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| Photo credit: Josh Kenzer via Flickr CC |
Sometimes, you just can’t get off the dime when it’s time to
write.
You stare at the white page
waiting for the words to splash onto it. Then you
see something shiny, and let yourself get distracted from the task at hand. You've hit a creative snag.
It's something akin to the feeling of standing at the end of a diving board, afraid to jump. You just can't take the plunge.
And so it goes.
Don't worry. The water is deep enough.
One of my favorite go-to tactics for jumpstarting a stalled writing
project is something Ernest Hemingway would do. It is to ask myself this one simple question:
What’s the truest thing you know
right this very minute?
Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not
get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the
little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that
they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do
not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have
to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” So
finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy
then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had
heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone
introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork
or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple
declarative sentence I had written.
-Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Jot it down and then go from there, filling in the blanks – completing the picture – researching the details. Find the bottom of the pool.
Often, that’s all it takes. I've used this little tip for years.
Dive in.
Write on.
What is your favorite go-to tactic for clearing a writing snag? I'd love it if you'd be willing to share in the comments.
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