Today give yourself exactly one hour to write. Start the clock and don’t get up from your desk until the hour is up. No cheating by slipping onto Twitter or Facebook… this hour is for writing (or staring at a blank screen) only.
July 26, 2010
Writing Days
Sometimes you get to a point in the story you’re working on and you can’t figure out where it’s going. The computer screen stays white and empty – all that blank page waiting to be filled (or setneces getting all tangled up on the page), your head full of ideas but the words not coming. The best advice for this, I think, is to stop and go and do something else. Martin Amis talked about this at the Dubai literature festival. He said when he was a younger writer he’d tackle problems at his computer for hours. Now when he gets to a tricky part, he stops and goes to do something else for a bit. He walks or changes rooms or SOMETHING. (I nap!) When he gets back his unconscious writing mind seems to have solved the problem.
