This Beats The Blank Page Every Time
I've been a professional writer for almost two decades.
To pay my mortgage I have to write everyday. Whether I feel like it or not. Whether I have ideas or not. Whether I'm in love with what I'm writing or not.
Beginning writers think the trick to writing everyday is "mindset" and "willpower".
It's not.
Like all good tradespeople, a professional writer is able to do her work daily because she brings the right tools to the job daily.
Here is one of my favorite tools that I bring every day to make sure I can beat the blank page, get good words finished, and make enough money to support my family:
Inspiration In Advance - The Common Place Book
I hate showing up to a blank page not knowing what I'm going to write about.
So, I don't.
Instead, I keep what is called a Common Place Book.
Ryan Holiday does it. He learned it from his mentor Robert Greene.
Benjamin Franklin swore by them.
Here's a tldr version of how a Common Place Book works:
Step 1. Go consume stuff you love to consume.
Videos. Podcasts. Books. Even conversations with others.
Fill your head, and your life, and your schedule, and your time with consumption of the things that inspire, interest, and challenge you.
The wider the variety of topics, the stronger your inspiration file will be. The more variety, the more unique your writing will end up being.
Remember the old adage:
Garbage in. Garbage out.
If you're building a Common Place book to strengthen your writing, then part of your job during consumption is to be mindful about the quality of inspiration you are pulling from. The better the original source, the better your writing will be later on.
What "better" means is entirely subjective and what makes you "the writer". Your judgement, what you find interesting, is the value you bring as a writer.
Step 2. Capture the parts you really like.
When your ears perk up, capture that.
When something moves you to tears, capture whatever it was.
When something makes you really think, lock it down and hold it.
I like to keep a notebook. I sometimes use 3x5 cards like Ryan Holiday does. Sometimes I'm scribbling on pieces of scrap paper.
Quotes.
Ideas.
Responses to ideas.
Drawings.
I'm capturing anything that really impressed me. I don't capture everything, just the top 1% of what I've consumed.
Step 3. I organize it by topic.
That's it. I just keep it organized in a way I can access it later.
Step 4. I use it to write.
I've outlined entire books by just going back to my Common Place book, pulled out interesting ideas I liked, laid out the 3x5 cards or scrap pieces of paper on the floor, and said, "there's my outline."
I've created entire chapters by just moving sections of my Common Place notebooks onto the page, bridging the concepts, reacting to the ideas, and calling it a day.
My favorite author of all time, Cormac McCarthy says, "books are made out of books." This is what he means. A lifetime of consumption means you have more to pull from when you show up to the page.
I've done this for nearly 2 decades and have never missed a deadline, have produced at minimum a novel per month plus multiple non-fiction books per year for myself, written an email per day, and have produced more than 100 books for clients...
... all because I never showed up to a blank page. I just brought my Common Place book with me everywhere I went. Just like a good tradesperson takes their tools to every job they show up to as well.
If you'd like to explore the subject of Common Place books more in depth, I highly recommend reading:
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