Reading time: About 2 minutes
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been watching the news for weeks, obsessively following the U.S. election. So how do you write in times like these? Today, I give you some suggestions….
Today is the most anticipated election in my lifetime. A friend of mine calls it the “mother of all elections.”
Even though I’m a Canadian, not an American, I will be glued to U.S. presidential election results tonight, although I expect the answer won’t be clear until several weeks from now.
But what am I doing today?
I am writing.
I know that might sound small and insignificant when you consider the stakes facing the U.S. — and the world — right now, but it’s all I can do.
Still, I recognize I feel more uncomfortable and worried than usual. As a result, I’ve turned to the former literary agent turned writer Nathan Bransford for some counsel. In a 2012 blog, provocatively titled, “How to keep writing when the s*** hits the fan,” he offered useful advice. When he wrote the post, of course, he wasn’t thinking about elections, so I have taken his suggestions and looked at them through today’s lens.
Here are five tips that will help you write in times like these:
1-Take care of yourself first
You are more important than whatever happens in today’s election. Make sure you vote (if you haven’t already), and then put it out of your mind until results start rolling in tonight. Eat well, get enough sleep, get some exercise and drink lots of water — and not too much alcohol, even if you want to celebrate, or worse, if the results depress you. A healthy body makes everything else easier to handle.
2-Force yourself to get going
It’s normal to want to slough off work when you’re distracted by something important. But think about it this way: If you’re reading this post at 8 a.m., you have 10 hours before results will start trickling in. Force yourself to sit down and start writing. If you can do only five minutes, that’s fine. Five minutes is a million times better than nothing. But once you’ve started, you may find it feels great to lose yourself in your writing. Give yourself the opportunity to do that.
3-Don’t be afraid to cut back
Here’s the advice I give everyone who encounters writing resistance. Take whatever time you’ve allocated for writing and cut it in half. And if that doesn’t make the resistance go away, then cut it in half again. And if that still doesn’t make it go away, cut it in half again. Go all the way down to one minute. Some writing is always better than no writing.
4-Channel your emotion into your writing
If you are fearful about the election results, channel that feeling into your writing. If you’re angry, ditto. If you’re frustrated, the same. If you’re mystified, likewise. Readers LOVE encountering emotions. This is your chance to get real with them.
5-Let writing be a bright spot
We all have happy and easy times in our lives, and we all have difficult ones as well. If you can associate writing with comfort and satisfaction, it will give you something to do whenever you’re facing difficulties. Writing is something no one can take away from you. It’s 100 percent within your control.
Above all, your writing should be able to give you hope. With time and effort, your writing will always improve… and that’s more than you can say about some politicians.
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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.
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My video podcast last week addressed how to structure your book. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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How do you write in times like these? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the “comments” section, below. And congratulations to Helen, the winner of this month’s book prize, for a comment on my Oct. 22/24 blog about how night owls can write. (Please send me your email address, Helen!) If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by Nov. 30/24, I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the “comments,” directly underneath the “related posts” links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)
