Whether journalist Red Smith, Ernest Hemingway, or someone else said it, this adage is true when it comes to explaining how hard freelance writing can be:
You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.
Which brings me to the topic of writers’ avoidance and the definition I heard somewhere sometime ago:
Writer’s avoidance is the overwhelming need to:
- Urgently organize a drawer
- Whip up a batch of homemade something
- Binge watch hours and hours of a 20-year-old sitcom
- Playing Words with Friends until you have no friends
… just so you don’t have to start the thing you know you need to start.
Need an example? Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley says this is how she starts her writing day:
“I always get into the hot tub and read a bit of a novel before I start the day’s work. If I feel reluctant, I reflect on the bills I have to pay. If I feel really reluctant, I time myself and say that I only have to work for an hour.
Well, I’m no PPW author (yet, anyway), but setting a short period of uninterrupted writing time works for me. I call it my ALT, which stands for “At Least Technique.”
Essentially it means this: I will do _____ for AT LEAST _____.
I first used this technique with exercise, telling myself I only had to get on the treadmill, walk, etc. for X number of minutes. I gave myself guilt-free permission to stop at the end of that time. Only once did I stop at the appointed time. The rest of the time As you might guess, I did more than the minimum.
Same goes with writing. In fact, using a 20-minute AT LEAST, I wrote this post–with 5 minutes to spare.
Have (or will) you try it?