Month: February 2007

Isn’t it amazing how you can lie in bed and compose paragraphs of coherent text and yet once the fingers are poised over the keys it fades to so much fluffy cotton wool.

These are rules just to remind me more than anything, but if they help others then so be it.

• write little and often
• don’t linger for hours if nothing happens, go do something else and come back if inspiration strikes
• stick to one subject per post – it’s a lot easier to focus and to find a meaningful title!
• shorter sentences reduce the dangers of rambling
• don’t worry about quality before quantity to start with, review as a separate process
• don’t be afraid to bin if need be – it is better to have written and binned than not written at all!

Sometimes it is not clear to me whether I pale at the blank white page because my head really is empty or because there are too many unfocused words and ideas in there tripping over themselves to get out and be expressed. The only way to test the theory is to start writing and find out.