7 Ways Writing Words That Suck Help You as a Writer

Any writer who visits workshops and conferences hears the mantra, "Write every day." Writers claim exception to that all the time. I know I did. Come on. How many of us have time to write every day?

All of us have time to write every day. I'm calling all writers out on this. You don't have time to write every day? You should take the time you spend telling that lie and write.

I suppose to be fair, we should define writing at this point. I'm speaking here about the simple act of writing. Placing words on paper or screen. I didn't key the phrases, "Great words" or "Stupendous mind-blowing nuggets of truth", I wrote, "Placing words on paper or screen," and these words can (and for me often do) suck.

Over the past thirteen years of actively pursuing a writing life, these seven benefits to writing every day even if the words 'suck', keep me motivated and confident.

1) Writing every day helps set you up in a rhythm. That rhythm may be chaotic, like some jazz music that flies off in every direction with no apparent goal in mind, and when it's all over, something beautiful happened. Other rhythms could be symphonic. You pick the music analogy.

Just as in music, tools help you get there. I like a couple tools. They are basic, but I allow them to push me a bit. Don't you need a push every now and then? I need a push every now, but that's something for another Hub.

Couple tools for you. There are literally thousands of tools out there for writers. Don't let that bog you down. Find a couple that work for you and go with them. I use www.750words.com to prompt me every day to write. You should see the crap I put up there. Thank God no one sees it but me...

750Words.com allows me to purge the garbage. I clear my mind here. Often, I begin my writing day my going to 750 and simply writing stream-of-consciousness. If you've never done this as a writer, you're missing out on some incredible stuff. By the way, 750Words has a really cool section that analyzes your writing. Check it out. You will find it fascinating.

Here's another tool. November is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo). I'm telling you folks, if you don't use this tool, you miss out on loads of personal validation. Nanowrimo is another writing venue where the emphasis is on writing words, not necessarily the Queen's English. The point is to prove to yourself you can actually write a book in thirty days. I have successfully completed three of the last five Nano's. The two years I did not get my 50,000 words in thirty days requirement, I logged in at only 35,000 words and 29,000 words in thirty days.

Tell me there are not boatloads of writers who would die for my worst 'failure' at Nanowrimo of 29,000 words in thirty days. Getting into that daily rhythm where, until you get something written, the day feels incomplete, is where a writer should live. IF you desire to call yourself first and foremost, a writer, commit yourself to this rhythm.

Remember the jazz analogy? I cannot write solely at a prescribed time and place. Personally, I desire different settings, different times and different mediums. I write a lot on my laptop when I'm away from the office. I write a lot at home on my PC. I love to write long hand. I digress.

Writing every day gives you a sense of rhythm.

2) Use up most of your bad words. Writing every day means you write at times when you do not wish to write. Get some words down anyway. Often, when writers do not 'feel' like writing, they are simply delaying some project they don't wish to do. Sometimes writing projects intimidate us. So write some 'words that suck'. Give yourself permission to write crap.

The stream-of-consciousness writing I mentioned above propels you to places you cannot imagine even as you read this. Your mind is a river of flowing thoughts. I read somewhere the average mind has 40,000 thoughts per minute or some absurd number like that. Our consciousness just dips down into that river and pulls out stuff. Dip down in there and see what you come up with.

Writing whatever comes to your mind will surprise you. Often mine looks like this: "I don't know what to write. Hell, today is just another day of a dried up mind and a meaningless attempt to be brilliant. Why would I think I'm brilliant? Brilliance is something that happens to great thinkers, and while I think a lot, I don't know that I am a great thinker. But if I think a lot, why would I not be a great thinker ?" And blah, blah, blah.

I also read that purging yourself of clutter in your mind can clear your writing's 'internal channels'. Personally, I've found this to be true. I'll go off on some crazy tangent like the paragraph above, and something will shift. I will hit a 'writing gear' if you will, and go. At that point I abandon the 'words that suck' because the words now flowing are high quality and own some significance. Recognizing this shift from 'words that suck' to 'quality writing' is not hard. You feel it. You're a writer - you know when you're on a roll. Go with it.

3) Discipline. Yes, I hauled out the 'D' word. I didn't list it in the first couple benefits because many writers, myself included, loathe that word discipline. We look at the word 'discipline' like it will pull out a whip and beat our muse senseless. Hell, our muse often feels battered, we don't need the 'D' word reinforcing that feeling.

By allowing yourself the 'words that suck', you not only get that rhythm, you develop the discipline of writing every day which most successful writers tout as key. The trick here is to not allow the dark overtones of the word 'discipline' to cower you. Laugh in discipline's face. Yell at it, "Take this nasty assed sentence, discipline! It makes no sense and has no purpose! Isn't that counter to what you represent ?"

The truth is, the discipline of writing every day could care less about quality. It's all about production. You eliminate the negative overtones of the word and adopt its benefits. Isn't this the greatest victory a writer can have over something so stifling as discipline?

4) FREEDOM. One of the major benefits of writing 'words that suck'? To go places in writing you would never go when you censor yourself. I have written some incredible shit when I've been writing crap. Isn't that kind of poetic justice?

Sometimes, while you are writing 'words that suck', a gem will come out of nowhere. I like to call it "Knowhere." Shouldn't that be a word? Knowhere? That place when something in your mind clicks and words come out and you look at the screen and chills play Mardi Gras on your spine and you know, you KNOW, these words would never have come to you if you had tried to force them. They were born out of Knowhere.

That freedom opens your writing 'words that suck' up to possibilities that keep you anxious and motivated to see what comes next. Sometimes it does not work that way. But the freedom to pursue the possibility can make a writer hungry for a keyboard.

5) Epiphanies. Yes, very close to what I call "Knowhere", but I place my epiphanies in a slightly different area. When I get an epiphany, I will note it and often move on. Making the note is important, as one day I may go back over my writing and revisit the epiphany. The 'Knowhere' words I tend to pursue and write out at length.

Epiphanies pop up all the time. That project I mentioned earlier that I may be struggling with? I will make note of the epiphany related to the project and get back to it when I'm ready to work on the project. An epiphany does not necessarily stop me, grab me by the throat, and force me to write and expound on it. In other words, I may not go to writing the project at that time.

I may feel better about the project and continue writing 'words that suck' to see if more epiphanies pop out. The serendipity of epiphanies when writing 'words that suck' tends to keep me writing stream-of-consciousness with breaks noted for the good stuff.

6) Writing future plans. Most often when I'm writing 'words that suck', I decide I've gathered enough epiphanies or momentum to write out plans for future projects. I've found this aspect of writing 'words that suck' to be beneficial beyond measure.

Do you ever have plotlines or project ideas you just cannot seem to pin down with your analytical mind? Here's the perfect opportunity to just run with craziness. In the past three days, I've run through plotlines on two of my stalled novels, and I've organized my next day's work by listing all the things I need to do to feel successful in my efforts.

Those past three days, I ended up writing late at night. Today, I'm writing in the morning. I accessed what I wrote last night about my day today, and I reinforced that writing with a list very similar to the one last night. I'm right on track today and I feel great. When you're writing 'words that suck', you might as well be bodacious and go for broke on future plans and plotlines. Again, you never know where this will take you. Often you will get to better places, plotlines and plans because you are not limiting yourself.

7) Accomplishment. How many of you reading this are motivated by word count? Do you look at your daily word count? I do. When I'm writing at a 5000-words-a-day clip, I get pumped! Nanowrimo? I'm telling you from a three-time winner's perspective - I wrote a book in thirty days and it feels AWESOME! Yes, the book needs revision and work. Yes, out of the 50.000+ words, I may have 30K to 40K that I will actually use. That is NOT the point.

The point is the incredible rush of accomplishment. The experience of writing that many words, of having a first draft copy of a book and KNOWING I can repeat this process any time I desire. Most writers are not wealthy when it comes to cash. We are wealthy, though, when we write a book and have the priceless feeling of accomplishment that goes with that territory. There are but a few joys that top the completion of a first-draft.

At first draft completion, the book is born. It must be taught (revised), disciplined at times (editing) and sent out to the world (published), but the book has come out in all its baby wonder. I've been there for the birth of three of my children (a bit more incredible than the book being born, of course), and when a book enters into my world in its newborn body, the joy of accomplishment stands powerful as ever.

I sincerely hope you will give yourself permission to write 'words that suck'. Good things come from that permission. The greatest writers of all time wrote loads of 'words that suck'. Plucking out the good ones and the positives along the way will make you a better writer.

After all, when we really look at it, there are no 'words that suck', are there?