The Write Lane: Getting Started

I wrote my first two books on a typewriter. Well, I mean my first two published books, not my first attempts at books, which, thankfully, were never published, and shall never be spoken of again. 

But, yes, a typewriter. Granted it was an IBM Selectric, but still. No spell check, no delete key, no find and replace. You actually needed scissors and glue to cut and paste.           

That was a long time ago, and since then I’ve seen a lot of changes in this business. If you had told me last fall that in a year I would be doing 80 percent of my reading on my Kindle, I would have said, “Right. And tomorrow I’ll be bungee jumping in the Grand Canyon.” (Or where ever one bungee jumps.) 

But love my Kindle, and I am doing most of my reading on it nowadays. Digital publishing is coming, and coming big, but that’s a subject for another post.

This post is about one thing that hasn’t changed, and probably never will, much to my dismay: the sad truth that books and articles do not write themselves.

Whether you write with a quill pen or on an iPad, ya gotta write. I think it was Mark Twain who said, “The best tool for writing is a large heavy belt with which I strap myself to my desk chair.”

If the large heavy belt plan doesn’t work for you, here are a few other tips to help you get started:

1. You don’t need a whole weekend, a whole day, or even a whole hour to get some writing done. But you do need consistency. Find a way to carve out a bit of time—even 20 minutes—three or four times a week. Put it in your schedule as writing time, and honor it.

2. You don’t need a room of your own—though it’s great if you have one—but a quiet corner will do. Some people like to work out of  or another coffee shop, and that’s fine, but for me, a regular writing time in a consistent place works best.

3. It’s a first draft—don’t expect it to be perfect. There will be plenty of time for revising, but for now, just get it down. As James Thurber said, “Don’t get it right, just get it written.”

4. Set goals and keep a log.

5. Join a writer’s group or find a writing buddy who will encourage you to produce.

And now I’ve got a deadline coming up, so I better quit procrastinating and get some writing done!