But if you get your brain in the way when you’re trying to write with your guts, it gets complicated. Stephen King says, "write with the door closed and edit with the door open."
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Put simply: writers' block happens when the bit of your brain that worries about how good things are, the editor in you, gets in the way of the writer, who just creates. To write a first draft you need to switch off the editor and write something you know is going to be terrible, because that’s what a first draft is for. I always think about it as if i were making a clay model of a head. What’s the first thing I would have to do? Get a big lump of clay. I wouldn’t care what it looked like. If I stopped myself and thought, ‘oh I can only collect clay that looks like a head’ – I would get writers' block. Get a big lump of clay, that’s your first draft, and then go back to it and start shaping it so it looks like a head. That’s when you go back to something, rewrite it, and you get your editor bit of your brain switched back on. After that, you let the writer go and put them in a corner, because the writer will be saying 'no save that bit, that was really good!’.
And the editor has to go no, it’s
rubbish, you need to make it
better.
Separate those two processes.
"Get a big lump of clay, that's your first draft."
Separate instinct and intellect. Start writing on instinct, and then go back to it and engage your intellect. It’s the difference between guts and brains. Write with your guts and edit with your brains.
Joe Craig is a musician and children's author, well-known for his "Jimmy Coates" series, where 'Bourne Identity meets Harry Potter'. Check out his writers' tips videos on youtube for more fantastic advice. Twitter: @joecraiguk