Write About It

When you’re writing, sometimes things don’t go well. Words are clunky. Ideas don’t cohere. Data gets slippery; sources don’t say what you’d thought they said; characters show unexpected sides of themselves. Promising paths turn out to be dead ends.

What do you do?

Too often, the default reaction is either 1. to give up for the day and do something else that still feels like ‘work,’ or it’s 2. to avoid drafting anything new and just mess around with what’s already written until it’s time to stop.

These are usually not a good options. They feel too much like defeat.

Instead, you could tell yourself it’s a shitty first draft and carry on. Writing is not all sunshine and roses. Sometimes it’s just a slog.

Or you could say sod it, I’m going for a walk. Get yourself up out of your chair and head out to clear your head. Often, this is exactly what you need. The subconscious starts to work things out while you’re paying attention to birds, passersby, clouds.

And here’s a third excellent option: keep writing, but switch gears. Stop writing the thing and start writing about it.

Write about what you are struggling with, whether it’s a concept you’re questioning, an argument you can’t get straight, a character whose motivation you’re questioning, some data that isn’t doing what you thought, some literature you’re not confident in, some dialogue that’s not ringing true, a fundamental uncertainty about what exactly you’re up to, or something else. Explore the challenge in writing. Brainstorm possible ways forward — things to read, structures to try, people to talk to, etc.

Or, write about how you feel about how things are going. Note your frustration, your doubt, your irritation, your disappointment, your distraction. Vent. Give voice to lurking thoughts. Make space for them and allow them. Naming the emotions that are present usually takes the wind out of their sails, or at least dials it down enough that you can reassess and adjust.

If you opt to switch from writing it to writing about it, you’ll usually find yourself with something to reflect on, a realisation, a fresh determination. And while you may feel disappointed that your writing time was not ‘productive’ in the usual sense, that disappointment will be balanced by a new understanding that lets you pick up and move forward tomorrow.

Plus, if you are someone who tends to avoid things when they get difficult, allowing yourself to write about it during writing time, and letting that count as writing, means there is no escape. You are almost tricking that part of you that wants to avoid or run away from writing by saying to it, throw all the tricks you can at me, dammit, I’m still going to write. Eventually it’ll give up, submit and let you get down to work.