This article was originally written for the new issue of Write Mag, an amazing free magazine for authors and readers! Get a copy on Magcloud today and visit http://writemag.net
There is a time-old question among writers: is it better to write every day, or only when you feel like it? Does a burst of inspiration really produce the greatest work, or is a steadfast, disciplined approach the sure-fire way to pen that bestseller that’s dying to pour out of your brain?
As a teacher of creative writing, I have often encouraged my students to always be writing, to pen notes, words and phrases as often as possible, every day if they can. But I have to admit I have not always practised what I preach. I used to hear tales of Philip Pullman going down to his garden shed to pen his target words for the day and I always thought that that kind of writing could only produce contrived and constricted prose that did not really have the flow of truly inspired writing. And so for many years I wrote only when I felt inspired to put pen to paper, which resulted in something like six disastrously unfinished novels and me calling myself a writer whilst only actually spending an hour or two each week actually practising my craft.
Now you may have your own style as a writer, and perhaps only writing when you’re ‘in the mood’ for it really does produce your best work, and perhaps you do get novels and stories completed in that way. If so, then I applaud you, dear friend, for you are a rare breed. In my experience in teaching other writers, the single most vital thing I have learned is that ‘lack of inspiration’ is the biggest excuse that writers make for not producing any work at all, and that a prolonged period of feeling like this will inevitably lead to the dreaded writer’s block. I myself have fallen into this trap too many a time over the years.
But no more.
