SOME DAYS YOU GET AN IDEA TO WRITE SOMETHING and you just let it fester. Some days that festering fermentation process is not what words need. Indeed, this process may also not be what you, the writer, need. Some days you think: I might get round to doing this or that, to writing this idea or this other. Well, this is some day.
1. Write down the ideas that have been festering away inside you for a while now. Do it now! Stop reading this, don’t read to the end of the article – come back to it later. Trust me: the article wraps up fine. Write down the festering ideas. Use paper. Do it now!
2. Did you cheat? Did you just read on? If so, that’s no good. You have a second chance. I’m feeling benevolent. Stop reading and write down those ideas, if you haven’t already done so.
3. If you have a list, read on. If not, come back another time. You’re not ready. Look at your list. Find more paper. Do it now. Write words to flesh out one of those ideas. Write ideas upon ideas, draw pictures in words, write a snippet or a scene, describe a place, describe a gesture, clothing, an interaction or the weather. Stop reading here and do it now.
4. If you’re ready, you have something written. If you’re not ready, and you’ve cheated here, you’re only cheating yourself. Look at what you’ve written. Think about the process it took to get quickly settled to write: a comfortable chair; the TV or the music off; a room with a view? Think about how long it took you to write. Were you distracted? Why? Think about the process of writing words: did it come in one big flow?; did you edit as you went along? Think about how you felt when you started writing, when you were writing, when you placed that final full stop. Stop reading here and think on all of this now.
5. Find a notebook. Or, find some scrap paper and cut it to size. Create a means to hold it all together. Yes, do it now.
6. Write in it all the thoughts you have about what you’ve just written from your list. Stop reading here. Do it now.
7. Copy and paste or print off this article. You know what’s coming: do it now.
Tomorrow, look at your list of once-festering ideas, read this article, repeat the process. Some days words do not need to be left to fester: they need to be written. Today has been some day. Tomorrow is also some day, as is the day after, and so on. Write until you need a new list. All days can be some days.
– Dean Cody Cassady
DCC is practising what he preaches: on his own list of festering ideas is the one to write an article a day, whether it gets published or not, for the rest of the month.
