Writer Voodoo

I often ask myself what makes me good at coming up with concepts that are interesting, entertaining, and worthwhile.

The creative process is a funny thing. How do you magic something from nothing? How do you turn the idea vomit in your head into something meaningful? How do you make it palatable and draw in a fandom? What do you do when the ideas stop coming?

That last one seems to get everybody at some point. What next? If you’ve experienced anything like me, you know it’s hard to get your mind to budge when you have work to do. Sometimes you have to change it up. Sometimes you need to develop some habits. Here’s a list of things I came up with:

• Take a few moments each day and stare into the nothingness, and pluck something out that interests me. I believe that if someone else is going to enjoy your work, you must enjoy your work. I cannot stress enough the importance of buying into what you’re trying to sell.
• I also believe you have to open your eyes and look at the world around you. Not with the biased eyes you use to see your Facebook stream or the news channel of your choice, but with eyes that are open and objective. You can find gems of gold out there in this sphere if you step outside of your bubble.
• Don’t forget you have an actual life, as well. Go out with friends, have a drink, socialize a bit. You’ll do no one any good if you become a basket case. Also, there are stories to be found.
• Remember that the story will write itself. It doesn’t matter if you quite know where you’re going. It’s more important to stumble your way through until you feel you’ve come to a natural conclusion. Then you take your SFD (shitty first draft) and you edit it. Then you edit it some more. Then you have someone else edit it. Then you look at it one more time before you publish it.
• The story won’t write itself without you, though. Remember to schedule yourself some time to write. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it needs to be consistent and realistic.
• Jot down your creative ideas. This is incredibly important. I don’t know how many good ideas I lost due to simply not writing them down. This is pretty easy, though, in today’s world. You have many ways to note things if you own a smartphone. Voice recording, apps, and various other means.
• Everything has a story. That’s what you need to convey to people. It doesn’t matter if you’re launching the latest high-tech app, getting people to use your recipe, or even getting people to view your Twitch feed. Sell them on a story. A narrative is important as people love to be directed to what they see as new knowledge. The brain craves stimulation and the better, more worthwhile content you provide will cause bigger numbers.
• Finally, just have some fun. Zone out a bit. Pick up a book you’ve been meaning to read, paint a picture, take a walk, hold someone’s hand and tell them you love them. Do something that’s not related to your writing. Break the cycle a bit.

Writing is a bit like voodoo.

Sometimes it just takes the right ritual to get the juju going. The most important thing to remember is never to give up. The only time you really fail at something is when you just give up.

If you want to write, just write.