Posted on Jul 13, 2018
20+ Writing Strategies (That Helped Bestselling Authors Finish Their Books)
So you've decided today that you want to write. Great!
Now how exactly are you going to do it?
Luckily, we have a precedent to which to turn. From idea generation to the art of editing, there are thousands of writing strategies out there to get you past the finish line â and we gathered the best ones in this post. Here are 20+ writing strategies that you can use to help you over the finish line.
1. Mary Lee Settleâs âQuestionâ Writing Strategy
If youâre going through a drought of story ideas, you might want to run to an inspiration source that will never run out: questions.
In a talk with the New York Times, National Book Award-winner Mary Lee Settle explained:
âI start with a question. Then try to answer it.â
This writing strategy is endorsed by many other writers, most notably fantasy author Neil Gaiman. He wrote that a particularly magical question to ask yourself is, âWhat if _________?â For instance: âWhat if I wake up with wings?â Or, âWhat if your sister turned into a mouse?â
So your first plan of attack is to wonder about anything in the world: from the meaning to life to whether or not shrews could one day fall from the sky. As it turns out, no question is too silly â or weird â to give birth to a good story.
2. Ray Bradburyâs Library Scene
âWhen in doubt, go to the library,â as Hermione Granger might say. Sheâd be pleased to know that world-famous author Ray Bradbury is on her side:
âWhen I graduated from high school I couldnât go to college, so I went to the library 3 days a week for 10 years.â
Bradbury ended up taking out 10 books every week â meaning that he read at least a hundred books a year. Coincidentally, this was William Faulknerâs writing strategy, as well: "Read, read, read. Read everything â trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read!â
If you decide to follow their advice, you might turn the corner and come across an idea in the least surprising place of all: other books.
3. Orson Scott Cardâs Mindfulness Approach
Sometimes writers get so stuck in their own minds that they canât tell a great idea from a blob of words on the screen. If this sounds familiar, itâs probably time to go for a walk and smell the grass. According to Orson Scott Card, author of Enderâs Game:
âEverybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people donât see any.â
Walking is a proven writing strategy that improves creativity and gives your ideas some legs. Agatha Christieâs plots, for instance, were often purely inspired by a stroll around the neighborhood. Her second book, The Secret Adversary, arose from a conversation she overheard in a coffee shop. âTwo people were talking at a table nearby, discussing somebody called Jane FishâŠâ she wrote. âThat, I thought, would make a good beginning to a story â a name overheard at a tea shop â an unusual name, so that whoever heard it remembered it.â
To check out ten of Agatha Christie's best ever mysteries, go to this post right here.
4. Robert Louis Stevensonâs Notebook Scheme
Once you latch onto an idea that you know in your bones is good, you need to seize it with all your might and not let go. Thereâs nothing worse than realizing that youâve forgotten the great idea that occurred to you the previous night â all because you neglected to write it down.
To avoid this potential catastrophe, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, offered this writing strategy:
"I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in."
For everyone living in the 21st-century: this probably means keeping the Notes app on your cellphone handy. But you wonât go wrong with an old-fashioned notebook, either â so long as itâs nearby whenever you come up with a story idea.
5. Mark Twainâs âIncrementâ Writing Strategy
Now that you're committed to writing a story, you may be intimidated by the blank sheet in front of you. All of a sudden, you canât think anything else but the pages and pages of words that lie in your near future â oh, and is that a migraine coming on? Great.
For this particular brand of headache, Mark Twain proposed a cure:
âThe secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.â
In short, make a molehill out of the mountain. You can tackle any 100,000-word monster if you just think of it in smaller parts: whether thatâs by scene, chapter, arc, or a daily word count goal.
6. Norman Mailerâs Daily Routine Policy
Itâs no secret that 50% of being an writer is, well, writing. The other 50% is complaining about writing. To counter the urge to procrastinate, we can draw on American novelist Norman Mailerâs wisdom here:
âOver the years, Iâve found one rule. It is the only one I give on those occasions when I talk about writing. A simple rule. If you tell yourself you are going to be at your desk tomorrow, you are by that declaration asking your unconscious to prepare the material. You are, in effect, contracting to pick up such valuables at a given time. Count on me, you are saying to a few forces below: I will be there to write.â
That said, thereâs no proven âbest timeâ to write. Benjamin Franklin supposedly sat down at his desk to write at 6 am. Then you have F. Scott Fitzgerald, who wouldnât rise until just before midday to start his work. (You can check out the morning routines of more famous authors in this infographic here.)
Whenever you do decide to start your writing day, just make sure that the time youâve set aside is sacred. As J.K. Rowling said, you must be absolutely ruthless about protecting writing days: âDo not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days.â
7. Katherine Anne Porterâs âLast Lineâ Writing Strategy
According to Pulitzer Prize-winning Katherine Anne Porter, sometimes you might need to think upside-down in order to write right-side up:
âIf I didnât know the ending of a story, I wouldnât begin. I always write my last line, my last paragraph, my last page first.â
Getting the ending down will give you something to write towards â and the confidence that a finish line is in sight.
8. Jane Yolenâs Work-Out Method
Unfortunately, writing isnât magic. Once youâve figured out a writing routine that works, you need to make sure you actually do the thing: write.
Many authors recommend writing at least once a day. Thereâs a good reason for it â and it isnât masochism! Jane Yolen explains the reasoning here:
âExercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.â
9. Ernest Hemingwayâs âStop While Youâre Aheadâ Gambit
Maintaining momentum during a multi-month slog is one of the hardest parts of writing. But Nobel Laureate Ernest Hemingway offered this as a tried and true strategy:
âThe best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day ⊠you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and donât think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.â
Many authors who use this âstop while youâre aheadâ strategy will pause mid-scene or mid-paragraph. Some even go so far as to quit writing mid-sentence. One writer who has sworn by this advice is none other than Roald Dahl: âYou make yourself stop and you walk away. And you canât wait to get back because you know what you want to say next.â
You may have your eyebrow raised in doubt. How can you learn not to worry? Hemingway has an answer for you, too: âBy not thinking about it. As soon as you start to think about it stop it. Think about something else. You have to learn that.â
10. Henry David Thoreauâs âFull Speed Aheadâ Strategy
That said, we understand that it can be hard to stop writing when youâre in full-flow â much like reining in a horse when heâs racing at full stride. If Hemingwayâs writing strategy doesnât sit well with you, Henry David Thoreau has this alternative:
âWrite while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.â
To put another slant to it, you can think about it in terms of Saul Bellowâs âInsomniaâ Strategy. Bellow, the Pulitzer Prize winner, once wrote: âYou never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.â Just to be clear, weâre not telling you that you have to set your alarm to 3am every night. But itâs good to remember that the urge to write can overcome you at any time of the day. If something is so significant that it compels you to wake up from your sleep, jot it down.
11. Roald Dahlâs Cocoon System
Has nothing inspired you to write yet? Maybe it's time for a change of location. Hereâs how a friend of Roald Dahlâs explained the authorâs odd writing strategy:
âHe steps into a sleeping bag, pulls it up to his waist and settles himself in a faded wing-backed armchair. His feet he rests on a battered travelling case full of logs. This is roped to the legs of the armchair so itâs always at a perfect distance.â
Dahl wasnât alone in finding strange places to write. Gertrude Stein wrote in the driverâs seat of her Model T Ford, which meant that she was especially prolific during shopping expeditions. Marcel Proust refused to work anywhere but his bed. But perhaps the writing situation of Edith Sitwell takes the proverbial cake. Despite her name, she found that she wrote best lying down⊠in an open coffin. A grave mistake for most people, but not her.
12. Raymond Chandlerâs âMan with a Gunâ Method
Last but not least, whenever youâre not sure where to take your story next, you can heed Raymond Chandlerâs strategy for chapter-writing:
âWhen in doubt how to end a chapter, bring in a man with a gun.â
Now, this probably isnât going to be the kind of advice that youâll want to take literally â but itâs a reminder to keep the ante upped so that your story never becomes stale. In other words, end each chapter with a metaphorical bang.
13. Neil Gaimanâs âDonât Look at It Againâ Approach
Have you every written a story, thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, and came back to it the next day to revel in your masterpiece â only to gape in horror because it turned into a demon baby in the middle of the night?
Luckily, this happens to every writer. In fact, Neil Gaiman says that time spent away from your manuscript is a necessary part of the editing process:
âThe best advice I can give on this is, once itâs done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes. Finish the short story, print it out, then put it in a drawer and write other things. When youâre ready, pick it up and read it, as if youâve never read it before. If there are things you arenât satisfied with as a reader, go in and fix them as a writer: thatâs revision.â
Putting your story aside for a few days or months gives you the chance to evaluate your story objectively and see its faults. Most importantly, it allows you to experience your story as a reader. Ultimately, ârevisionâ is a combination of âre-â and âvisionâ: the act of returning to something with new eyes.
14. Anton Chekhovâs Ending and Beginning Strategy
Aside from his world-famous Gun technique, Anton Chekhov had some more neat advice on editing:
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
Readers are ruthless creatures: if your book doesnât sweep them up in the first twenty pages, chances are that theyâll put your book down entirely. We don't think Chekhov meant you have to cut the entire beginning and end out â just that itâs worth re-visiting those parts of the story first when youâre tightening your narrative.
15. Stephen Kingâs âRoad to Hellâ Plan
Whether or not youâre religious, youâll want to keep Stephen Kingâs advice in mind:
âI believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.â
Be cautious about using too many adverbs: their mere existence might mean that youâre telling, not showing, says King.
âTo put it another way, theyâre like dandelions. If you have one in your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day⊠fifty the day after that⊠and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then itâs â GASP!! â too late.â
16. Mark Twainâs âDamnâ Proposition
If youâre ever agonizing over whether or not you should take something out, Mark Twain has a very simple strategy for you:
âSubstitute âdamnâ every time youâre inclined to write âveryâ; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.â
To follow Twain's advice, delete any âfillerâ word unless itâs absolutely essential. This includes words like âveryâ and also âreally,â âthings,â and âstuff.â Quartz recommends substituting a more concise word for âveryâ â for instance, âterrifiedâ instead of âvery afraid.â You can see this post for some more helpful options.
17. Walt Whitmanâs Comma Technique
Let us be crystal clear: thereâs nothing that will get a reader or an agent to drop your manuscript quicker than a bunch of punctuation errors in a row. Walt Whitman boils it down into a very simple statement:
âI hate commas in the wrong places.â
Even after youâve given your draft an edit to identify structural and flow issues, youâll need to proofread it with a discerning eye. Identify speling erors, spots where commas are missing or overused, and places where someone says âHelloâ without proper punctuation. Trust us â your readers will thank you for it.
18. Maya Angelouâs âWrite Anythingâ Mode
Seriously, anything. You can take Maya Angelouâs award-winning words for it:
âWhat I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks, âThe cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.â And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When Iâm writing, I write. And then itâs as if the muse is convinced that Iâm serious and says, âOkay. Okay. Iâll come.ââ
âThe cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat,â doesnât exactly sound very glamorous, does it? But Maya Angelou also wrote I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1971, so she knows a thing or two about writing.
19. George Plimptonâs Letter Strategy
If the thought of an agent or thousands of people reading your story makes you sweat, you might have the literary version of "stage fright." To help curb this type of writer's block, the Paris Review founder George Plimpton used to follow this strategy:
âMany years ago, I met John Steinbeck at a party in Sag Harbor, and told him that I had writerâs block. And he said something which Iâve always remembered, and which works. He said, âPretend that youâre writing not to your editor or to an audience or to a readership, but to someone close, like your sister, or your mother, or someone that you like.â And at the time I was enamored of Jean Seberg, the actress, and I had to write an article about taking Marianne Moore to a baseball game, and I started it off, âDear Jean . . . ,â and wrote this piece with some ease, I must say. And to my astonishment thatâs the way it appeared in Harperâs Magazine. âDear Jean . . .â Which surprised her, I think, and me, and very likely Marianne Moore.â
Weâll let Steinbeck, the person who first came up with this ingenious writing strategy, explain the reasoning behind it: âWrite it as a letter aimed at one person. This removes the vague terror of addressing the large and faceless audience and it also, you will find, will give a sense of freedom and a lack of self-consciousness.â
Plimpton wasnât kidding, by the way: you can read his October 1964 article in Harperâs Magazine here.
20. Hilary Mantelâs âDo Anythingâ Technique
What if youâre just sick of words altogether? For a change of pace, letâs try something that doesnât involve writing â in any capacity. Hilary Mantel says that sometimes what you need to do in order to write is not write:
âIf you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to Âmusic, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, donât just stick there scowling at the problem. But donât make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other peopleâs words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient.â
Force yourself to disengage from your manuscript and you might come back sharper and more aware of what you want to say. Jane Smiley, for instance, would drink Diet Cokes to distract herself, explaining: âWhen you sit down again on Saturday, youâre better. Not only because of all the practice, but also because of the walking away. Iâm a firm believer in walking away.â
21. P.G. Wodehouseâs Cursing Approach
If youâve come this far and all else has failed, know that you can always resort to P.G. Wodehouseâs tried, true, and completely professional advice:
âI just sit at my typewriter and curse a bit.â
Do you have any more writing strategies to share? How about writer's block memes? Have you found any strategy useful so far? Tell us in the comments below!
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1 response
Glen Barrington says:
23/10/2018 â 14:16
Hmmm! So the survey says! Nobody knows for sure!