I’ll get right to it: the best tool for a writer isn’t a cool pen, the newest organizing software, or a leatherbound journal. 

It’s a good mindset. 

Over the last twenty years of exploring creative writing, I’ve discovered what contributes to a good mindset for me, mostly by doing things that put me in a bad mindset.

I call my good mindset-producing things My Directives. 

A directive is defined as an order or instruction intended to guide or influence; an official notice to impel you toward a goal or action.

Every year, instead of New Year’s Resolutions, I type up a set of directives, print them out, and laminate the sheet. I keep it close and review often.  

MY TOP 5 DIRECTIVES

Directive #1Suspend disbelief

There’s a lot of talk in the writing community about when you can actually call yourself a “real” writer and it’s actually a pretty useless and crazy-making discussion. Instead, I decided to play a little game with myself: I simply suspend disbelief and choose not to believe that I am not a writer. I also suspend disbelief on the quality of my writing, on whether it is publishable, etc. I focus on the writing and find that what I eventually do come to believe in, is the story that I’m trying to tell. 

Directive #2Focus on the process, not the product

It’s easy to get all focused on the novel, poem, essay, memoir, what-have-you that you want to write. Some people track word count or on producing X number of pages/poems per day. But I found it better to put my attention on developing a creative process. My creative process.

Refine that, and the products will come, was my way of thinking. 

To get lost is to learn the way.

• African proverb

To discover my process, I did a lot of observation and experimentation. A lot!

I asked: What fuels my writing—music, reading, exercise, time in nature, talking with other writers? What time of day am I at my most creative? What drains my creativity? (Too much social media and political news, anyone?)

With this information I came up with a routine. It’s not speedy and it takes some work to maintain, but I just finished writing (and revising) an 80 thousand word novel using it. 

Now my mission is to protect my creative process and do the things I know will enhance it.

Directive #3Start anywhere, go somewhere

Have you heard this quote from Louis L’Amour? 

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

There are a thousand books that will offer instruction in writing. I know—I’ve read a lot of them. But we learn writing best by doing two things: reading and writing. I’m betting you are already a reader. Now go write. Anything and everything. Because making begets making and the best way to get over feeling self-conscious about your writing is to hammer out a lot of it.  

Directive #4You don’t have to know that yet.

Writing is complex. Getting overwhelmed at everything I need to do and learn puts me in a bad mindset, so I give myself a bit of grace. I write what I can, as well as I can, knowing that I can come back to the bumpy parts later. 

“I don’t know that” becomes “I don’t know that yet.” 

Whether it is the turn in a poem, the “so what?” of a personal essay, or which route your character is going to take to get to the big showdown, it can wait. Keep writing. More will be revealed. 

Directive #5 Do “the next and most necessary thing”

Writers can idle their engines for hours, trying to decide what to do next. Promote on social media? Finish those poems so you have enough for a chapbook? What about an essay for Modern Love in the New York Times?

Carl Jung offered this advice: do the “next and most necessary thing.” 

Some part of you knows what you need to do next and here’s the kicker—it’s often the thing you’re avoiding. Something hard. 

I have a sticky note on my monitor that reads: Buck up, buttercup! It reminds me that the only way I’m going to be a better writer is to screw up my courage and do the hard work. By choosing the next and most necessary thing, I keep moving forward. I build momentum.  

You’ll have to come up with your own directives, of course. Give it a try. Most of all, I hope you find your path to a good mindset. Write away!

Lynn G. Carlson lives in Cheyenne with a retired firefighter and a know-it-all cat. She has been a member of Wyoming Writers, Inc. for almost twenty years and did a stint on the WW, Inc. board, something she encourages all y’all to do as well. She is currently pitching her amateur sleuth novel to agents after working on the manuscript for almost four years. Her blog, Skirmishing Words, can be found at www.lynngcarlsonwrites.com.

Lynn's writing companion, Roscoe