Firsty's Writing Tips, Part 2

Bonus writing tip: Even if you're writing on screen, keep some paper nearby to crumple up, when you get frustrated with your words.

On surviving the Newsvine test of stamina

We all know what we're up to, but it's still difficult to appreciate exactly what we're up against. Newsvine, after all, isnt keeping the lights on. So publishing a fine article every day is no small feat. Even on its own, for seasoned writers, pushing out, say, 1000 words a day, can be the kind of unbearable task that makes one take up roofing, just for the rest.

Two years ago this season I embarked upon a similar task, albeit rather quiet and under the radar. The only thing pushing me was myself, not an organized riot squad of armed artists poised with comments and rewrite demands.

What does it take to produce solid writing on a daily basis? Other than guts, endurance and some kind of craziness, it takes ideas. Ideas can be hard to come by. Sometimes I'd rather piss on an electrical outlet than have to come up with a good idea.

So I'm going to do my small part, here at the relative outset of this match of wills, to help you, dear writers, turn yourselves into word grinders of the highest quality.

First of all, and this may seem counter-intuitive, you must read. All great writers are simply great readers seeking what they havent found elsewhere. Secondly, you must have confidence in your imagination and the connections you draw between things. Finally, dont hide from repetition, for repetition can be your best friend.

Let's break this down into a list:

1. Avoid, at all costs, reading @!$%#ty books. These will seep into your memory and destroy your voice. The best way to avoid reading @!$%#ty books is to use the New York Times Bestseller list as a "dont touch" list, particularly on the fiction side. I'm sorry if you like Harry Potter or John Grisham, but those books arent going to help your writing at all. In fact, they will hurt it. They will suck the lifeblood from your originality and voice.

2. Embrace, in every way, good writing and reporting. You're not likely to be inspired by another summary article on the DoJ scandal, even if it is in the New York Times. Instead, follow trails to the kind of articles you enjoy reading. Then, read them. Read them hard and close, and use these to spur your own imagination. What did the writer miss that you would have liked to learn about? What question would you have asked the subject? What connections to the big picture can you draw that the writer didnt draw? Do you see a running theme bouncing between dead baby seals and missing honey bees? Or maybe you noticed a critical flaw in someone's political campaign or batting stance that nobody's pointed out before. The best way to get to these original ideas is to see the quality results of developing a good idea, even if it's written by someone with whom you disagree.

3. Even if it makes you feel like a total Melvin, take the time to congratulate yourself on small steps, like the germ of an idea, the construction of your essay, your clever use of sources' quotes. Look in the mirror and tell yourself that you are all right, that people like to read you, and that you can make a difference in the world today, right now, simply by articulating your mad thoughts onto the virtual page.

4. Once you have an idea, believe in it. Dont run at every sign of shakiness. Although it helps to pay attention to something that might not be working, it's often better to finish the thought before you abandon it completely. Michael Jordan thought he was going to make every basket he shot, but he didnt, and that didnt stop him from knowing for damn sure he was still going to make every next basket. Keep going, trust yourself. Trust your audience to be at least as intelligent as you, and just go with it.

5. Now that you've spent all this time reading and acting like Al Franken in a sweater and blond wig, it's time to write, and you've only got 24 hours of gross time to work with, netting you about, if you're lucky, an hour or two to actually get the thing down on the screen. It may seem impossible, but just think of the things you do every day without even trying. How are you able to sleep, eat, screw, laugh and find time to be at work, when we always seem to be running out of time every day? By having a routine, that's how. When I did this exercise a few years ago, I started with something I saw on the way to work every day. Out of that came several essays featuring local characters — the crazy religious farmer working a brown field, the traffic patterns of roads surrounding hospitals, the way that cops treat people, the way the grocer treats her fruit. Not every story happened that way, but many did, even many which didnt end up that way, began that way. Repetition in writing is like routine in life. And repetition in writing doesnt have to mean following a certain structure or set of words — it can also describe the thought process which is generating your writing in the first place. Embrace it.

Finally, an un-numbered item that never fails: Every so often, put "Part 1" at the end of the title of one of your essays. Just in case you're ever stuck for something, you can simply write the "Part 2."

Thanks for reading and, mostly, thanks for writing.

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