In this article I’d like to go over some tips on the writing process. I know that’s something that we’ve all been working at avoiding. At some point, almost no matter what you’re going to create you’re going to have to do a little writing, whether it’s an introduction, a summary, a cover, or whatever.
For many people that is just a point of tremendous fear. The hard part about writing is getting started. Talk to anyone you know. I bet if I talked to any one of our most successful marketing friends and ask, “What was the hardest part of the whole project?” They’ll say, “Just getting started.”
Sitting down with that paper and computer, or that blank screen in front of you and getting the first words on paper is always the hardest moment. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an experienced writer or beginner, you still have the same fear.
The most prolific writer in modern history was Walter B. Gibson. Walter wrote all the “Shadow” novels and a lot of “how-to” information. His house literally had rooms with bookcases from floor to ceiling with books that Walter had written. Walter was always writing books.
Walter had trouble getting started, so the way he got started writing was he never stopped. He just kept going from page to page to page. He had typewriters throughout his house, and he still wrote on a manual typewriter until his death. He would have several books going at the same time. He would walk by one typewriter and he would work there for a half-hour or so, then he’d move to another typewriter and work on a different book.
Someone said, “ Walter, why don’t you just sit in front of one typewriter and take the pages out and change them?” He would say, “And waste all that time? No way.” So he got up and moved from typewriter to typewriter. Most of us are not going to write that way, but Walter didn’t like to get started. We face the same problem.
