Do you set aside a time each day to write? Do you write five pages stream of consciousness then trim it down into something that makes sense? Are you a planner? Do you write in a notebook? Do you write once, edit once? write twice, edit once? Write once, edit thrice?
I don’t have a consistent process. I’ve been experimenting with writing in a basic markdown editor, maybe 500 words at a time, then stringing together multiple entries as best I can. What I find is I have lots of ideas and thoughts that are separate, and critical to my ability to form complex thought is correlating multiple seemingly unrelating things, which then creates a new more complicated and hybrid whole. I can’t sit down and write 5,000 words on one thing, but I can write 500 words on ten things, and then use that as the basis of a mosaic piece that (when edited well) comes together into a unique whole.
My process has been to dismantle all my useless and limiting expectations and structure which I was arbitrarily applying to myself and failing to meet. Now I write whatever whenever at my own whim which I have been having much more fun with. Writing isn’t my job, there’s no deadline, there are no laws regarding what structure it has to take, and no minimum requirement for how much I must produce on any kind of basis to be “worth it” at all. I do it because I like to write and read it, and sometimes other people like to read it as well.
