There are three crucial things you must know before you start to write:

What are writing about?

Why are you writing?

Only when you know these can you really organise your thoughts and your writing effectively.

Don’t let these mental minefields blow holes in your creativity:

Fear of failure
If you’re afraid that things might go wrong, or not turn out perfect, then chances are you’ll never get started in the first place. And if you keep imagining scenarios where everything goes wrong, or reminding yourself about times when you feel you failed in the past, then things will keep getting worse. Fear can be paralysing, and is pretty sure to kill your creativity.

Being cautious
Being too cautious can be fatal for your creativity. Perhaps you try to stick to techniques or ideas you already know - or which you think are tried and tested, so good to employ one more time. You might find yourself bowing to authority and not wishing to stick your neck out, trying to fit in and go with the opinion of the majority.
Creativity requires boldness and audacity. Break rules when it suits you.

Listening to your inner critic
There will be a time to scrap what doesn’t work, to throw away the bad ideas, to employ what Hemmingway called the “sh*t detector.” But that’s after the creative process. If you let your inner critic get going before you’ve had time to start generating ideas or getting words down on paper, then it will likely kill your creativity stone dead.

Being humble
I’m English. We do self-deprecating modesty as well as anyone. But sometimes it can go too far. You need to throw off the humble, modest persona for a bit, and be wildly, boldly creative. Other people may be the true experts, they may have had more success than you so far. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be as creative as the best of them. Reach for the heights. You don’t have to tell anyone that’s what you’re doing. But behind closed doors, in the sanctuary of your own writing den, you have the freedom to aim for creativity that ranks alongside the greatest writers there have ever been. Why not? There’s no embarrassment in trying to be good.

Oversimplifying
Creativity is likely to make your life, your art, your writing, more complex. Now, clarity is a good thing. Oversimplifying is not. Embrace the complexity, and ride the wave.

If you feel your creativity is stifled, try this.

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If you can’t get round to writing, the problem could be that you’re just not in the right frame of mind. And maybe you never quite get into the right mindset for putting your words on paper. But you can change this, you can get yourself into the writing zone.

Writers get in the zone, too.

You’ve probably heard about being in the zone or ‘in flow’ from sports. When a player’s in the zone, they are almost unbeatable, like everything just comes so naturally to them.

It’s a big subject this, but essentially it boils down to freeing your unconscious mind and letting it take charge for a change. When you do, amazing things can happen.

But can that work for writing? It can and it does. Continue reading →

If you’ve read my post on the number one reason you find writing difficult, you’ll know it’s because you adopt a different, more formal tone when you sit down at a keyboard or pick up a pen. Now here’s three more reasons:

1) You haven’t thought through what you want to say

That’s bound to make things difficult. Take a spin around the room and talk it through with yourself (silently in your head is best. Doing this out loud gets you funny looks from the rest of the family / neighbours).

2) You haven’t done your research

You’ll need the facts to hand, and ideally uploaded into your mind, before you start. I find this is the most important part of a writing task. I get everything sorted in my mind, with the facts assembled, and then the words flow out once they are ready.

3) You’re trying to make it perfect.

Write a draft, a rough version, a sketch. You’ll be surprise how often it actually turns out really good anyhow, when you’re not trying too hard. And remember, there’s usually time to edit it later.

(Note: this article now comes with a health warning and partial retraction from the author).

One of the main reasons people find it difficult to write is because they adopt a more formal tone of voice as soon as there are words on paper (or the screen). It’s the fault of our education systems.

When people sit down to write, they suddenly come over all formal, or tongue-tied, or pompous. They start using a learnt tone of voice: Learnt from school, college, university, maybe the workplace. They start worrying about sounding important, and the structure of their sentences. They also start to waffle a lot - perhaps because they learnt to write by filling up word quotas for school essays.

Write how you talk.

What you need to do is write how you talk. With a little more care, clearly. You have the chance to think it through first and apply some structure. You have the chance to edit and improve. You should do these things.

But the tone of voice should be informal. Write how you talk. It sounds easy, but it often takes years to learn. Continue reading →