Fellow writers, lets minimise the stress around getting those words on the page #writingadvice

As a writer, I’m often asked ‘what’s the one piece of advice you’d give,’ and similar questions. As I evolve as a writer, this does change, but I’ve long been working out ‘how’ I write, and what I need to ‘write’ and now I’ve discovered something else that I also think is valuable advice. To be a writer, you first must write, but that brings with it all kind of pressure. So, for the last two year, I’ve been actively ‘minimising’ the pressure to write. So, what do I mean, and how have I done it?

For the last five years (since people started to comment on how much I wrote), I’ve been keeping more active records of how and when I write. It allowed me to discover that I write in concerted bursts of about 20 minutes to an hour, and in that time, I write 1000 words (I like to write in chunks). I might then carry on writing, or I might stop for a bit. But, I now know I can write 1000 words in a minimum of 20 minutes (actually, I can be a bit quicker than that as my typing skills improve), and so, to hit my target of at least 2000 words on a writing day, I need only set aside a single hour to accomplish that goal (which is not a lot of time).

I find this knowledge incredibly empowering. I can plan my day, set aside the required time, and give myself the space to be creative. (This process does also include a few other things – I need the correct environment as well – music, a quiet house, no external annoyances – the summer months when everyone’s mowing their lawns at all hours of the day are very frustrating).

What’s changed throughout 2024 and 2025 is that I’ve purposefully started to split my projects up. I no longer start a project, write it all, edit it, reread it, send it to my editor (or to my beta readers), I write in the morning, and in the afternoon, I edit a different project, and not necessarily the one I wrote before the one I’m now writing.

Now I know I’m a developmental writer, working out the kinks in my story at every level of editing, I’m embracing those processes just as much as the creative elements of writing. I actually find, (if not the structural edits), the copyedits and proofread stages quite relaxing. (As a messy panster, the structural edits are still a bit of a slog). I’m enjoying the process of crafting the messy thoughts that spill from my mind when I’m in the writing ‘zone’ into the novel I want it to be. I don’t worry if I can’t remember the name of something, or if I need to research something in more detail (unless it will fundamentally change the story), I write with ? and highlighted sections, and I know these are the bits I need to work on when the flood of words has stopped, and the initial draft is complete. And this is also the process when I often add the incidentals – I can’t remember what all my characters look like but I know how they ‘sound’ when I write them. I have a spreadsheet and use it to add the other tangible features.

In this way, I’ve minimalised the writing process, and very much feel as though I have control over that element of my writing. (I’ve also changed my line spacing on Word to 1.15, just enough to give my eyes a bit of a rest, and work in a document formatted with Vellum after the initial drafts – again, changing the environment a little bit to make it more pleasurable for my eyes). I’m still a writer, and I’m still developing my craft, but for me, I’m never going to write a beautifully ‘clean’ first draft. It’s going to be a horror of misspelt names, missnamed characters and places, question marks and highlighted sections where I need to check something. But, it’s increasing my productivity and the pressure to write each day has slowly started to dissipate. It’s not always easy to be creative on demand, but, now I know I need at most an hour a day to hit my minimum writing targets, I’m empowering myself each and every day that I hit my target. (I am very aware not everyone is a developmental writer, but I urge you to take the time to work out your own processes. It might surprise you).

Check out my writing year reviews for 2024 and 2025 – you’ll see it doesn’t always work, but it’s a good routine to ‘hang’ on to when the going gets tough.

Curious about my writing processes? Check out my Patreon for some short masterclasses.