There seems no good reason why ordinary, businesslike, sensible people should not be able to sit down and begin the work of composition that they have spent a lot of time and effort preparing for. Writing, as has been said before, is just a task, similar to many other tasks. It would be nice to think that if you sat down and applied your mind to the material, composition would then prove to be relatively easy. You researched diligently, planned carefully, now you reap your reward as the words start to flow out onto the paper or screen.Unfortunately, it does not always happen like that. The work you did beforehand will undoubtedly make things much easier for you in the long run, but there is no guarantee that good preparation will automatically result in effortless performance. Writing can be hard work. Getting started on a piece of writing can be particularly hard. Far from flowing, words seem to get stuck somewhere—either between your brain and your fingertips or in some back area of your brain where your consciousness cannot find them. Meanwhile, the page or the screen remains resolutely blank.Do not take this gentle warning to imply that there are always problems when you begin a piece of writing or that if you sit down and words do start to flow, you must be doing something wrong. Far from it. Most writers have good days and bad days. Most writers find some pieces virtually write themselves, while others have to be hammered out word by word and sentence by sentence. If your fingers are flying over the buttons from the outset, be thankful and press on. You can then skip ahead in this chapter to the section on drafting.The keynote of this subsection, however, is that making a start can prove difficult. If the next paragraph describes your experiences, then stay with the text. The difficulties can be overcome.At some time or other almost everyone experiences difficulties in getting started: You sit down at your desk, feeling rather tense and conscious that you have a fairly long and possibly arduous task ahead of you. You check your notes and your plan. You pause to gather your thoughts before launching out. You find that the pause prolongs itself as you stare at the blank page or screen. The words that you hoped would spill forth obstinately refuse to come. In order to break the spell, you force yourself to write something down, but you do so without conviction. The few words or sentences you have squeezed out look clumsy and inadequate and seem not to be at all what you wanted to say. You erase them and are back to square one. You try again, and the same thing happens. All the while, the little confidence and resolve you began with are ebbing away, and the magnitude of the task seems to be increasing. The dreaded words writer's block come to mind.Writer's BlockLet us try to get this particular distraction out of the way at the very beginning. You may ask why, if writing is a task and skill comparable to many others, there is no such thing as "chef's block" or "driver's block." There are, no doubt, psychological factors that can cause a practitioner of any skill to lose suddenly the ability to practice it. Writers seem particularly vulnerable to them. Instances of celebrated and successful literary figures finding themselves apparently unable to begin new work or complete work already begun have been well publicized. If you find yourself staring at a blank screen or a blank sheet of paper and you cannot nerve yourself to begin writing, despite the fact that all your material has been neatly organized and your plan is laid out in full beside you, are you then suffering from writer's block?No, it is far more likely that you are having an attack of writer's cold feet. It is not at all uncommon to be intimidated by a blank page or screen. Even the most humdrum writing task involves some use of the creative imagination, enabling us to string words together deliberately in order to communicate, yet the creative imagination seems to be a rather delicate function of the mind and easily intimidated. In addition, everyone starts with an image of what the final text ought to look like and gets frustrated when early attempts do not live up to this image. But you can and you must get around these problems. Otherwise all your preparatory work will be wasted.Forget writer's block, think positively, do not lose heart, and make it as easy as you can for yourself. If you do have problems starting, try the suggested procedures immediately following.Breaking the SpellThere are certain practical steps that you can take in order to make it easier to write.- Find yourself a quiet place where there are no distractions. We hear of great books being written on the kitchen table. It is unlikely that they were written while the kids were in the kitchen with the author or while the author was trying to cook a meal. If necessary, take the phone off the hook and ignore the doorbell. You need to be able to concentrate.
- Divide up the work into finite and achievable tasks. Try to complete a particular task—for example, writing one section or a certain number of words—within the time you have allowed for a writing session. If, for any reason, you are unable to finish, do not waste time feeling guilty; concentrate instead on what you have achieved this session and tell yourself that, having got this far, you will surely be able to get further next time.
- Set aside a specific amount of time to write. Deadlines are bracing. If you allow yourself an open-ended session, you may well find that, as Parkinson's law states, your work will simply expand to fill the time available—in other words, you write no more in three hours than you would have written in two if you had set yourself a cutoff point and worked toward it. Furthermore, idleness and distraction activities have the ability to expand toward infinity as well. If you have real problems or cannot concentrate, take a short break away from your desk, make yourself a coffee, and think about something else. But do not give up. Go back and work out the rest of the session.
- Use any means you can to strengthen your self-discipline. Give yourself pep talks, listen to a favorite piece of music, promise yourself a reward when you complete a task. Warn yourself that the task will not go away.
- If you are stuck, try discussing the problem with other people. They may have a good idea, or their encouragement may help to overcome your lack of confidence.
- Be realistic. Do not set yourself too big a task or to work for too long. Above all, do not expect to produce a final version at the first attempt.
- Do not necessarily start at the beginning. Start at any point where you find an easy way in. Write first about whichever part of the topic is freshest in your mind or most engages your interest. You can write the introduction later.
- Get started. If you really can't think of anything sensible to say—which is highly unlikely if you are well prepared—write the first thing that comes into your head. But do not get too critical. Do not get into the write-erase-despair routine. Try to keep on writing. Reassure yourself: This is not the final version; there is plenty of time available to get it right. This is just the first draft.
Let us consider the two final points in a little more detail.It was suggested at the end of the previous chapter that the introduction can be compiled, along with the conclusion, after you have planned the body of the text. It can also be written, however, after all other writing is complete for the simple reason that you can write an introduction more confidently when you know precisely what it introduces. This applies especially to pieces of writing that require an introduction of a relatively straightforward "say what you're going to say" kind. If you have in mind a more dramatic scene-setting introduction that sets the tone for the rest of the piece, or from which the rest of the piece is intended to grow organically, then it obviously makes sense to start with it if you can, but do not become fixated on writing the introduction at the beginning, particularly if it is causing you problems. You will be able to fill in even important gaps later. If necessary, move on.If you move on, choose a section in which you have plenty to say, where there is a substantial amount of information to be communicated or a substantial argument to be put forward. This section may very well be at your first main point, but if you have made a detailed plan, there is nothing to stop you from beginning at any point along the way. It can easily happen that you have recently been researching, or thinking about, one particular aspect of your topic, and you are, as a result, bursting with ideas about it. If you have some creative steam, exploit it to get yourself started rather than letting it dissipate. Perhaps when you have completed this particular section, you will feel more confident to go back to the beginning and write the rest of the text in sequence, but there is no necessity to do this. You can deal with the sections in any order, perhaps tackling what seem to you the easiest or most difficult first. You can then allocate the pieces you have written to their proper places in the overall scheme as a separate exercise. One word of warning, however: If you write sections out of order, it is particularly important to apply rigorous consistency checks when you make your final revisions.The last of the points listed above may seem like a counsel of despair, but it is not entirely so. In order to achieve something, we often have to ignore temporarily considerations that are undoubtedly relevant to the task but that we cannot cope with at the particular moment. Trying to keep everything in mind can be inhibiting when the most urgent need is simply to make some progress. That is frequently the case for writers.Even experienced writers have to find their way into each new writing task and may start tentatively. Only gradually do they become fully aware of the demands imposed by the undertaking and of the methods they will use to meet them. You will know when you sit down to begin what kind of thing you are writing and what you are writing about. You may not know precisely how you are going to write. And that is a question that is difficult to decide in the abstract. Even if, on the basis of the kind of piece you are writing and the kind of reader you envisage for it, you have already decided to adopt a particular style and tone, making the decision is not quite the same as actually getting the words to come out in the style you have chosen to use.Now, this is obviously a very important matter, but it is more important at this stage not to let it prevent you from making a start. It is precisely the sort of consideration you should push to the back of your mind if it is weighing on you. Because writing is a task and a skill comparable to many others, the same conditions apply to it as to other jobs, most notably, for present purposes, that you can and will learn by actually doing the task. That is why it is often advisable to begin at any point in the text where you can write easily. Get started by any means possible and keep going, if necessary disregarding grammar, spelling, or anything else that inhibits you; the words, style, and sections will gradually begin to fall into place. Get started, and the voice—that is, the tone and attitude appropriate to your personality, the task, and the reader—of this particular piece of writing will probably begin to emerge. Get started, because if it doesn't come out right on the first attempt, there is still time to improve matters. Progress builds confidence, and confidence, as we know from many areas in life, is a catalyst that promotes the exercise of skill, while lack of confidence inhibits it. Don't think or hesitate for too long; make a start.DraftingA draft is a fully written-out preliminary version of your piece of work, which serves as a basis for the final, finished version. A draft is something exciting because it represents a major step toward the completion of the task. It is also something reassuring because it is not the final version. It can be corrected. It can also be shown to other people and used to produce helpful feedback.Only the most accomplished actors and directors manage to shoot a movie scene in a single take; only very accomplished and very lucky writers get it all right the first time. This is why most people find themselves advancing toward their goal by way of a number of drafts. The actual number of drafts depends on how long it takes you to satisfy your own requirements or those of the person who has commissioned you to write something. You should, in any event, allow time to make at least two drafts before you produce the final version.This does not, however, mean that you have to write or type your whole piece out in full three times. Thankfully, drafting is no longer the laborious process that it was when everything was written out by hand, although the basic procedure is little changed. Before, longhand writers would write out their work; read through it again, crossing out whatever seemed unnecessary, incorrect, inappropriate, or poorly expressed and writing edits and additions between the lines and in the margins; and then write the whole thing out again as a clean copy. Many people still find it easier to revise on paper rather than on screen and therefore print out their work. If you prefer this method, be sure you leave fairly wide margins and double-space your text so that there is room for your corrections on the draft.If you prefer to edit on screen, you can simulate the on-paper procedure fairly exactly by using the "Track Changes" tool in your word-processing program. It leaves everything you delete on the screen, but in a different color and with a line through it. It records all your additions in another color. Afterward, if you switch off the Track Changes tool, you will be left with a clean copy. Alternatively, you can make a copy of your first draft and in this new file make your corrections, additions, and deletions in it, then recopy the copy if you need to make further revisions. It is generally unwise to delete or make illegible earlier versions of your text until you are quite sure that the task is finished. More often than not, your second and third drafts will represent improvements on your first, but occasionally something that dissatisfied you at first proves, after all, to have merit. So, leave your options open. Allow yourself the ability to restore a piece of text.It is up to you whether you compile a first draft of the whole work before you undertake any revision or whether you draft, revise, and redraft section by section. If the piece you are writing is fairly short, then it is definitely better to reach the end before you revise. Indeed, all other things being equal, it is probably better to begin with a complete first draft whatever the length of the piece. Part of the revision process is to compare the written-out version with your "mission statement" and your plan to make sure that you have achieved your original purpose and dealt with all your main points. This you can do properly only if you have a complete text to work with. Again, part of revision involves matching up the different sections to make sure that you do not repeat yourself and that you preserve a logical sequence and a consistent tone. Finally, it increases your confidence greatly to know that you have made it once through to the final page, and it motivates you to go back and finish off the job. Nevertheless, the alternative procedure can work equally well, and if you get stuck or run out of steam, working on an earlier section with a view to improving it can help to reengage you with the task and set you back on track.The most important draft is the first. The most vital aspects of a first draft are that it should extend from start to finish and that it lacks nothing you intend to include. It will not be perfect, of course, but it will provide a firm basis on which you can build.From the point of view of motivating yourself to begin, it may help to play down the first draft's importance. You may, for instance, be the sort of person who is not grammatical by nature or not a good speller and who feels that "If I even attempt to write 'correctly,' I will lose my concentration." You can tell yourself, quite truthfully, that "mistakes can always be corrected later," whether they are grammatical errors, stylistic infelicities, or less than perfect presentations of your ideas or arguments. A draft is only a draft, and the revised and corrected final version obviously outranks any draft.On the other hand, especially if you are using modern word-processing technology, it is quite likely that the only time you write out your piece in full will be when you compose the first draft. The second and third drafts are likely to be revised versions of the first, rather than fresh versions completely rewritten from beginning to end. It will pay you, if you can, to provide a solid foundation.As has been said several times before, different people have different work methods. Some people find it extremely difficult to leave anything in an unpolished state and become positively anxious at the thought that they may be leaving a litter of indifferently constructed sentences, poorly argued points, and textual inconsistencies behind them. They work at and rework the introduction until it says precisely what they want to say, and only then do they feel free to proceed. Other people get through the first draft in a blind rush. They are so frightened of losing their impetus, or their self-discipline, that they put anything down on paper anyhow. The only thing that matters is to reach the end. The first draft is simply raw material. The real work comes later.The best policy for the majority of people probably lies somewhere between these two extremes. Proceed with deliberate speed. Continue to work steadily either from the beginning or from your best access point. It is important to keep up the momentum when drafting. If the piece is not too long, it may well benefit from being drafted in full during a single session. If that is not possible and you have to break up the drafting work, try not to succumb to the temptation to start revising. Simply read enough of the existing text to put yourself back in the picture and carry on. Write as well as you can, but do not worry too much about the finer points. Experiment, if you feel you need to, with different voices, but do not worry if an experiment does not work, so long as you have covered some of the necessary ground while you were experimenting. You must get to the end at all costs. If you start elsewhere than at the beginning, your draft is not complete until you have supplied the missing sections. You will probably find that as you go along you will fall into a writing style that you are comfortable with and that suits the occasion. You will probably also find that, even if you were not taking extreme care, you have produced a good deal of text that will stand up to scrutiny and that you can incorporate with minimal changes into your final version.When you have finished the first draft, you should revise it. You should also give serious thought to the issues that you may have had to put out of mind in order to get started. We shall now turn our attention to these details.
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