1. Set a word target for the day: 200 words, 500 words, 1000 words and type until you reach the target (500 is my go to). Write, write, just write. Even if it sounds like bullshit, just write!
2. Repeat these 2 mantras: “Anything is better than nothing” and “It’s always better to have something to edit, than a blank page”. I repeat these often.
3. Read through what you’ve written for the chapter so far, instead of trying to start from where you left off. Even if you make a single edit to your existing draft — it’s progress. And reading through what you’ve written gets you in the flow of the story and can carry you forward from where you left off.
4. Read your draft aloud! I can’t recommend this enough — I ALWAYS do this. Read it with emotion, with fervour, like you’re on stage. Think of authors who gathered their friends in one room and read out their writing to them. Imagine that! Plus this technique also helps me make the best edits, as you catch things that you wouldn’t normally through silent reading and you also catch parts that don’t flow well.
5. If you’re stuck in a scene or can’t figure out a character’s reaction to a situation, talk to yourself. Literally discuss with yourself how this scene should go in your opinion. Trust me, you know the right answer if you just explore it with yourself first. Ask yourself questions: so what would you feel if you were in this character’s place? So what would happen next? I swear by this technique. Satoru’s feelings in Infidelity are sometimes hard for me to navigate, so I ask myself such questions when needed.
6. Find music that fits your scene. For intense, thriller-like themes I recommend Trent Reznor’s OSTs, for example. Change the music to fit every scene.
7. Another surefire technique of mine is walking. I get my best ideas when I’m taking walks. Even more amazing if you put the music that fits your scene on your phone and go walking outside. I usually walk in the mornings so I tell myself: “Today I’m gonna figure out this specific scene” and sure enough, during my walk, it all comes to me and I quickly jot the ideas down on my phone.
8. READ BOOKS - I will say this a million times if I have to! Reading books forms new neural connections in your brain — neural connections are like a bank of resources that your brain reaches for when it encounters a situation relevant to what you have stored. In more practical terms, reading books relaxes my own writing style by showing my brain what’s possible. So my brain basically goes, “Oh! So this is possible, then we don’t need to scrutinise and restrict our own writing so much!” My writing always suffers if I haven’t been reading any books. If you’re lazy and have shit for willpower like me, turn your reading into a system, i.e. decide which books you’re going to read this month, divide the pages up by the days in the month, and read your daily page quotas. Essentially, remove the element of choice. If you have to choose to do it, it burdens your willpower (proven). I don’t even choose my books for the month, I have a system in place that tells me which books I have to read this month — I removed the element of choice from this part too.
9. Learn new vocabulary on the daily. I always judge my own vocabulary and acutely sense it when my vocabulary is limited. When you’re reading books, you’ll inevitably run into words you don’t know. Look up their meaning at the time and jot them down (I do it in my Notes app). Those words will eventually accumulate, as they did for me, and I start from one end and take 5 words and learn those 5 words until the end of the day. Then I form sentences with those 5 words to memorise them better. Then the next 5 words the next day and keep going like that... I even set my 5 words for the day as my lockscreen so that I keep seeing them throughout the day. In my Notes app, I separate the words I’ve learned this way from the ones I still have to learn. So I can always go back to my list of learned words and find what I need. It also really helps to write a word or two of association in brackets next to the word, for example: preponderance (of fuckboys on dating sites), decanter (wine), quintessence (Satoru is the quintessence of humility), bandwidth (not wifi) etc.
10. A glass of wine or other mild alcohol can help loosen your writing brain from other stressors — BUT this is not sustainable and can’t be done on a regular basis. Don’t rely on this too much.
11. Take a few days’ break. Our brain has this proven ability where if you give it a task or a problem that you really care about, it will continue working on solving that problem in the background without you even consciously thinking about that problem anymore. If I’m stuck in a scene, I think intensely about it once and then step back. My brain now received the problem it needs to solve. A day or two later, my brain gives me the solution.
12. When I’m eating, instead of watching something, I tend to open my work in front of me and silently look through random parts of the draft. I’ve made many small but important edits this way and regained my interest in my own work.
13. Almost forgot — roleplay with yourself! Plant yourself in the situation and explore your own realistic reactions to the situation, or to what the other character said. Let me tell you, this is wacko energy, but I literally break down crying and even give myself anxiety while roleplaying some of my own scenes in Infidelity. This helps with moving a dialogue forward in a realistic way and also with exploring emotions that would arise in intense situations.
14. Again almost forgot literally my holy grail technique 🤦🏻♀️ — PLANNING. Now this one isn’t for every writer, as some writers need to feel the creative freedom where they just sit down and start typing, allowing the story to take them in any direction. Other writers (like me) have to thoroughly plan out the story. These days I won’t even start a story if I don’t know how it ends. And before writing each chapter, I have a detailed plan ready. For example, chapter 12 of Infidelity was super hard for me because it was extremely emotionally charged. So I spent a lot of time meticulously planning the chapter, scene by scene, and only then was able to write it. I do this with every chapter, so if anyone really wants it, I can show them my plan of a chapter after it is published (though you might become disillusioned with my writing if you see the sloppy plan on which it originates). Now don’t get me wrong, even though you plan like this, there’s still room for spontaneous scenes — of which there are many in Infidelity! There’s even one chapter that wasn’t in the original plan and it came about at the very fucking last minute (but I won’t tell you which chapter, as you might hate me if you know). Try planning your chapter/scenes — if it helps, great. If it stifles your writing further, ditch it.
15. Write for yourself! I know this is hard for people who write based on requests but even with requests - make it perfect for yourself. Getting stuck in the thoughts of what would please your readers can feel depressing and uninspiring, and it can make you forget why you started writing in the first place. Focusing solely on what would please your readers can restrict you from exploring your true strengths and that unique literary style you may possess. Some people are strong at creating fantasy worlds, others are best at writing witty dialogues, yet others are more interested in exploring emotional twists and hardships of characters etc. Explore what’s yours! I’m beyond happy and grateful that Infidelity has garnered so much attention and readership, but trust me, I still write it for myself. If it doesn’t sound good to me, then there’s no point. Make your work please you, make your work satisfy you, make your work your own favourite! You should be the biggest fan of your own work!
I hope this helps my writers in some way and I’d be happy to elaborate on any of the above or on any other writing-related things. I truly believe in writers supporting and inspiring each other ❤️
