I am the anti-Diane Keaton.
To be clear: I am not anti-Diane Keaton, the national treasure, but I am the polar opposite of her character Erica Barry from Something’s Gotta Give.
I don’t “escape” to my beach house in the Hamptons to collect seashells and click clack away on a typewriter in front of a massive window with a view of the ocean.
And let’s discuss adorning this body (gestures to rotund & purple-haired self) in white linen pants and a white turtleneck.
First of all, how dare you.
Second, I have no desire to feel like I’m being lightly strangled by a very weak & unusually tall child (I will fight every turtleneck-wearer in these comments).
I don’t spend hours and days and weeks of dedicated time to writing anything because I don’t have that luxury—and I’m betting you don’t, either.
Let’s start with time.
Lots of us don’t think we have enough and I will never position myself as an authority on what you do or don’t have & how “I *get* it”, because I am not you and will do my best to never conflate our particular situations.
And: in my experience, people don’t have chunks of it, which is probably what you think you need to write/be a writer.
And by chunks, I mean any increment longer than 10 consecutive minutes to dedicate to a task that isn’t caretaking, working, and surviving as a person in the world.
Yep, to me, anything longer than 10 consecutive minutes is a Chunk and I typically don’t function well in Chunks of time because that is not how my brain works best.
I am The Most Unceremonious Writer on the planet (or maybe just in Colorado) because I write in five to ten minute increments throughout the day from my couch, car, the gym, my bedroom floor, my bed, in line at the grocery store, etc.
The lines I write one day become material to build on the next day. I work on one piece in tiny bites every single day until a Casual Magic writing session, when I give them 25 minutes of uninterrupted writing and revision time.
Some days I write zero things & that’s okay. I don’t get upset about it or think I’m failing at being a writer because that’s just not how this works. Not for me.
And that’s how I write.
Unceremoniously.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Consistently.
Some things you might want to start doing:
using your Notes app or keeping Drive & Docs on your phone so that you can easily access them when a thought comes up
Using Voice Notes to talk when writing is not accessible or not fun (talking is WAY easier sometimes, so don’t think that talking *isn’t* writing)
Using voice memos in my DMs to float ideas by friends who like to brainstorm & give feedback. **this is by far one of my favorite ways to write things—out loud and with people I love and trust
If you’re a person who writes, do you use any of these things?
Are you a person like me who loves to talk first, write second?
Let us know in the comments!
Casual Magic Writing
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