An Alternative Approach to "Just Write"

An Alternative Approach to "Just Write" (self.writing)

submitted 6 hours ago * by Manjo819

I have no credentials.

I've struggled with the advice to "Just Write" for a long time, and have recently found more success with it.

I'd like to share my perspective.

When a seasoned author receives questions on how to improve productivity, it makes a lot of sense for them to recommend 'just writing'. They have practice constructing passages. They have an idea, whether through training or instinct, of what goes into a good opening sentence, what kind of arc a passage wants to take, how soon the setting needs to be described. To such people 'just writing' is an action comprising much more than simply putting pen to paper.

Most of us are not these people.

I tried and failed recently to teach my younger sibling to drive. I wanted to start her off with what to me was a single easy movement from one parking space to the next. To her, of course, this meant foot on the clutch (left pedal), stick into first gear (top left), foot on accelerator (but just the right amount), slowly release clutch, try not to shit yourself at that jerk you weren't expecting, keep pressure on pedals uniform, foot on clutch again, apply brakes (but gently). Beyond the difficulty of trying to hold all these steps in her head, she hadn't yet been told what they were, nor how many.

If you've ever sat down to just write and found yourself staring at that smug little blinking line wondering where the feck to start, you can probably understand how she felt. The thing is that as with driving a manual you don't need to learn where to start solely by trial and error. You can watch how other people do it, you can ask them, or you can google it.

The allegory of the driving lesson ends here as there is only one way (to my knowledge) to drive a car. The question of how to 'just write' can't be answered as specifically. Everyone is going to have a different process. What I would like to propose, though, is that 'just writing' is significantly less futile if you equip yourself with some idea of what your process is going to be.

Let's focus on the first couple dozen characters behind that smug blinking line: Let's take a look at your opening sentence:

"'People are afraid to merge on freeways in Los Angeles'" (Less Than Zero)

This is a fairly straightforward example of an opening sentence that performs at least the triple function of introducing theme (fear, disconnection), characterising setting (LA as urban metropolis, rather than beach-side paradise for example) and initiating action (it's the beginning of a conversation).

Do you want to introduce theme, setting and action in your own opening sentence?

If yes, were you thinking about it last time you sat down to 'just write'?

You don't have to have this specific idea in mind to do so, but you'll get a lot further if you have an idea in general. Acquiring these ideas can be difficult, there aren't many people who'll stop you in the street to talk about how the opening passage of Fight Club (deliberately or not) compounds the 'narrative vertigo' effect of In Medias Res with the literal vertigo of leaning over the edge of a building to achieve the overall effect of 'really throwing you into the action'.

If you have trouble starting to write from nothing, try in a timely fashion to figure out some guidelines so that you're not really starting from nothing. A little planning goes a long way, though in the 'just write' spirit I do mean a little.

A lot of basic ideas about what you want you could answer yourself, if only you were asked the right questions. I would recommend asking yourself what you want to do with, among other things, your:

First chapter (eg. introduce main character, describe his living situation, hint at motivations for his coming actions so they seem believable)

First paragraph (eg. you want a progression from A to B within chapter 1, so you show the audience what point A is)

Opening sentence (eg. introduce main theme, convey main character's dissatisfaction with his job as a freight sorter, provide a basis for the point A you will elaborate on in the rest of the paragraph)

General theme/topic of discussion (your book is about grim perseverance, so in your opening sentence he's moving grumpily forward against some wind or some shit)

Character development (where do they start, where do they end, how do they get there, how do I show each of the above?)

Style (eg. you you hate it terribly when adverbs are used copiously and redundantly, so you substitute words that combine both intended meanings eg. ran angrily -> charged)

Once you have a few criteria in mind the task of 'just writing' becomes a whole lot less obscure.

The words "Just Write" fit into all this in the sense that if you spend your whole time deciding what you want to say, you will never actually say anything. If finding the perfect criteria for your opening sentence is going to take ten non-consecutive hours of brainstorming, then just find a single criterion and make a sentence around it. If you can't figure out what should happen between paragraph 1 and paragraph 3, write 1 and 3 and think about what's missing to get from one to the other. "Just Write" means that whatever else you are doing, if you are not applying pen to paper you are doing it wrong.

Also if you hate starting from page 1 try the Snowflake Method [https://proactivewriter.com/blog/see-how-easily-you-can-write-a-novel-using-the-snowflake-method] or something comparable.

I've seen a lot of posts here asking for more specific advice than 'just write' and the response has most often been 'just write, dude'. I've explained why I think people give this advice above and you're not wrong. This is just an alternative approach.

I am not under the illusion that I wrote this well.

TL;DR: Just Write means doing more than just scrawling on paper, it helps to have specific considerations, whether overt or instinctual, that shape your writing as it comes out. As you get more comfortable considering and scrawling at the same time, your definition of 'just writing' will expand.