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one hour….

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#216: Take Back the Time to Write

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all went down this week. The outage lasted six hours. A simple configuration error took down Facebook’s entire network. These things happen all the time, but because the network was unavailable, they couldn’t revert the change before anyone noticed. They needed physical access to the device that is likely locked up deep inside their data centre. The annoying thing was the cards that give their engineers access to the servers stopped working, too, so they couldn’t get in.

The incident sucked for Facebook, but it gave us a rare glimpse into a world where the social network ceases to exist. Facebook is a behemoth with almost 3 billion monthly active users — roughly a third of the planet uses it every month.

The downtime sent shockwaves through the Internet. Many sites saw unexpected spikes in traffic as people looked for something to do when Facebook was no longer there to keep them entertained.

It’s mind-blowing to think how many lifetimes are spent scrolling down that endless feed, hooked on what outrageous piece of content the algorithm brings up next.

Online stores saw a steep decline in orders during that time as well. Facebook not only takes your time; it also influences you to buy more stuff that you don’t need. That means that you have to work more to earn more money and have even less time to do what you want to do — like writing.

It’s not just Facebook

TikTok is the most downloaded app in the world now. Arguably, its algorithm is even more addictive than what Facebook has. Many things are trying to make you pay attention to them so they can monetise it. But is it a good deal for you?

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with using these services, but it’s vital to keep tabs on your usage and how it affects your life.

The problem that I have with these feed-based apps is how insidious they are. The algorithms are too good. It’s so easy and fun to keep scrolling. Before you know it, the time you had for your writing session is lost forever in the black hole of these corporations.

When you write, paint, knit, make music, read, study, build something, you’re not only creating value in the world, you’re building skills that will stay with you forever. Nobody can take those away from you. The feed doesn’t do that.

Take Your Time Back

It will be a while before we experience the world truly without Facebook. But you can find out how your world would look like without it right now. Log out, delete the apps from your devices and take your time back.

Or set up parental controls on your devices to make sure you’re not spending more time than you should on there.

The ultimate trick to get yourself to stop using social media is this: try estimating how long you spend on social media during the average week? Maybe two or three hours per day? 14-21 hours per week? If you started using Facebook in 2007, that adds up to 10,192 - 15,288 hours. Pretty insane, right?

How many books could you have read? How many could you have written during that time?

Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and similar services are free to use. But the real cost is your life. Don’t let them take it away from you.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.

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Past Editions

#215: Writing for the Right Reasons, October 2021

#214: It Doesn’t Count If You Don’t Finish It, September 2021

#213: How to Be a More Disciplined Writer, September 2021

#212: How to Turn an Idea into a Story, September 2021

#211: Writing Every Day, September 2021

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every day i wake up with the intention of making the little people in my head go on big adventures and every day i turn on my phone and scroll through tumblr instead

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#211: Writing Every day

I’m a big fan of writing every day. I believe in it so much that I built an app that helps people write every day. Many successful writers do write every single day. But do I think that you have to do that to be successful? No.

Of course not! Your readers have no idea how you write. Most of them probably don’t really care.

Writing every day is simply a tool that many choose to use to fit their writing practice around their lives and get their words done. If you have a different process that works for you, then you definitely shouldn’t start writing every day.

However, most people have day jobs to go to, kids to raise and businesses to run. They don’t have 12 straight hours free in a day to buckle down and get all their words done at once. Writing every day, half an hour here, an hour there, is the only way they can carve out the time to produce enough words to move their writing projects forward.

Because of how our brains are wired, if you keep doing it for long enough, it gets easier. Writing becomes a habit, and your day feels incomplete unless you wrote something. You simply keep doing it even if you no longer have to. Terry Pratchett said that he wrote every single day for years because he was terrified of what would happen if he stopped.

Creating a habit like that is very difficult. If you can do it, though, it will most certainly pay off handsomely.

You have to write

While you absolutely don’t have to write every day, you have to write a lot.

Publishing is very competitive, whether you choose to self-publish or go the traditional route. If you’d like to be one of the top authors in the world, you’ll have to write quite a bit to hone your craft and produce enough stories to stand a chance.

The way we perceive writing differs from other disciplines. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that most of us can write already. You wouldn’t aspire to become a world-class pianist and only practice once or twice a month. You also wouldn’t expect your paintings to rival the Mona Lisa when you only paint once a month.

You can’t finish a novel in a month. But you can do it in less than six months if you write 500 words every day. Or you can write 3,500 words every Saturday. Or do whatever else works for you.

Regardless of what you do, it will be hard work. When it comes to writing, there are no shortcuts. There’s no guarantee that it will work out either, but if you keep showing up and doing the work, you’ll know that you gave it your best.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.

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(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Past Editions

#210: Ed Sheeran on Writing, August 2021

#209: Good Writers Copy, Great Writers Steal, August 2021

#208: Write Like a Painter, August 2021

#207: On Being Stuck, August 2021

#206: 4 Reasons to Keep a Journal, August 2021

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Resources for Writing Injuries

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#208: Write Like a Painter

The initial sketches that an artist does in preparation for a painting look almost nothing like the finished product. For writers, the lines are a lot more blurry. A draft — the first or the very last — is always just a bunch of words on paper.

When you’re reading a story, you may imagine the writer sitting at his desk, writing those beautiful sentences down exactly as you see them. But that rarely ever happens. What the author wrote down in the first draft has been rewritten and edited many times before publication. In fact, you probably wouldn’t even recognise the story by reading a passage from the first draft.

Writers and painters have a lot in common when it comes to the creative process. Here’s what you can learn about writing by watching painters at work.

Working in Layers

Most painters start with a rough sketch. They erase it so it’s barely visible and do another one on top. Then they start blocking in the colours and adding more and more detail.

The initial sketches guide the artist’s hand later on when she’s adding new layers on top. Without the sketches, it would be very hard for the artist to create the image. Even though you won’t see it in the finished work, the sketch is an essential part of the process.

Think of the first draft as the initial sketch — something to guide you when shaping the story to its final form. By the time you’re finished, you may have removed, replaced or rearranged every single word. That doesn’t make the first draft any less valuable. The finished story wouldn’t exist without it.

The Importance of the First Draft

As I said, the first draft is critically important, but it also isn’t. The details aren’t important at all. A lot of the polishing and editing writers do while working on the first draft can be a waste of time. Often, you’ll have to cut entire chapters.

A painter won’t spend hours adding detailed shading to a sketch only to cover it with a layer of paint. That’d be ridiculous! As a writer, it’s much easier to fall into the same trap.

Painters use the initial sketches to set the perspective of the image and find the right shapes. Writing is much the same — the important things in the first draft are the broad strokes that will define the shape of the narrative. You want to get your main characters in and hit all the crucial plot points. But there’s no need to agonise about what does your protagonist order at Starbucks in scene 12.

That’s not to say that the details don’t matter. They can make or break a story, but they aren’t necessary when you’re working on the first draft.

It’s ok to leave things unfinished or keep writing even if you can’t decide or simply don’t know something. Skip it, wing it, do whatever it takes so you can keep going. The first draft just has to exist. You can fix anything later.

Many writers (myself included) spend way more time and energy on the first draft than is necessary. I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest. Perhaps our brain gets somehow confused because the first draft looks a lot like the final draft. They’re both just words on a page, and yet, they couldn’t be more different.

About the Author

Hi, I’m Radek 👋. I’m a writer, software engineer and the founder of Writing Analytics — an editor and writing tracker designed to help you beat writer’s block and create a sustainable writing routine.

I publish a post like this every week. Want to know when the next one comes out? Sign up for my email list below to get it right in your inbox.

SUBSCRIBE

(I won’t spam you or pass your email to a third party. You can unsubscribe at any time.)

Past Editions

#207: On Being Stuck, August 2021

#206: 4 Reasons to Keep a Journal, August 2021

#205: It’s just Writing, July 2021

#204: What Will Your Story Look Like?, July 2021

#203: It Will Take Longer Than You Think, July 2021

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#156: Being a Good Storyteller is a Superpower

Superpower or superskill? I can’t seem to find a word that doesn’t sound cheesy. But I believe it’s a vital thing to understand.

Stories are the fabric of our society. Our history, politics, religions and even science to a certain degree are all based on stories. They form the foundation of our relationships and education and anything you can think of.

The human brain has a system built-in that responds to stories. It’s how we understand the world around us. If you know how stories work and how to tell a good one, you’ll always be a step ahead.

However, this second part doesn’t come naturally. Some people are better at it, the same way some people are better at basketball. But the rest of us need to figure it out and practise.

When you tell people that you write fiction, they will give you that patronising look.

‘You can’t make money from writing. Unless you’re, like, Stephen King.’

They will tell you it’s a waste of time and that you should focus on a real career.

Great, thanks. At least you’ve heard of Stephen King.

It’s an exercise in self-control talking to people like that. For one because, as a fledgeling writer, you’re dealing with enough self-doubt as it is. And secondly, because they’re just wrong.

Sure, not everyone will make the same money as Stephen King. Many writers never get their books published. But every writer serious about their craft will learn how stories work and get a huge amount of practice in what might be the most important skill of all.

Even if you don’t succeed as a fiction writer in the traditional sense, the next time you’ll want to sell something, you will be telling a story. The next time you’ll meet your friends, you’ll be telling a story. The next time you’ll go to a job interview to advance your 'real career’, you’ll be telling a story.

Writing fiction is one of the best ways to learn how stories work.

It’s not just about making things up. You have plenty of stories of your own. Writing fiction will help you to recognise them. By understanding how stories work and why we tell them, you’ll know how to arrange things and what to highlight to make your story compelling.

A goal. An obstacle. Relatable characters. Progressive complications. Surprising twists and turns. A satisfying ending. Change over time.

In real life, stories aren’t fully formed. People tell them in fragments and signals. But they are there nevertheless.

Too many people are stuck going through the motions of their real careers that they forget to ask why are things the way they are in the first place like a writer would.

That’s the real waste of time.

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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Past Editions

#155: Do You Care About Your Stories Too Much?, August 2020

#154: A Better Way to Write, August 2020

#153: The Uncertainty of Being a Writer, July 2020

#152: Working with Creative Constraints, July 2020

#151: My Favourite Writing Podcasts, July 2020

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I don’t like this challenge but I’m doing it anyway

#144: Lots and Lots of Bad Stories

There are many versions of this anecdote floating around – I’ll go with the version from David Bayles and Ted Orland’s Art & Fear book which features a ceramics teacher.

At the beginning of a new semester, the ceramics teacher announced that the class will be split into two groups. The students on the left side of the room would be graded on the quantity of work they produced – the more pots they made, the better they would do. The students on the right received a different assignment. The teacher asked them to produce just a single pot. They could take all the time they needed to make it the best pot they ever made because they would be graded on the quality of their work instead.

The students went away to work. The first group out churned out dozens, then hundreds of pots, frantically trying to make enough to pass. The second group began with rigorous research into what made the perfect pot. They studied the works of famous artists and came up with theories that explained why their pots were so iconic. Then they looked into how to replicate that.

When the class came back together at the end of the semester, the ceramics teacher went through all the pots his students had made. To his surprise, the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity.

I love this little story because it highlights one important point: to produce enough work so that you can improve as a writer, you have to quit caring about quality. The irony is that if you keep worrying about whether your stories are good enough, you will never write enough of them to give yourself a chance to actually improve.

Here’s an idea. What if I told you to write 200 stories by the end of 2020? There are about 200 days left in the year. Why not? Does just the idea of that make you uncomfortable? Good.

When you have to write a story every day, there’s simply not enough time to get caught up on things. It doesn’t have to be a long story or a good story. But it has to be a story.

If you want some extra accountability, start an anonymous Tumblr or Instagram account and post your story there every day. Reuse the same characters on multiple days. Write the same scene from several different points of view. Anything goes.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ll get any readers. These posts are for you so that you can go back and read the first few ones 200 days from now and see how far have you come.

Good luck!

Want More?

My email subscribers receive a notification when I publish these posts along with a few things I found interesting or helpful on the literary internet every week. Click the link below to join the club.

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Past Editions

#143: What to Do When You’re Stuck?, May 2020

#142: What’s Your Story Really About?, May 2020

#141: Architecture and Gardening for Writers, May 2020

#140: When Can You Call Yourself a Writer?, April 2020

#139: What Can You Do to Fail More?, April 2020

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This week I reviewed “And Then There Were Stars” by one of the Rising Up Book Club participants! I highly recommend it!

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I write some reviews of undiscovered and new stories on Wattpad! I do not currently offer reviews anywhere other than Wattpad.