Noteworthy Writing Advice From a Famous Humor Writer
Treat writing as an exercise
Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.
— Jackson Dickert
I was reading to get some writing inspiration, gratefully, while doing so I came across an article on Writers Digest.
It was written by Jackson Dickert, the famous humor writer and to my surprise, he majored in kinesiology — the field I heard about for the first time in my life.
In simple words, kinesiology is all about “exercise science”. And that’s how Jacksons explained the process of writing — by comparing it with exercise.
Writing is definitely not a sprint, you have to write daily or weekly, whatever suits you to get into the marathon of writing. It should not be like you start writing and write 10,000 words a single day but soon after a few days — you burn out.
Just like exercise you need to start with small to avoid that burn-out situation.
Treat writing like an exercise and implement the following steps.
1. What You Would Do If Your Goal Is to Run For a Marathon?
Practice.
Yes, you need to practice running on a daily basis so that you become able to run for a marathon. You need to build a routine and stick to it no matter what.
In the beginning, it would be difficult but as soon as you get into the habit of running, things would get easier.
Do the same for writing; set up a place, time, and word count then start practicing. Gradually, your mind will get used to it and you would be able to churn out more words with the flow.
2. What Would You Do When You Have Decided to Start Exercise?
Preparation.
You got it. You would buy athletics clothes, weight, or any other exercise equipment, water bottles, supplements, energy bars, and so on. All these things would help you with your exercise.
The same goes for writing, you need the right tools to write effectively.
If you like to write in notebooks, go get them, and if you like to write using the laptop, go for it — Choose whatever suits you.
For more focused and organized writing you can use a number of tools, to name a few, Focus writer, Evernote, Campfire blaze, and so on. The list is quite long so you have plenty of options.
3. Well, You Are Finally at the Gym, Now What?
Perform.
That's the hardest part — to actually perform the exercise or to actually write.
When I started writing, my mind used to be so motivated and full of ideas but as soon as I sat in front of the blank screen, drowsiness came all over me, and all those thoughts that I was about to write disappeared.
Gratefully, now it's not like that — I write more easily now as compared to when I started.
Well, to start writing, which is no doubt, not as easy as it sounds, we all need a little inspiration. I write this one after getting inspiration from another article.
There are many ways I use to get ideas for writing, some of them I am writing down to help you get started.
- Read quotes, pick up the one you like, and write something inspired by that quote.
- Read articles of others and generate ideas from them.
- Use Reddit or Quora to get some interesting information to write about.
Try any one of them and start writing.
Takeaway
Treat writing as an exercise and follow the rules that apply when it comes to exercise.
- Start practicing writing with an organized routine and don't forget to start with small.
- Go get the right tools to write more effectively.
- And for the hardest part, that is to actually write, get inspirations from everywhere.
