Happy Friday! Today I’m going to talk about a concept I’ve christened “The Linearity Illusion in Writing.”
But first...
Since the beginning of time writers all over the world have argued over one thing more than they’ve argued over anything else: Writer’s Block, sometimes referred to as ‘blank-page syndrome.’ And the debate is always the same. Does writer’s block exist? Or is it just a convenient excuse writers pull out their sleeves much like a magician would with an ace of hearts?
The problem with this perennially infuriating discussion is not one of substance but one of definition. When people argue over writer’s block’s existence, they often forget to first define what they actually mean by ‘Writer’s Block’. (Incidentally, I believe this to be the fundamental issue of 80% of argument everywhere.)
The way I see it, this term can be used to mean two things:
A pseudo-mystical force beyond a writer’s control that, much like a god or a muse, dictates whether one can write or not on a given day.
All other reasons why one might be unable to write on a given day.
Although one could argue over point number 1 ad infinitum, there truly isn’t much discussion to be had over point number 2.
There are at least a thousand reasons why someone might not be able to write on a given day. In the last few years being a writer and surrounding myself by writers, I’ve found that of those thousand reasons, at least 80% of them can be boiled down to one big, capital r, reason.
Fear.
There are three main types of fear:
Fear of showing too much of oneself.
Fear of looking like a fool in front of your friends and family and (real or imagined) readers.
Fear of making mistakes and falling short of your own expectations.
Learning to overcome fear #1 is probably the hardest thing a writer can do in their life. Fear #2 is one you’ll just need to learn how to live with. Fear #3––that one can be easily bypassed.
Why? Because the fear of making mistakes stems, more often than not, from one specific misconception. A misconception which also happens to be the main differentiator between inexperienced (or amateur) and experienced (or professional) writers.
On Readers & Writers
(Note: for simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to inexperienced writers as “amateurs” and experienced writers as “professionals”. I mean no offense by this.)
Before we talk about the difference between amateur and professional writers, let's look at the difference between readers and writers.
There is no hard line that separates one from the other. Almost anyone lucky enough to live in the modern/developed world today is both reader and writer. (Emails, texts, school papers, etc.)
Readers write and writers read. That is obvious enough.
One could say that readers are 95% consumers and 5% creators––That most of the text they encounter in their life, they haven’t produced. One might be even tempted to say that for writers the producer/consumer split is closer to 50/50.
But that isn’t the case either. For a lot of writers, the split is 99% reading and 1% writing. This still doesn’t prevent them from writing thousands and thousands of words a year. It just means they read way more than the average person.
So what is the difference between readers and writers? Well… The same as between amateur writers and professional writers.
No, it's not the amount they spend writing (although this does play a role.)
The main difference between readers (& amateur writers) and professional writers is in the way they interact with (and think about) text.
The Linearity Illusion in Writing
(Linear vs Non-linear learning by @bryanMMathers; licensed under CC-BY-ND – This image expresses the difference between linear and non-linear learning, but it also happens to illustrate the non-linearity of writing perfectly.)
Readers experience text linearly. They read an article or a book and go from point A to B to C all the while thinking that this linearity was present from the moment the piece was conceived.
It's not their fault. Amateur writers think that to write better, they should study great writing. And that's true enough.
The problem is that great writing is designed to look effortless. Great writers make it seem that they wrote the entire thing in one draft, without ever making a mistake.
Professional writers, on the other hand, know that this linearity is an illusion created after the fact. They know that writing is a non-linear process, that good writing is like trying to put together a giant jigsaw puzzle, whilst not being quite sure what those pieces even are.
Professional writers know that to get from point A to B to C, they first had to go through the whole alphabet three or four or seventeen times, and mess up the order and even forget a few letters along the way. Professional writers know that the difference between a first draft and a final draft is as stark as that between a chicken and a cow.
Professional writers know that it is impossible to write an essay or article or book without making mistakes.
Most amateur writers know this too. Everyone knows of the process called “editing.” Logically, at least. But somehow they seem to forget editing is even a thing when they sit down to write themselves.
And in that bout of forgetfulness is when the fear of making mistakes kicks in.
How do professional writers bypass that fear? Sure, it has something to do with the fact of knowing that mistakes are unavoidable, we’re all humans, etc, etc.
Professional writers aren’t afraid of making mistakes because they know that treating a piece of writing as something linear is inherently paradoxical. Why? Because to write something (especially something long) you need information in the present that is only available to you in the future.
There are many ways one can bypass this illusion and learn to look at text like a professional writer looks at text. One such way is through sheer force of will–reminding yourself, every time you sit down to write that you will make mistakes.
Another way, the one that has helped me most, is through embracing an ugly truth.
You’ve probably read or at least heard of Hemingway’s famous quote on the matter. Just in case you haven’t, here it is:
The first draft of anything is shit.
Not very forgiving, is it? If you’ve read anything by or about Hemingway, you know that such a stark statement aligns quite well with his character.
On Fear & Shitty First Drafts
“The first draft of anything is shit” was Hemingway’s go-to advice to aspiring writers because he knew it to be true.
He knew that it was pointless to try and write a perfect novel from scratch. That it couldn’t be done. He understood–or at least I think he understood–that the role of the first draft is to collect all the pieces of information about his characters, setting, plot, and themes–to go on a journey through which he would be able to experience all these “aha!” moments so he could later apply them to the story in the editing phase.
When best-selling author Tim Ferriss advises aspiring writers to just “write 2 crappy pages per day,” this is what he means. Even if you later throw those pages out, they were worth writing. They were necessary. Vital, even. How else would you get to know your story?
When Neil Gaiman talks about writing, he says his first drafts are always a mess. But that it doesn’t matter, because when you edit, your task is to “pretend you knew what you were doing from the beginning.”
Amateur writers think that if they have an outline, they need to follow it to the tee and any deviation equals sacrilege. Amateur writers think that if they write the wrong sentence or the wrong paragraph, or even the wrong voice for their character, that they are not good writers, and never will be.
Amateur writers think that the first sentence J. K. Rowling ever wrote for Harry Potter was "Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." And that if they can’t manage such a sentence when they first sit down to write, there is no point in writing at all.
My advice, then? Ignore the fear that is paralyzing you, and embrace the fact that your first draft is going to suck. Because it will. But that’s okay. There are a thousand reasons why it’s hard to sit down and write–don’t let your fear of making mistakes be one of them. If there is one thing worse than a bad story, it’s a story that was never finished because its author gave up mid-way through.
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