How to write for 1 hour (without dying)

Writing's hard.

Forget about writing well. Just writing at all is hard.

This is where having a basic framework comes in. It creates a sandbox for you to play in.

Writing's supposed to be fun, remember?

I know a lot of what I’ve been diving into so far has been a bit heady. (And unless you’re a nerd, probably not super fun.)

So let me drop the nerd shit and give you a loose structure to help you write–for 1 hour at a time. It will also help you develop ideas for your writing.

Nothing makes you the opposite of horny for writing like a blank page. This will help you find your horny–for writing!

Let the fun begin!

If you’re wondering how to get into writing, what to write about, how to practice writing, how to find your voice, and how to just play with language, below is a loose structure for a 1-hour writing session.

This can be used as a warm-up before diving into a structured project. It can be used to free associate ideas for a future writing project. It can be used just to grow your craft and play with language.

Pre-gaming:

All of this is so much easier if you do a little prep beforehand.

1. Pick out your music. Unless you're some sort of little freak that can sit in silence and still hear yourself think, you're gonna wanna find music that inspires and motivates you.

I've found that specific songs become the soundtrack to pieces of writing. If during the day I become obsessed with a song and it fills my head with ideas and associations, I save it to a playlist.

Then, when I write, I loop those songs. Many times, it's one individual song on an infinite loop. This helps create a sense of timelessness.

My go-to writing music is: Carla dal Forno, Midwife and HTRK.

Find your music. Make your playlist. Be prepared.

2. Prepare your text. If you want to be a writer, you have to read a lot. ABC. Always Be chReading. In your reading, when a particularly inspiring or salient chunk of text pops out at you, SAVE IT! Write it down in your notebook. Take a picture of it. Whatever you have to do, save it, baby, save it.

Writing is a skill like anything else. And the only way to improve is to practice. And the best way to practice is to apprentice under the masters. Remember when I did a poor job apprenticing Eileen Myles?

Even if you aren't in the middle of a piece, guess what? You can still practice. You can still Copy & Compose. If for no other reason than to play with language and keep yourself sharp.

Find your text. Copy the masters. Always Be chReading.

3.Collect your prompts. Ideas for prompts come from literally everywhere. Social Media, your job's Employee Handbook, a passive-aggressive note your roommate leaves for you, a drunk text an ex sent you, literally everywhere!

Here's an example of a prompt I found in the wild:

How is that a prompt? Shut up and I'll show you.

DJ Khaled 

‘scared shitless’ 

after getting lost at sea on a jet ski: 

‘water turns black at night’

greg gough

‘still affable’

after 10+ years of customer service jobs:

‘i don’t really have a retirement plan’

I told you prompts are everywhere.

Collect your prompts. Exploit screentime. Get rich.

Doing all of these things regularly will keep your creative mind ticking throughout the day. Everything will remind you of writing, will get you excited about writing, and will feed your writing. Creativity feeds creativity.

4. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb. This should be self-explanatory. No distractions! No Internet! No Texting!
5. Close the door. Do this both literally and figuratively. Shut the door. It's just you and your craft. No one should be there bothering you. That goes for your mind as well! You're gonna have moments where you want to be vulnerable and take a risk and someone else's voice is going to come into your head and judge you. Don't let them. Shut the door!

Risk Cringe for Transformative Emotion!

Now that you've properly pre-gramed. You have your tunes, you have your text and you have your prompts, you're ready to rock, bb.

1 hour writing session

free write - 15 minutes

There's so much dumb shit in your brain. Get it out of there. The scum floating on the surface of the water, we don't want that getting on our writing. Get it out of there. We want to reach the sexy mermaids swimming down deep. We'll never reach them if we get all tangled up in the plastic 6-pack rings, old tires and used condoms floating on the surface.

Even if you have to type nothing nothing nothing nothing nothinghi onoghting nothing notoingho nothingin onothoingi idont know what ot wirt i tdont know what to write i can do this i hate this is tis ton dome thid dodu dumb dumb dumb i hate this i ha= am c so freaking col i cn abe a big bad baby and do this all day i am so fucking great at.writing look at me i cand tbe evne do nothing dumb dumb nothing nothing nothing buh buh buh buh ok ok oko ok ok ok ok ok okok ok ok ok ok ok

Then do it.

Literally just word vomit all the garbage in your brain, shake out all the fears and jitters, all the anticipations and expectations, shake it all out so you can relax enough to have fun and play, to be vulnerable and honest, to actually put a piece of yourself on the page.

List prompt -15 minutes

After you've voided your filthy mind, it's time to get down to business. Or as that one guy who does that Tarantino impression on TikTok says, Leh get down to bidness.

List prompts are the perfect kind of bidness to get down to this early in the 1 hour writing session. Remember, I promised you a full hour of writing, an hour in which you will not once die. So let's not overwhelm ourselves too early here.

My favorite list prompt is Clickbait. You can see an example of one I did here.

All you do is find a clickbait article title and steal it for the title of your new piece.

For example:

"Omg, Yes, F*ck This Movie!" People are sharing the 19 famous films that are incredibly overrated

1. I saw the Britney Spears movie Crossroads opening night and swapped seats mid movie so I could sit next to a girl from my class.
2. I don't remember who the girl was.
3. I do remember pretending like I hated it so I could keep my 13 year old boy cred.
4. Did you know the woman that directed Billy Madison directed Crossroads?
5. Wasn't Justin Long Britney's love interest? Wild.

or

17 super weird things men did on first dates that made women say, "yeah, we're not going on a second date"

1. My first week in LA I met up with a woman on the Sunset Strip, not knowing there was zero parking, then tried to convince her that helping me park my car would be an adventure.
2. One time, I was on a date and kept catching the eye of the sexy woman across the restaurant, sitting behind my date, Sheena. I told Sheena about it, so of course, she turned to stare at the sexy woman. She didn't like this. The sexy woman, not Sheena. The sexy woman definitely thought we were conspiring against her. She was with this ancient-looking mummy of a man while she was poured into a little black dress with a slit that went up to her you-know. She might have been a call girl. Well, anyway, eventually, she came over to our table and threatened to kick both of our asses. It sort of bonded us, though. Honestly, the rest of the date went pretty great.
3. I've made out in public way too many times. Making out in public even once means you are going to hell. God help me.

or

People who had sex with someone "forbidden" are sharing their secrets

1. nope, you don't get that kind of info that easy
2. get creative
3. don't follow the title too closely
4. just stream of consciousness a response
5. when that runs out, hit return and stream of consciousness another

The best part about this prompt is that you eventually find something to write about. You stumble on a memory, the seed of a story, a poem, whatever.

WARNING: Don't go looking for Clickbait titles during your 1 hour writing session. You will not write. You will just read clickbait articles. Your dumb ass was supposed to do that before you started. Remember the pre-game section?

Copy & Compose - 30 minutes

You should already be familiar with this. I've linked it once so far in this post, but hell, what the heck, twice won't hurt. Check out this post if you need a refresher.

And I know your heart of gold already pre-gamed and has your text prepared.

So, hop to it.

For a close apprenticeship, go line by line. Figure out what the sentence is doing and compose your own that does the same thing. If you're stuck on what to write about, why not grab one of your responses to the clickbait prompt? Huh, smart guy? Why not?

By the end, you might find you want to expand this piece into something much longer. This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

But don't forget to reflect on your piece afterwards.

Appraise how you did. What did you learn? Write it down. This is how you get those gains, baby.

This should take about 30 minutes or longer. For those counting, that puts us at 1 hour!

But wait up. Hold your horses, cowgirl.

Maybe you don't really want to Copy & Compose/Apprentice. Maybe you want to dive into something with a little more freedom.

Well then, do I have the prompts for you?

2 Truths & 1 Lie - 30 mins

Your drunk ass has played this.

Well, here's the way to play with yourself.

3 flash pieces*

2 are non-fiction

1 is fiction

You can mix and match which ones are truths and which ones are lies. Shit, they can all be lies. It don't matter.

All that matters is that you write three 500 word pieces.

*flash fiction is just incredibly short fiction pieces–anything from a few words up to 1,000ish.

Here's an idea. Have you ever seen Clue? You know how it has 3 different endings? Why not write 3 different versions of the same event? 1 of them is totally true.

Or hey, maybe try writing the same story from 3 different people's perspectives?

Or, wait wait wait, why not write the same story in 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person?

The possibilities are endless.

One of these flash pieces might be so thick and juicy that something bigger, a short story, no bigger, a novella, no no, big-ger, a novel, grows out of it.

Gadzooks!

Do you really need more prompts? You've already written for 1 hour without dying. You really want to push your luck?

Okay, if you really need more ideas, here's a list:

Write your own version of a regular magazine or newspaper piece

My writing group friend Joe gave us all the prompt: Rejected New York Times Modern Love piece. We had to write our own demented version of one of those (failing) NYT's Modern Love articles.

Write a Late Night talkshow circuit story

You've definitely seen clips of celebs telling witty stories about things that happened to them, things that always make them look charming, intelligent, and superior. Write a story about yourself, but in that self-aggrandizing way.

Write Yelp-style reviews of banal things that happened to you

Like going grocery shopping with your mom. Waiting in line for the bathroom. Taking public transit in Los Angeles. Trimming your toenails. Hey, you're a writer now, sweety. You gotta figure out how to make this stuff fun and engaging. If you can't entertain yourself, your audience doesn't have a prayer.

That's enough prompts! Figure this shit out for yourself, writer.

See what I did there? You made it to the 1 hour mark. Give yourself a hug. You wrote!

You're officially a writer.

But just for today. You gotta wake up and do it again tomorrow. And tomorrow's tomorrow. And tomorrow's tomorrow's tomorrow. And on and on. Forever til the end of time.

But you aren't done yet. There's one last thing to do at the end of every writing session.

Reflect on your writing session

Take out your notebook. The one you copy inspiring text in. The one you jot down little creative notes in throughout the day. The one you collect prompts in. The one you use all day long to maintain engagement with your unique creative spirit.

Take it out and journal a quick paragraph. Gush about how you felt about the session. Reflect on all the things you learned. Jot down any ideas you have.

At the very end, don't forget to make a plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow's session will be so much easier if you already have ideas about what you want to write about.

Also, use it as a way to psyche yourself up. You have to be your biggest fan and personal cheerleader. Get into the habit of ending every session with excitement and encouragement.

Soon, writing will give you that weird feeling.

As you go, you'll start working on longer pieces that get you really excited. When that happens, your warm-up will be shorter, about 20 minutes. Then you'll be chomping at the bit to dive right into writing your piece.

Do whatever kind of warm-up you want and in whatever order you want. But I highly recommend that you always do the free write word vomit up top, for at least 5 minutes. It helps.

Here's a downloadable checklist:

Don't say I never did anything for you!

Homework:

Write for 1 hour (without dying)

See you next post.