Currently on the sofa, in my jammies awaiting my takeaway with more enthusiasim and focus for writing than I’ve had in a while. But what has inspired this late night burst of creative writing? Well I’ve just come home from a brilliant event hosted by Lynette Gray, a friend from several lifetimes ago who I’ve reconnected with online in recent years. Lynette’s latest event in her “Creative Ideas About…” series focussed on writing and as someone who enjoys writing and would like to do more but never seems to have a clear plan about what that might look like I figured this could be a good place to start.

Lynette had invited along 5 panelists, all local writers who shared their experience, challenges, successes and advice about writing, and whilst each person’s journey, like their actual writing, differed, there were also a number of common themes.

And so, now that I’m home, motivated to start writing again and determined to hold on to those words of wisdom, I’ve fired up the laptop to jot down my takeaways from tonight.

I hope you find them helpful if you too are looking to do more with your writing and I hope you’ll also check out Lynette’s future “Creative Ideas About…” events which will be covering topics ranging from Business to Love! (follow Lynette on Instagram)

1. Fuck it

   I think almost all of the writers shared that they had a “fuck it” moment, one of those moments when you just go for it. For Sarah MacGillivray, it was when she knew she really wanted to act but had got stuck on her path with that and thought “fuck it, I’ll write myself a play” (which she did to great success btw). For others it was deciding to take the big step from sitting writing to actually starting the process of saying yes, I’m going to make this a book. All talked about getting caught up in their own head and of course of facing the dreaded imposter syndrome and all the self doubts that come with that. In the end, it seems, somewhere along the line you really do just have to say “fuck it” and go for it.

2. Plotters v Pantsers

   Alex Meikle, author of four thrillers set in Glasgow, shared a concept that was new to me, the idea that writers fall in to two main categories, Plotters and Pantsers. Pantsers fly by the seat of the pants and don’t tend to plan out anything in advance whilst plotters, as the name suggests, plot out the story before beginning writing. For me this was really interesting as by my nature I’m a planner and I love structure but when I write it tends to be much more freeflowing and I often find myself feeling I should be doing more planning and then I overthink everything and it falls apart. And so it was nice to hear there is indeed more than way to approach things and that maybe when it comes to writing I need to accept that perhaps I am in fact a bit of a pantser!

3. Let it flow

   Whatever approach you take, when it comes to actually writing, everyone was in agreement that getting out your own way was key and that their best writing was done when they let it flow. A few talked about keeping their channels open, the idea of almost listening out for those moments of inspiration and being ready to accept them fully when they do.

4. Trust that it will come

   There was one specific example given here but I feel like the lesson could easily apply to various aspects of the writing process and that was trusting that something you are stuck with will come. The example given was by Marie Claire Donnelly author of “It is what it is”. Marie Claire had written most of her book but still didn’t have a title. She was determined and now quite anxious about not having one but was reassured by several people including her publisher and husband that “it will come”, which of course it did….at 3am one morning!
   

5. No-one thinks they are a writer

   At the start of the evening, Lynette asked us all “who here thinks they aren’t a writer”, pretty much all of us raised our hands….including all five panelists! As each went through their story and shared what they had achieved and were working on now, it was of course clear that every single one of them is indeed a writer but dear old imposter syndrome was still not letting them feel like one. I spoke with a couple of them afterwards and yes, that’s exactly how they felt and so it was a reminder to us all that even if we don’t feel we are a writer, that’s okay, do it anyway!

6. Start….And just write it

   And that brings us on nicely to the last pearl of wisdom from this evening. Start…..and just write it. Everyone commented on the importance of making that start and that’s something most of us are probably familiar with as being a challenge, however the next bit was also really interesting to me. Two of the writers, Marie Claire and Iona May (aka the sass coach) shared conversations they had had with Lynette while they were already in the process of writing their books. Both had moments where they stopped and thought “no-one is going to read this” and had spoken with Lynette who told them (I’m sure with great support and enthusiasm, as is her way) to just write it. No-one will read it for sure if it’s not written, so write it. Also remember that thinking about whether someone will read it and whether they will like it just gets in the way of you writing the thing.

Final thought: Now I’ve written these all out and thought more about them it’s pretty clear that whilst there are 6 points here they are all actually the same thing, namely getting out of your head and ignoring the doubts and worries.

Each point however focusses in on different stages in the process and the different ways in which these challenges can impact you and your writing but essentially they are all about the same thing. So I guess, in summary: fuck it, get started, let it flow and keep writing it!

Thanks to Lynette and all the speakers tonight for a great evening and a fantastic kickstart back into my writing!