Everyone has their writing "thing." Some people like notebooks -- college-ruled only. Some people have to listen to the same song over and over again while writing. Others make playlists. Some people use only pen, some pencil, and others only type. I've heard from people who prefer to use typewriters when drafting. Some people have to find the "right" font for each story.
I used to think that a lot of this was just silly at best, and ways to procrastinate at worst. Weird writing "things" seemed like just more stuff to get in the way of actually writing. What did it matter if you used blue or black ink? Did it really make a difference to use Arial instead of Times New Roman? It all seemed like a lot of sugar pills to me.
I don't believe the "Muse" is real or necessary to start writing, and I used to think of all these writing "things" in exactly the same way. I thought people just made them up to make themselves look special, or to make it look like ONLY THEY knew the REAL secret to writing. Use Helvetica, and YOU TOO can write a bestseller!
Until, of course, I found my own writing "thing."
I used to double-space my wip's in Word. It took me forever to write anything, and my transitions were terrible. I tried single-spacing, but nothing improved.
Then I wrote Contracted after the format I use on this blog: no indents and a space between paragraphs. For some reason, being able to see the text this way gave me a better idea of how long to make paragraphs, where transitions should fall, and how much writing "ground" I was actually covering. Who knew. It wasn't a one-off thing, either. I changed my other wip to this format, and my writing has gone so much more smoothly since then.
I'm officially a convert. If it floats your writing boat, use it. Writing can be hard, so anything that makes it easier for you is good.
I used to think that a lot of this was just silly at best, and ways to procrastinate at worst. Weird writing "things" seemed like just more stuff to get in the way of actually writing. What did it matter if you used blue or black ink? Did it really make a difference to use Arial instead of Times New Roman? It all seemed like a lot of sugar pills to me.
I don't believe the "Muse" is real or necessary to start writing, and I used to think of all these writing "things" in exactly the same way. I thought people just made them up to make themselves look special, or to make it look like ONLY THEY knew the REAL secret to writing. Use Helvetica, and YOU TOO can write a bestseller!
Until, of course, I found my own writing "thing."
I used to double-space my wip's in Word. It took me forever to write anything, and my transitions were terrible. I tried single-spacing, but nothing improved.
Then I wrote Contracted after the format I use on this blog: no indents and a space between paragraphs. For some reason, being able to see the text this way gave me a better idea of how long to make paragraphs, where transitions should fall, and how much writing "ground" I was actually covering. Who knew. It wasn't a one-off thing, either. I changed my other wip to this format, and my writing has gone so much more smoothly since then.
I'm officially a convert. If it floats your writing boat, use it. Writing can be hard, so anything that makes it easier for you is good.
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