Write like…

Posted on by Mark Stevens

Write like your best friend just called to say she read the first fifty pages of your latest/greatest and she thinks it’s your best work yet.

Write like tomorrow’s schedule is breaking rocks with a sledgehammer. Dawn to dusk.

Write like you don’t care.

Write like you understand, deep down, how much fun it is to play with words.

Write like nobody else is going to read what you’re writing. (Um, they won’t unless you want them to.)

Write like you have news to tell the world.

Write like your agent just called to say he sold your last book but first needs to know if you are sitting down before he explains the deal. And he needs proof of your seated situation on FaceTime or Skype.

Write like what is happening on the page is a matter of life and death.

Write like you are going to find an image today that no other writer has ever conjured and you don’t care if anyone realizes how good it is except you.

Write like Anne Lamott is sitting down at the end of the table, waiting for your next paragraph. (Don’t worry, she liked the last one.)

Write like you’re traveling from London to Venice in your own Grand Suite on the Orient Express.

Write like you’re sitting by a campfire deep in the Maine woods on a cool fall evening, your only accompaniment the snap and crackle from a happy blaze.

Write like you are stuck in an elevator with Stephen King. You both have your laptops and it’s going to be four hours until they get you out. And he’s promised to blurb your next book if you both get out alive.

Write like Wi-Fi doesn’t exist. Or the internet.

Write like you want to right some wrongs.

Write like you’re a lucky writer. (Because you’re lucky to be writing!)

Category: Blog, General Interest

17 thoughts on “Write like…”

  5. Wonderful! I especially like the one about writing as though the Internet doesn’t exist. I get so much more done when I don’t stop every few pages to research some little detail.

  8. Inspiring and should get a couple writers out of a writing funk. I actually do take a couple days a month and write like the internet and laptops don’t exist. Writing by hand, with pen or pencil and paper, is different than tapping little square pieces of plastic. My imagination seems to flow better, faster, and often times wilder when I see the words directly flow out of my body – like I’m connected to the paper and the ink or carbon lead is an extension of my blood. Brings a whole new perspective to the saying “write until your fingers bleed.” Thank you for the encouragement.

  10. Sending to all my writer friends. Especially love: Write like you’re traveling from London to Venice in your own Grand Suite on the Orient Express. Or maybe just that Amtrak writers’ train I keep hearing about. A new story took hold a couple of weeks ago. Love this snowy days to hunker down.

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