Category: Writing process (general)

The flashlight technique

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When working on a long piece of writing (say more than five double-spaced pages), it can be difficult to see the whole project at one time. In such situations, it may seem like your brain is a box that is overflowing. It can only hold so much.

One solution is to apply what I’ve come to call the “flashlight technique.”

It’s based on the idea that, in some ways, writing is like walking down a dark road at night while carrying a flashlight. You can see only so far ahead. Now that may seem like a problem, if you think you should be able to see the whole project clearly before proceeding. But, often, writing isn’t like that. It’s written bit by bit. Write as far as you can see — over and over again.

How do you work on long pieces? By outlining the whole thing ahead of time? Breaking it into sections, scenes or chapters? Or maybe you’re one of those fortunate individuals who can envision the entire project in your head.

To talk or not — that is the question

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 “I think it’s bad to talk about one’s present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension,” Norman Mailer once said.

 For writers who write to express themselves, talking about a particular topic may make writing about it unnecessary. On the other hand, I’ve been known to test a piece of my humor writing on unsuspecting friends just to see if they laugh. 

What do you think – that you should either write about it or talk about it? Or maybe your opinion is somewhere in between.

Critic file

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Last week, one of my students asked if I had any advice about dealing with her inner critic, which she referred to as “that parrot on my shoulder.”

A talented fiber artist, when Loyce sat down to write, she would hear that inner voice asking, “Who’s time am I going to waste?”

I suggested she try creating a critic file, a technique I’ve found useful over the years.

Whenever I’m working at my computer and hear that inner critic, I immediately create a second Word file, type into it whatever I’m telling myself, and then return to my writing project. If, after a few moments, I hear more negative self-talk, I re-open the critic file, enter into it what my inner parrot is saying, and, once again, return to my writing.

Turns out, my inner critic isn’t all that original. She only has 5-10 phrases she keeps repeating; and with time and the critic-file technique, even those have faded away.