#writingcoffee

Raising the stakes is a familiar technique writers use when building up their stories towards the climax. If it doesn't work out, things will be much worse than we thought.

It makes for pretty good reading, but it's a lot less fun when it happens in a story where you're the protagonist.

I distinctly remember this short story I wrote years ago that disintegrated because I raised the stakes for myself.

I used to live near a massive cemetery. The cemetery had an equally large park next to it with a small population of green parakeets. They moved around from tree to tree in groups. Their screech was impossible to miss, and they were a lot of fun to watch, too.

One January, I went for a walk in the park, and I got an idea for a story which included the park, the cemetery and most importantly, the parakeets.

It was supposed to be a quick story. No more than two or three scenes. A sort of descent into misery and twist at the end. I was particularly proud of the twist.

I started writing the story as soon as I got home. A few hundred words in, my mind started wondering which magazines I should submit the piece once it was done. I did some research and was super excited about that — a huge mistake.

What followed was an excruciating battle for every sentence that lasted for weeks. I couldn't finish the story. Nothing I wrote was good enough. I kept going back to edit the most irrelevant details until I hated everything about the project.

What could've been an enjoyable couple of afternoons working on a short story for fun became an absolute nightmare only because of some imaginary result.

Thinking about submitting the story to magazines raised the stakes. It made it seem that I had something to lose. No longer was I writing a silly short story for fun. I was composing high art that would have to make its way out of the slush pile and withstand the uncompromising eye of the editors at those particular publications. It was absolutely essential to avoid adverbs at all costs.

After weeks of agonising, I finished the draft and shelved it. What a waste. However, I've learned my lesson. I never think about publication when I'm working on a story. I want to write something that I like. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't.

These days, I'm a fan of just winging the first draft. I know that I tend to overthink and over-research everything. Then I get stuck on ideas that perhaps weren't that great in the first place.

Don't Raise the Stakes

The best work often comes from experimenting and taking risks. By getting too attached to an imaginary outcome that's out of your control, you'll experiment less and take fewer risks. Ultimately, this will bog you down and prevent you from achieving it in the first place.

Write so that you enjoy it. What's the point of doing it any other way?

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.

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Past Editions

#251: Rebuilding My Writing Habit, October 2022

#250: I Burned Out, October 2022

#249: Finish More Things, July 2022

#248: Serious Procrastination, June 2022

#247: Learning How to Fail, June 2022

The blank page is the arch-nemesis of the writer. But it makes no sense. It's the only time where we have the ultimate freedom to do anything we want. Shouldn't we cherish the fresh start? A clean slate?

Well, that's the theory. In reality, we all want to create something good. And that's the problem.

At the beginning of a project, it's really hard to know whether it will end up being worth anything by the end. What's worse, we start to worry that if whatever we do in the beginning isn't good enough, it will somehow corrupt the rest of the project, and our efforts will be futile.

The fear of failure strikes us the most when we're staring at the blank page as if it had a message scribbled for us in the margins. 'Make sure you don't fuck this up.'

Once we get going, things become a lot less daunting. Suddenly, there are characters interacting with each other. The possibilities are still endless, but a little less so than when the page was blank. And that makes a huge difference.

Putting something down anchors your thinking. It creates constraints. You no longer have to come up with something perfect. Your task now is to make what you have a little better. You have to make the pieces of the puzzle fit together, and find new ones to fill the blanks.

The good thing about creative constraints is that you don't have to wait until you have something to take advantage of them. You can set some constraints for yourself even before you start writing.

I've seen a street photographer do this brilliantly. Every time he went out to shoot, he would give himself some constraints. One time, he decided that he would only take pictures of arches – anything that he found on the streets in the shape of an arch. The next day, he would only take photos that had windows or glass in them.

Instead of running around, frantically snapping anything and everything, he would pass on all the other shots that he would've normally taken. This really focused his mind and forced him to come up with some incredibly creative shots as opposed to the old-people-squinting-into-the-lens staple of street photography.

Did he miss some great shots like that? Probably. But he would've never seen the ones he took if he let himself be distracted by all the possibilities.

Now to the big question: how can you apply this to your writing? Make decisions upfront and stick with them at least until you've finished the full first draft.

👉 Think about what genre is your story. Genres have all sorts of tropes and limitations that you'll need to adhere to. For example, romance readers expect a happy ending. If you decide to write a romance, you no longer have to think about how will it end.

👉 Plunge your characters into a random situation and then work out how they solve the problem.

👉 You can even start by writing fanfic using your favourite characters and then swap them out with your original ones.

👉 Any constraints are better than nothing.

Creative constraints are a fantastic tool if you need to get unblocked or want to come up with something really creative. It may seem that setting up a bunch of constraints will limit your options, but they will set you free.

I'm putting the finishing touches on a massive Writing Analytics feature that I've been working on for months. It will come out next week, and I can't wait for you to try it – it's changing my writing life as we speak.

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Past Editions

#151: My Favourite Writing Podcasts, July 2020

#150: The Business of Making Art, July 2020

#149: All That Matters Is What You Leave on the Page, July 2020

#148: Keeping a Victory Log, June 2020

There are many versions of this anecdote floating around – I’ll go with the version from David Bayles and Ted Orland’s Art & Fear book which features a ceramics teacher.

At the beginning of a new semester, the ceramics teacher announced that the class will be split into two groups. The students on the left side of the room would be graded on the quantity of work they produced – the more pots they made, the better they would do. The students on the right received a different assignment. The teacher asked them to produce just a single pot. They could take all the time they needed to make it the best pot they ever made because they would be graded on the quality of their work instead.

The students went away to work. The first group out churned out dozens, then hundreds of pots, frantically trying to make enough to pass. The second group began with rigorous research into what made the perfect pot. They studied the works of famous artists and came up with theories that explained why their pots were so iconic. Then they looked into how to replicate that.

When the class came back together at the end of the semester, the ceramics teacher went through all the pots his students had made. To his surprise, the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

I love this little story because it highlights one important point: to produce enough work so that you can improve as a writer, you have to quit caring about quality. The irony is that if you keep worrying about whether your stories are good enough, you will never write enough of them to give yourself a chance to actually improve.

Here’s an idea. What if I told you to write 200 stories by the end of 2020? There are about 200 days left in the year. Why not? Does just the idea of that make you uncomfortable? Good.

When you have to write a story every day, there’s simply not enough time to get caught up on things. It doesn’t have to be a long story or a good story. But it has to be a story.

If you want some extra accountability, start an anonymous Tumblr or Instagram account and post your story there every day. Reuse the same characters on multiple days. Write the same scene from several different points of view. Anything goes.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ll get any readers. These posts are for you so that you can go back and read the first few ones 200 days from now and see how far have you come.

Good luck!

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Past Editions

#143: What to Do When You’re Stuck?, May 2020

#142: What’s Your Story Really About?, May 2020

#141: Architecture and Gardening for Writers, May 2020

#140: When Can You Call Yourself a Writer?, April 2020

With everything that’s been going on over the past several weeks, staying focused has been frustratingly difficult for me. There’s a lot to be anxious about – the numbers on the news going up, the government briefings getting more and more uncomfortable. The increased cognitive load wreaks havoc on any type of deep work that I need to do – writing, reading, programming.

Instead, I’m always looking for the refresh button, eagerly awaiting the next bite-sized news item that always ends up being another speculation at best. I’m well aware that I’m not getting any value from reading those live updates — reading War and Peace backwards would probably have about the same effect. But why is it so difficult to step back?

In this post, I’d like to share the strategies that I’ve been using to combat these viral bouts of procrastination. If I got anything done since the lockdown started, I was because I used one or more of these hacks.

(1) Time Your Sessions

This is an old trick but a good one.

Set a timer for however long you wish you wish to write and write away. You’re not allowed to do anything else until it rings.

You can use a time tracker like Toggl or one of the apps that block certain websites until the time is up to ensure compliance. I like using the Forest app on my phone.

(2) Track your words

Timing your writing sessions is great, but what if you don’t feel motivated enough to even schedule one?

I’m a big fan of tracking your writing – how many words you write and when. Just like tracking calories or workouts, the simple act of recording them will result in a change of behaviour. By tracking what you wrote, you’re also tracking how much time you’ve wasted – if you haven’t written anything for weeks, you’ll have a clear record of that.

That’s what does it for me – seeing all opportunities to get words done that I’ve missed. I start questioning whether I should be pursuing writing in the first place when I’m clearly not doing it, and that gets me back on track.

I built an app for this called Writing Analytics which I can thoroughly recommend 😄. It’s also free until the end of May 2020!

(3) Build a streak

Another way to stay motivated is to build streaks. Whether you’re developing a new writing habit or maintaining an existing one, ticking a box every day can be a surprisingly powerful way to stay on track.

The more days you have on your streak, the more you’ll want to keep going. For me, the key to streaks is to make the criteria for ticking that box as easy as possible – like reading 5 pages or writing 200 words.

On busy days, I might bang out 200 words on my phone while queuing at the supermarket. On good days, those 200 words are just enough to get me to the flow of a writing session. Low expectations are the key.

You can use a grid printout. The Streaks iPhone app works pretty well, and Writing Analytics also supports streaks.

(4) Get Accountability

A few things are better to spark a fire under your ass than external accountability. You have several options here – from posting your daily word counts on social media to sharing your goals with friends or writing group.

Having to explain your repeated failures to write anything to another person can be very uncomfortable. That really is the point – it becomes easier to write than face the embarrassment.

Some writers find a writing coach or accountability partner and check in with them regularly to make sure both are getting their writing done. When all else fails, it might be a sign that you need one.

(5) Match time spent reading the news with writing

Checking out social media and reading the news is the first thing many people do every day. It’s also a huge mistake. You’re barely awake and already distracted.

What if you could only check social media and read the news for as long as you’ve spent writing that day? Wanna see if the world is still on fire? Write for 15 minutes and you earn 15 minutes on Twitter.

Staying off the news and social media may be unrealistic, but you can make sure that you strike the right balance of consumption and creativity by putting your writing first.

Final Thoughts

These were some of the hacks that I use to focus on my writing. Normally, I will combine at least two or three and switch them up depending on how much support I need at a given time.

I hope that they’ll help you be a more productive writer at least until we figure a way out of this pandemic.

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Past Editions

#137: How to Create a Writing Routine for Life, April 2020

#136: The Words Will Add Up, March 2020

#135: Quarantine Survival for Writers, March 2020

#134: Focusing on the Right Metrics, March 2020

The past few weeks saw the lives of many in Europe and elsewhere thrown into disarray. Plans went out of the window as countries shut their borders. Life ground to a screeching halt of perpetual anxiety and self-isolation.

The world is still trying to make sense of it all. How long will the disruption last? And what’s our way out of it? Until we figure that out, it’s best to be safe than sorry and follow your government’s advice – even though you might not be vulnerable, other people that come into contact with you might be.

As the situation becomes more difficult, your writing projects could be next on the rolling list of casualties of the novel coronavirus. When your daily routine breaks down, it will be a lot harder to keep going.

Strictly speaking, writing isn’t essential for survival. But it’s always great stories from people like you that see our society through tough times like these. It isn’t a coincidence that book sales are up 17% since the crisis began. We need your art more than ever.

Here's what I'm doing to keep productive.

Stay off News

My post last week's post was dedicated to this, but it’s worth repeating: things will happen regardless of whether you watch the live feed or not. Staying informed is cool, but there’s no reason to check the news multiple times a day. Pick a time, read all the updates at once and move on with your day. It will do wonders for your well-being.

Besides, most of the information being broadcast during the day is speculation anyway. Even the numbers don’t necessarily paint an objective picture of the situation. Different countries use different testing and reporting methodologies. Watching the number of victims rising on an hourly basis makes you anxious without actually helping you understand what’s going on any better.

We’ll find out what exactly happened many months or years from now when researchers aggregate the data and process them in retrospect. Until then, it’s better to focus on things that you can do something about – like washing your hands and acting responsibly.

Create a New Routine

You may have had a routine or writing schedule back when social distancing wasn’t a thing. For example, I hate working from home. There are way too many distractions. Normally, I go to the local coffee shop or the British Library to write. They both shut down last week which is annoying, but I’m doing my best to set up a workspace at my house and create a new routine to get work done. Make a coffee and turn off the Internet if you must.

James Clear’s Atomic Habits has loads of insights on building new habits.

Stay Connected

Not being able to socialise with others in person just might give you the extra time to join an online writing community or group. There are many out there, including #writeblr here and /r/writers on Reddit. Slack channels and Discord servers and Facebook groups are full of like-minded writers to connect with, learn from and hang out.

Get Inspired

Since the beginning of the outbreak, many companies came forward with generous offers to help people pass the time while self-isolating. Now is a fantastic opportunity to enrol in a free course, sign up for a free 30-day Scribd plan or buy books online from your favourite independent bookstore.

Consuming great content sets you up for creating something great too. Personally, I’ve signed up for Scribd and have been listening to audiobooks whenever I can.

Stay Motivated

We don’t know when, but like everything else, this pandemic will come to an end. Things will go back to normal, and hopefully, we’ll be able to pick up where we left off. 

Following many businesses that I admire, I decided to make Writing Analytics (an app for writers that I’m building) free until the end of May!

If you feel like you need some extra boost to get your words done during this difficult time, sign up for a free trial and I’ll extend it to two months.

Stay safe everyone!

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My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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Past Editions

#134: Focusing on the Right Metrics, March 2020

#133: Forget the noun, be the verb, March 2020

#132: Is Literature As We Know It Doomed?, March 2020

#131: Introducing Writing Analytics, February 2020

I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the family of George Floyd and the families of the countless other victims of police brutality systematically targeting people of colour.

Thank you to everyone who’s been taking part in the peaceful protests in and outside of the US. Clearly, not being a racist yourself isn’t enough. We need to do more to fight the bullies and those who turn a blind eye and allow this oppression to continue. We need to rally against companies like Facebook who give a platform to hateful ideologies and help launch them into the mainstream to sell more ads.

It works because mindlessly scrolling through content channelling hate at your scapegoat of choice is easy. It’s easier than facing your own demons and solving your own problems.

If you don’t want to fight for people of colour, for the LGBT community, for refugees, for immigrants, then fight for yourself. Because when we allow hate to fester in our society, it will eventually come to you.

Writing is a confusing term. Why? On one hand, almost everyone in the developed world can write. Most people have been taught to make readable marks on paper in the first few years of school. It’s all good. On the other hand, only very few people can reliably produce dozens of books or thousands of articles throughout their lives. Yet both of these groups are apparently doing the same thing.

Running also suffers from similar ambiguity. The person who dashes the final 30 yards to catch a bus is running, as is the athlete competing in an ultra-marathon race. Almost anyone can do the former, but it takes several years of training and perhaps a lifetime of dedication to do the latter.

Nobody expects to be able to win or even finish a marathon without proper training. Yet there’s a lot of confusion about what it takes to write books. Writing a book is a marathon. And writing a best-selling book means finishing at the very front of the pack.

I’m not saying this to discourage folks — that would be weird from someone who runs a writing motivation blog. Plenty of people write amazing books, and it’s absolutely possible for you to do it too. But I feel that it’s important to have the right expectations coming in. I also don’t mean to elevate authors to a position of superiority over people who merely write. There’s nothing inherently noble about writing books.

The writing that we talk about when we talk about writing books isn’t an act. It’s a discipline. Doing it deliberately over and over again is at the very core of what it means to be a writer. I wish writing a lot of emails and shit would set me up for success as an author. Sadly, that isn’t the case.

Want to write a book? Expect to work hard and train regularly. Expect to be exhausted and out of breath. Expect to be wanting to burn the bloody thing (good thing that I don’t live in a posh place with a fireplace). It may take years before you finish one and many more before you go on to write a bestseller.

If none of the above deters you then welcome, stranger, you’re among friends. We’re delighted to have you.

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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Past Editions

#128: How Much Should You Care About Your Story?, February 2020

#127: Doin’ It Right, January 2020

#126: How Long Does It Take To Write A Book?, January 2020

#125: Journaling As a Form of Time Travel, January 2020

It’s 2020, and we’re surrounded by data. It’s everywhere and constantly updating – in feeds and pushed in your face by notifications. Often it’s free and of little worth, but you don’t know that until you’ve consumed it. When everybody is reading the same thing, it becomes irresistible. FOMO and all.

The real cost of information is the opportunity cost. You could’ve read an important book, but you chose to keep up with the live news feed instead. It’s impossible to keep up with everything. What you focus on matters.

In a way, information is like food. At the time of abundance, the things we’re naturally pulled towards for survival aren’t necessarily the best for us in the long run. Just as you can’t stop eating altogether, you can’t simply cut yourself off and stop consuming information. However, a healthy information diet is essential to getting things done in the 21st century.

Last week, I launched Writing Analytics on Product Hunt – a community of makers and early adopters interested in emerging products. I’ve put a lot of work into the app – months and months of heavy grinding. I stayed up till 4AM to get everything ready. I really wanted the launch to go well. I was terrified as my post there went live early on Monday morning. Would it get any upvotes at all? Would anyone sign up to try it?

Throughout the day, I didn’t go five minutes without checking my phone. I watched how many people came to visit the site and kept refreshing the page to see how many upvotes I received. My mind was buzzing. It was completely insane. I didn’t get anything done. It affected my sleep and spilt over to the rest of the week. I am a worrier, but I don’t usually have problems with anxiety. However, this took me out for days. And I hated every minute of it.

In the end, the launch went well. It got featured on the front page and received over 100 upvotes. Bunch of people signed up as well. Did me checking my phone 200 times during the day help anything? Absolutely not. I could’ve checked the final number at the end of the day.

Even if Writing Analytics totally bombed, would I just drop it and move on? Of course not. I believe in the app and enjoy working on it. All the anxiety about a bunch of upvotes was completely unjustified. I was stressing myself over nothing.

The same thing applies to anything that you put out into the world – a tweet, a blog post or a book. You’re not in control of how many people read or share it. You can’t prevent people from giving you mean reviews or posting negative comments. But you can choose not to look. None of those things are a true reflection of how good you or your work is anyway.

This experience really reaffirmed why I built Writing Analytics in the first place. Data can be a detractor, but also a powerful motivator. There’s so much of it out there, but most of it is distracting you from the work that you need to do – the number of followers, likes, live updates, breaking news. I believe that it’s important to replace the noise with metrics that add value to your life and that you can control.

What new things have I learned about craft? How many words did I write? How many fascinating books have I read? How many stories have I finished? What have I created today?

Just like nutrition, it takes a pretty serious commitment to sort out your information diet. But when you do, you will never want to go back.

Stay safe and focus on the right metrics.

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Past Editions

#133: Forget the noun, be the verb, March 2020

#132: Is Literature As We Know It Doomed?, March 2020

#131: Introducing Writing Analytics, February 2020

#130: About Hard Work, February 2020