How my Blackberry helped me get started writing

Time
I keep having ideas for blog posts and for fiction stuff, but I rarely used to get them written. One issue was time. When do people find the time to sit down and just write?

At work I am at the computer all day long, but as the word might indicate I am working. I did try using my lunchbreaks for writing rather than my normal round of checking up on certain forums, websites and Google Reader. It quickly became clear that trying to get into the flow while trying to finish lunch in a timely manner did not really work (and there's the whole breadcrumbs-in-keyboard and mayo-on-mouse issues).

I do have a computer at home, a lovely 3XS Black Widow one which allows me to play WoW with high fps and low lag. So you can guess what I end up doing when I'm at the computer at home. ;-)

So one day I was on the train and very bored. My DS was out of juice, so no Sodoku, and I didn't have a book with me. On impulse I picked up my Blackberry and opened up the MemoPad. I'd had this idea for a blog post floating around my head, so off I went.

Turns out the Blackberry is ideal for writing on the go. It is small and you can get away with writing one-handed if necessary. That means that even when squashed onto a busy commuter train with no personal space whatsoever and using one hand to cling to a pole for when the driver stands on the brakes - you can still write. It's amazing! All that time I spend on trains, tubes and buses can be used for something useful.

Writing vs editing
The other issue I've always had with writing is that I am a bit of a perfectionist. I'll start writing and then get stuck because that word didn't quite sound right or maybe that paragraph needs to go further up. Kinda ruins the flow.

When you are writing you are not trying to create a masterpiece ready to go to print. You are just creating a first draft. It is all about getting the ideas from inside your head and onto paper. To allow things to flow, unhindered by self-criticism. Only once you have captured your story is it time to tame it.

That is when you take off the creative writing hat and put on the critical editing hat. You go back over the story correcting spelling and grammar, but more importantly you critically assess the writing. That is the time to ponder the exact word that would best describe the hero's tone of voice in scene 5, chapter 10. To move things around to create a better flow, to trim a bit here and plump up a bit there.

You do NOT interrupt your writing flow for these kinds of things. I know I am not supposed to do it, yet I keep getting bogged down with it while writing. I lose the flow and the story withers and dies under the weight of self-criticism. It is a hard mental shift to make. To allow yourself to write in cliches, using sub-optimal words - for the sake of allowing the story to be born, to have a chance to live and thrive.

The Blackberry has helped me with this too. I think maybe it has something to do with the fact that you see so little of what you have written on that small screen. It is somehow easier to let things just flow and do what they want when it disappears off the screen so quickly. It is quite liberating.


Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device