First published in 1934, Dorothea Brande's
Becoming a Writer has often been noted for its progressive approach to tapping into the creative subconscious. Beyond that impressive effort, Brande further suggests that once the writer has learned to loosen up her/his unique and free-flowing self, that she or he then trains the creative brain to work with the practical part of the mind. No more of the creative side being too sensitive or undisciplined, just as the pragmatic mind cannot be bullying or overly critical. Because even wonderful prose usually needs a skilled editor, and even the most vivid and spellbinding tale has to be ultimately structured into coherent form. Also, career writers tend to write every day in an organic yet regular manner, rather than in fits and starts; with practice, they have learned to focus their thoughts and impressions into a constant internal narrative.
Brande recommended setting up a personal daily appointment to write for just 15 minutes, urging that if the appointment was at four o'clock it could not be broken:
"If at four o'clock you find yourself deep in conversation, you must excuse yourself and keep your engagement...[i]f you must climb out over the heads of your friends at that hour, then be ruthless...[i]f to get the solitude that is necessary you must go into a washroom, go there...and write. Write...anything at all...write what you think of your employer or your secretary or your teacher...write a story synopsis or a fragment of dialogue, or the description of someone you have recently noticed. However halting or perfunctory the writing is,
write."
Though we have far more laptop and notebook and PDA options to write with now than in Dorothea's day, and while all of those options are excellent in terms of the daily quarter-hour writing assignation, there is something about just putting pen or pencil to paper instead. Firstly, your handwriting will improve and in my case, that's highly desired -- in these QWERTY keyboard-happy times, my penmanship has gotten weak and sloppy and totally annoying to look at. And you will intrigue and perhaps confuse anyone around by scribbling into a notebook, and then you can write how you are intriguing and perhaps confusing someone as you sit there scribbling.
Though Dorothea recommends sneaking off to a private place, it's almost more fun not to isolate yourself and to write amid the moment. (As long as you're not driving a car or performing brain surgery, et al.) Therefore, rather than stressing the private appointment with your writing, perhaps just the appointment with your writing will do the trick. Are you on a bus? Then write about the bus. Drinking a martini? Take note of what bar you're in and whether you prefer pearly little cocktail onions, briny olives, or both. At work? Look busy by writing about your coworkers and the vast amount of flaws and idiosyncrasies they surely have. And check out
Becoming A Writer if you haven't already read it -- there is so much more to discover in this curious gem of a book. As the late great John Gardner wrote in his introduction, Brande's focus is almost entirely on not technique but the writer's psyche, which is a "very valuable focus indeed."
