Writing on Writing: Discipline
Discipline is never an end itself, only a means to an end. –Robert Fripp
Last week’s assignment, for those of you scoring at home, was to write three paragraphs a day, every day. Like jogging, biking, or any other kind of exercise, you may have found yourself–and/or may yet find yourself–aching in places you didn’t know could ache as you get around to exercising stuff that’s lain dormant for a while.
The whole idea here is to build a routine, and to turn writing into a habit. It’s hard to write if you haven’t done it in a while; making excuses not to write is a heck of a lot easier than staring at a blank page or screen, and figuring out what you’re going to fill it with. As with jogging, though, it gets easier the more often you do it. And at some point it stops being exercise or a chore; it’s something you look forward to, a rush of adrenaline or endorphins, if you will.
Think of these daily writing exercises as your 99% perspiration while you’re waiting for the 1% that is inspiration to hit. When the inspiration comes, it then becomes easier to roll with it, and do something with it, than to talk yourself out of it. I used to groan when I’d read, in just about every book or article on writing, about writing your “morning pages” (or pages from any other time of day that you can find, and stick with). But once you try it, you come to understand what all those other writers were on about. It’s useful, and it can be enjoyable too.
One last bit of advice: in the beginning, at least, don’t worry what you’ll write about. Just write for the sake of writing. Subject matter will come in its own time (see last week’s entry on the “prepared observer;” this is part of your preparation).
This week’s exercise:
Tags: exercises, writing, writing prompts