The Magic Happens Between the Notecards
[by Colleen Wainwright]
While I get that the “sh*tty first draft,” as Anne Lamott calls it, is a necessary step on one’s way to beautiful, polished prose, the perfectionist in me still balks at throwing a bunch of words on a page with the faith that I’ll be able to sort them out later.
What’s worse is that I have a similar block towards outlining–I want everything to be perfect from the get-go. (Pro tip: this is NOT helpful.)
What finally broke my terror of facing the blank page was literally breaking up that page: instead of sitting down to write or outline on a screen or sheet of paper, I jot my ideas–all of them, in whatever order they come to me–on individual index cards. (And to metaphorically break things up, I do all of this while standing at my “analog desk,” aka the dining room table.)
It’s a variation on mind-mapping as described by friend, the prolific writer and writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant. If you don’t share my terror of affixing your thoughts permanently in space on a gigantic sheet of paper, you may enjoy following her instructions more precisely. (You can get them by signing up for her excellent free newsletter.)
But whether you stand or sit, use individual notecards or whiteboards or rolls of butcher paper, getting away from the computer and jotting down thoughts freeform is a great way to unstick yourself for any task of writing.
Colleen Wainwright is currently grappling with writer’s block from the road while she travels to various ASMP chapters with her lively talk about marketing, “Making People Love You Madly.“
