Happy Sunday, writers & readers!

This week I stared at the blank page for way too long. The blank page can feel like a wall, and sometimes it feels safer to walk away than to climb it. What helped me was remembering the motto: “You can’t edit a blank page” by Jodi Picoult. So, I wrote an outline, buckled up and wrote the rest of this thing. Writers, if you are carrying the weight of the blank page this week, let this be your reminder: imperfect words on the page are infinitely better than no words at all.

PS: I’ll be honest, I didn’t know where to start with this newsletter and it took a lot of effort and time to figure out this new structure. Let me know if you like it, or if you’d like to see another format. This week is certainly writer forward, which I think a lot of my audience is. If you’re a reader only and this doesn’t entertain you, please reply to this email.

If you struggle to start writing, give yourself the gift of a 15 minute sprint. Simply set a timer for 15 minutes and write. No editing. No stopping. And most importantly, no thinking.

You see, your brain has two modes: the creative mode and the critical mode. The sprint keeps your critical brain quiet long enough for your creativity to lead. Fifteen minutes might not sound like much, but sprints stack up. Write every day for a week and you’ll have more material than you think.

Plus oftentimes, if you start writing for 15 minutes you may get on a roll and not want to stop, and what started as a 15 minute sprint turns into a 30 minute sprint or more! But even just 15 minutes of writing is better than nothing. Right after you finish reading this newsletter, get started!

Few books speak so directly to the heart as Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. In these letters written to a young man struggling with his artistic calling, Rilke offers encouragement, honesty, and wisdom on creativity and life.

Why It’s Great for Writers:

Why It’s Great for Readers:

This slim volume can be read in a day, but it offers guidance that can last a lifetime. Keep it nearby, return to it often, and let it remind you why the creative life is worth pursuing.

For anyone who follows me on instagram (@writer) you may know that I embarked on a writing challenge to write every single day in a row (and log it on instagram) until I finished my novel. It took me exactly 81 days, and 65,163 words later I can finally say I’ve written my first full length novel. Sure, it’s short for the genre of science fiction, and sure I still have a lot of editing to do before it’s publishable (if I ever choose to publish it at all.) But it’s a huge accomplishment for me nonetheless, and if you want some advice on how I did it, here are the three main things that helped me do it: discipline, fast drafting, and an outline.

Let’s start with discipline. “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.” -Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. If you want to learn discipline, I suggest you read this book first. It’s full of great quotes and advice to help you break through your creative blocks. Discipline for me also came from accountability. I was sharing my journey publicly, and liked to think some of my followers were invested in my journey. If I didn’t show up one day, people would notice. It would also break my “writing every day until I finish my novel” chain of days, which seemed more and more unbreakable the larger the number got. The best part was, I didn't have to write for hours every day or even an hour every day. Some days I sat down and did 15 minute sprints, and those turned into half hour or one hour of writing. The most important part was not going back to edit, which brings me to my second thing that helped me: fast drafting.

Fast drafting is a term I first heard from Jessica Brody, author of Save The Cat Writes a novel. The concept, as I remember it, is pretty simple: sit down and write. Don’t edit and don't think. This helps you get into the flow state and turn those 15 minute sprints into something longer. The minute you go back to edit, even spelling is when your flow is broken. If you feel you must make a large edit because something in the story is broken, make a comment on the page on how the story would be different if you had made the edit, and keep writing as if you made the edit. It’s a fantastic way to keep going forward and not get bogged down in endless revision. Thanks a lot, Jessica.

Finally, an outline. I know what the Pantsers or Discovery Writers are thinking: boo outlines. They just aren't for me. They hurt my creativity. The simple truth is that having an outline for your story, even if it’s just a rough bullet point or paragraph about what happens, will help you immensely in the fast drafting process. The beauty of an outline is that it’s just guardrails, something to fall back on before the inspiration comes. You don't even have to follow it (I barely followed mine.) But something about having something to aim at really helped me sit down and write my story. Many a times have I sat in the past with no outline and gotten stuck, and all the discipline in the world wasn’t going to help if I didn't have at least some idea of where the story was going, or supposed to go.

So there you have it, the three things that helped me write my novel in less than 3 months. Simple, yet brutally effective if implemented. The rest is up to you.

“Almost everything that matters is difficult, and everything matters.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters To A Young Poet

Brandon Sanderson has announced a new book.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is getting adapted to the big screen by famed director Guillermo Del Toro. Limited theatrical release on Oct 17th with a Netflix global release on November 7th.

Thank you for spending your Sunday morning with me. My hope is that this newsletter gave you motivation.

Whether it was a tip to try, a book to read, or the encouragement to sit down and write.

If you found this valuable, consider forwarding it to a friend who loves books or writing. Communities grow when we share them.

Until next week, happy writing and happy reading.