put our work out there with a few clicks and immediately start getting feedback from readers. Younger writers who have always had this probably don’t understand how miraculous it is, especially as you build a following.
The Specifics of My Writing Process
The nuts and bolts
I write on my iPad, but publish with my laptop. I do not use the apps. The software people always want to think their apps are better than browser versions. They are not. I cannot write in the Medium interface because it is unbearably slow on iOS.
I use Google Docs (browser version). It’s free, your work is automatically saved on multiple servers, and you can switch devices seamlessly.
The suggestions and spell check are pretty good and not too intrusive. I write fast and I do not want the word processor to get in the way. Unlike Word, which I genuinely hate, it does not have a thousand features I do not need.
I write about things in the news a lot of the time, so I seldom know ahead of time what I will be writing about. When I get a thread organized in my head, I open a doc and write the headline and subhead. Most of the time I dive right in and write the whole thing in one burst.
The really interesting thing about that is how I lose track of time. You go into a zone and when you’ve written your last line it feels a bit like coming up for air.
If I’m not quite ready to tackle the subject I do more research or just let it percolate until I feel like diving in.
If it can wait, I do not do a copy edit until the next day or later that day. During that edit I fix mistakes and change things to keep things moving. Pacing is the number one skill there is in writing. I can’t emphasize that enough.
When I’m ready I copy it and publish on Medium or Substack. Then I forget about it unless it starts to gain momentum with readers. I look at stats and primarily consider read ratio which is views vs. actual reads. I’m looking for 50% or better.
I know about how much a thousand views are worth so I don’t watch how much I’m making story by story. The reality is that you cannot predict which pieces are going to resonate and which will only get a few readers.
Fiction is different. I have to hold myself to a daily word count and just write anything to reach my number. I do not worry about what it is I’m writing, I have to trust my subconscious.
The most important thing is to realize you can fix, rewrite, or delete anything later. In fact, it is far better to not think about it if you can avoid it.
The two kinds of writing really access different parts of me. There is no crossover that I can tell except that more practice improves things across the board.
For me, when I hear about someone agonizing over writing I think they are thinking way too much. They are letting their conscious mind run things when the subconscious knows what it has to do.
As readers we can feel when a writer is thinking too much.
Want to get more productive? Write everyday and put it out there.