= THE COMSIE METHOD #4 =

Comicality · October 8, 2010

It may feel like a drain sometimes. It may feel like you don't have the time, or the energy, or the inspiration to write. But that's something that you, as a writer, HAVE to develop on your own. If you allow yourself to 'not write' most days out of the week...then your creativity will naturally gear itself more towards finding reasons to avoid the process than to your stories themselves. And then, things will just take forever to complete, or even get STARTED. You have to TRAIN yourself to write as often as possible. You have to make it automatic. Otherwise it's just gonna be another 'chore' that you'll be content with putting off until later.

It doesn't have to be a whole story, or a new chapter to a story that you're already involved in. It doesn't have to be anything significant at all if you don't want it to be. But try to get yourself in the habit of writing 'something' each and every single day, (if you can. If not, at least a few times a week) even if you don't use it for anything other than letting off steam. Make it an actual 'discipline'. Right up there with brushing your teeth and going to school or work. Tell yourself, "Every Tuesday and Thursday night...after I watch the news, I'm going to sit down at this keyboard, and write something. EVERY week, without fail." Even if it's for just 20 minutes...do it. Even if you're tired...do it. Even if you're not in the mood...do it. If you don't have anything to say that night, then sit down at the keyboard and type out, "I don't have anything to say tonight. I'm only doing this because Comsie said it would be good for me. I'm just tired and want to go to bed. This is bullshit." Cool! Great! That's an EMOTION right there! It's expressing how you really feel with the many words at your disposal. That's all writing is! Write it out. I'll even bet that after a few sentences, you'll start talking about your day, and your life, and that cute boy that you saw on the bus, and the fact that you've got a story idea that you haven't quite worked out yet. ALL of that is classic material. It's raw emotion. Get used to writing it out and 'owning' it, so you can push that into everything that you create.

Try doing it for two or three weeks in a row, and it'll begin to solidify itself as an actual habit all by itself. Don't let your ideas just stay stuck in your head without an outlet. Because what happens is, you start trying hard to 'remember' those ideas so you won't lose them, and your head fills up with a bunch of mental 'noise' until there's no more room left for anything new to come in. You hold on to the ideas that you already have instead of coming up with more. When your brain gets a few good ideas, type them out. PUT them somewhere, so you can relax and not worry about forgetting what they were. Most folks that actually take a moment and write their ideas out on a sheet of paper...end up filing up both sides VERY quickly without even knowing it. The creativity is there...USE it! Once you have written out some detailed notes, look at them. That's your story. Now you have a concrete idea of what your plot is about. All you have to do is put them in order and expand on them. Create a virtual 'bank' for you to put your thoughts, no matter how random. Write it all down. After that, you'll have space for a bunch of NEW ideas to come in by the truckload. When you empty your load in your notes, get more. Repeat. You'll be surprised at how FAST your mind will start to develop new and exciting concepts for you to write about! GENIUS ideas! You'll surprise even yourself!

Do both of these things (write ALL the time, and take notes on ALL of your ideas), and before you know it, the 'routine' will take priority, and you'll be RACING to your keyboard night after night...JUST to get all of these new original thoughts out of your head. Creativity gets stronger and stronger the more you use it. So keep going! Cool? Hope this helps!

***Just A Humble Lesson From The 'Comsie-Method'! Enjoy!***