Writing with Executive Dysfunction (or how to lower the barrier of entry)
So you want to write a book, but all you have is a cool one-liner, a niche super power you want to explore, and the blurry image of a love interest with a two-syllable kind of name. You donโt know where to start, what to tackle first, how to jump in the deep end.
Can you write the ending first? What if you want this really cool gimmick in a fight scene but canโt write action to save your life? Do you start in media res or with a prologue, or with the character starting their daily routine? Do you write the villainโs POV first?
Or do you start with an outline, character sheets, a title, summary, your themes and motifs? How many pages and pages of worldbuilding notes should you have built up before youโre good to tackle the first page? Youโve heard time and again the critical importance of the first three sentences. The first chapter if your audience is generous.
The pressure mounts to be unique, but not try-hard, descriptive but not flowery, intriguing, but not confusing, all in the first hundred or so words. You sit there staring at the little blinking black line on your blank pageโฆ and the idea gets shelved for another day. It collects virtual dust in the backlogs of your computer, forgotten until you have to clear out space on your hard drive and stumble across unspent potential.
Everyone and their dog has their own bits of writing advice and Iโm sure Iโm about to echo tips that have been around the block once or twice, but there are a few I donโt see talked about enough.
Whether you suffer from severe procrastination, fear of failure before you even begin, the overwhelming limitlessness of choice, or just canโt sit down and dedicate any time to see what happens, this list might be for you.
This is nothing new, but Iโm going to tackle the implementation of such a habit over why itโs important. You already know why itโs important. Writing every day doesnโt demand a full page of a Word doc, or 200 words before you can get up and do something else. Sometime a witty dialogue exchange comes to mind while youโre doing dishes โ write that down.
Or you saw a cool name for a character in a commercial โ write that down.
Or you had a dream about your characters in a high-octane street chase โ write down the synopsis.
Personally, I use Apple Notes. Itโs free, I can log-in to iCloud through a browser and keep writing, and my phone is always with me. I have dedicated folders to sort which notes belong to which concepts.
Disclaimer: Apple Notes is meant for exactly that: Note taking. I take it to the extremes, but itโs not a word processer. Itโs not meant for anything more strenuous than putting virtual pen to virtual paper.
I build up so many variations of scene ideas and concepts for character arcs that my โnotesโ for any given book can be as long as a full-length novel. Most of the time, admittedly, those ideas get outdated fast as I move on to bigger and better things, but the point is this: I never would move on to better things if I didnโt have somewhere to start.
I have a personal grudge against OneDrive for a sync failure losing 20k words of a WIP, so most of my writing is done through Google Docs and saved to Google Drive. Itโs not the most powerful word processor, but you donโt have to worry about formatting until the very end and can export later. Itโs free, like Apple Notes (assuming you have an iPhone), and the smart phone app for Google programs works phenomenally better than the MS Word app โ so once again, the barrier for being within reach of places to jot down ideas is lowered. My phone is always with me.
It doesnโt have to be digital โ carry around a journal or a notebook or a legal pad if you want. Whatever gets your creative juices flowing. The point is to have somewhere to take all the ideas you have in your head and get them onto paper the moment inspiration strikes.
2. Writing is Supposed to be Fun
The dreaded writerโs block, scourge of authors everywhere. Youโve reached the point in your manuscript where youโve caught up to the epic adventure youโve written in your head. The little writer in your brain has gone on strike and youโre left in the doldrums of how to transition from one chapter to the next. One idea to the next. One scene, one line of dialogue.
Unless you have a hard deadline to make, writing is supposed to be fun. Your best work comes when youโre passionate about doing it, not when youโre holding your fingers hostage to put something on the page or else.
When you start getting frustrated, walk away. When you get stressed, walk away. The manuscript will still be there once youโve slept on it for a day or two and youโll be glad for it. Or, write a different scene. Write a hypothetical scene (more on this point later). Write anything you want and come back to the hard parts later. The gaps will fill eventually, and if they donโtโconsider what about that transition or scene is so hard and consider axing it entirely. If itโs frustrating for you, itโs probably boring or unimportant to the reader.
My favorite writerโs crutch is to make a skeleton of the scene I want to have, fill it with dialogue, and move on. The pretty thematic narrative can come later. Itโs halfway between an outline and a first draft and, for me, someone to whom dialogue comes easier than narrative, this is another barrier removed to letting creativity flow.
I donโt have to think about dialogue tags or movement of a scene or how exactly I want to structure a sentence or describe the setting. Scripting lets me sus out the pacing of a given scene, test run a conversation I have in my head to see if it might really work before investing all the time and effort of a fully fleshed out first draft, only to erase it all later.
You can do this mid-narrative, too. If you just want to skip over a couple lines that arenโt coming naturally to you, script a vague sense of stage directions until you get to easier narrative and come back later.
When I say scripting, mine look something like this:
Character A (ChA): [position within the setting, tone of voice, any notable gesture or action that enhances the dialogue] โDialogue.โ [specific dialogue tag, if necessary] โฆ (often a paragraph break) โฆ โDialogue.โ
Character B (ChB): โDialogue.โ [emotion, reaction, details about the setting that are now important, new revelations by the narrating POV] โฆ โDialogue,โ [action. Tonal shift. Movement]
ChA: โDialogue.โ [action]
โฆ (scene continues)
โฆ
ChA: [kicks back against the wall of the room, arms crossed. Annoyed, waiting for ChB to speak first, but they donโt] โWhy didnโt you tell me you wanted to leave?โ [head tilts, still waiting on an answer ChB isnโt giving] โAll you had to do was ask.โ
ChB: โYou were having fun,โ [quiet, wringing their hands in their lap on the edge of the bed] โYou wanted me there. So I was there.โ [huffs, flips their hair back. Not sure how many times theyโve had this conversation. Will always hate parties, not going to suddenly like them just because ChA is there] โYou can either have me there, or make sure Iโm comfortable. You canโt have both.โ
ChA: โSo now Iโm the bad guy.โ [foot thumps on the floor like a judgeโs gavel]
โฆ
Scripting also lets you fill a scene with multiple new characters before you figure out their names or descriptions, tagging their lines with the bare minimum. I often test out entire action scenes (which I loathe writing) in script form, so I know Iโm satisfied with the pacing, blocking, and amount of movement before I lock it in and write the first draft of actual narrative. It also forces you to make sure your characters are taking actions and not just sitting at a table like talking mannequins.
Transitioning from script to narrative can be mighty tedious sometimes if you try to fit in chunks of narrative in the exact places you left on your initial pass. Fictional prose is organic, so let it breathe.
Maybe you let a character monologue for too long, or they have too much movement in a scene that becomes unnatural and clunky. Or the entire scene ran away from you because the conversation was just that good. Whatever the case, a script, bare minimum, gets your foot in the door.
I like sci-fi and fantasy. I also like taking my sci-fi and fantasy characters and throwing them into โfanficsโ to test out relationships and start to get a feel for what makes them unique from the rest of the cast.
Sometimes the setting changes to something mundane, sometimes itโs a hypothetical scene that the current pacing of the narrative just doesnโt have room for, or itโs a flashback youโll never include but want to have written so itโs concrete when you reference it in the present.
It also helps you fall in love with your characters when you can write them without consequence, doing whatever, doing whoever, saying whatever, going wherever. In fanfic, their personalities can start to write themselves and you discover them as you write them. And, hey, sometimes you come up with a concept so good, you change the entire real narrative around to fit it.
All your attention doesnโt have to be on the story youโre actually writing.
5. Keep All of Your Deleted Scenes
I keep so many of mine, the โdeleted scenesโ doc of one book is 40k words longer than the actual manuscript, filled with numerous variations of the same scene written over and over again in vain trying to keep something that no longer works.
Keep them for several reasons:
It reminds you of how far youโve come.
You can pick through the bones for bits of dialogue and setting descriptors even if the majority is trashed.
You remind yourself of what didnโt work before, so you donโt fall in that same trap again.
If you change your mind, all you have to do is copy-paste it back in.
6. Remember First Drafts are First Drafts
Let the word spew flow forth from your fingers and donโt look back and start questioning every decision and all its flaws until your creativity tank starts sputtering on empty. Itโs supposed to be messy, itโs supposed to have plot holes and typos and inconsistencies and things to fact-check. If you start hyper-fixating on making sure your manuscript has absolutely no errors before moving on to the next chapter, it will never get written, and youโll convince yourself youโre a terrible writer.
Writing is easy. Revisions are hard. Just as storytelling doesnโt have to be linear, neither does the writing process. If that critical first line just wonโt come to you, stuff a mediocre one in its place and move on. Write the ending first. Write all the romantic entanglements first. Write the big climactic argument first and figure out how the rest falls into place around your beautiful centerpiece.
But remember: You do, at some point, have to write the hard stuff. Hopefully, when the time comes, you look at all the rest youโve written and are proud enough of your progress that those daunting scenes that looked impossible before become much more approachable now. Do it for your future readers who want to know how it ends. Do it for your characters. Do it for you.
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