On writing: get lost

The other day, I read an interesting article entitled, Letter to a Young Writer: ‘Get Lost’.

The subject of the article wasn’t new, but it was presented in a fresh way from a different perspective. It was written by a journalist, who after a number of years of writing articles for a newspaper, decided he wanted something more, something beyond just writing facts about the news. He wanted to do something creative.

After enrolling in a writing workshop and going through a number of exercises intended to spur creativity, the instructor gave an assignment consisting of daily unstructured writing, where all that was required was to type/write three pages of words. That’s it, just three pages. Oh, and you’re not to read what you’ve written. The idea behind this was, of course, to encourage people to sit and write, to put words to paper on a consistent basis, to get those creative juices flowing.

Most of us are familiar with this idea, and some of us actually put it into practice. Then there are some, like me, who are still finding their way through this thing called writing. It’s helpful to hear good ideas like this multiple times, because eventually they will sink in.

Some snippets from the article that caught my attention:

“In the creative process, the work of art comes from the process.”

“I found that my best sentence of the day almost always came after two or three pages of drivel. But I needed the drivel to get to it.”

“Now, when I feel stuck in a writing project or simply run out of ideas, I don’t panic, nor do I start trying to plan. I just sit down and start writing, confident that if I stick with it, I’ll lose my way and find my story.”

So now, the next time you feel like you’re struggling to get words out and onto the page, remember what the author of this article said:

“The best writing advice I ever got was to get lost.”

–dp