{"id":1342,"date":"2024-06-03T16:46:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T15:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2024-06-09T11:53:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T10:53:17","slug":"day-3-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/03\/day-3-monthofblogging-june2024-monthofwriting\/","title":{"rendered":"DAY 3 – #MonthOfBlogging #June2024 #MonthOfWriting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GET IN THE FLOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a trained engineer, I studied many subjects for my degree. Amongst them, two of the most important were Statics<\/em> and Dynamics<\/em>. Statics – the study of stationary objects; Dynamics – the study of moving objects.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in statics, we developed formulae to tell us the safest angle to lean a ladder against a wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s quite a complicated formula (it is, honest), and requires analysis of the forces acting on the ladder, coefficients of friction, and so on. And no, I don\u2019t remember any of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In dynamics, we studied moving objects. Accelerations, mass and velocity, why it gets increasingly harder to accelerate your car as your speed increases (spoiler alert – air resistance and square laws).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference between them can be shown when you use a hammer. To drive a nail into a piece of wood using a dead weight, you\u2019d need a lot of weight. So what do we do? We swing the hammer, hopefully hitting the nail on the head, with imparts more energy to the nail than simply resting a heavy weight on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You must be scratching your head by now. Stay with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And… so it is with writing. Have you ever noticed that it\u2019s more difficult to begin writing when you have a blank page \/ screen? And that, once you get going, it becomes easier? Push a book along a worktop. Initially, it resists movement. Stiction, is what it\u2019s sometimes referred to. That resistance to initial motion. Once it\u2019s moving, it becomes easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the tip for today is: develop a writing flow<\/strong>. Don\u2019t let anything stop you or push you off track. Don\u2019t go back and edit what you\u2019ve written until you\u2019ve finished writing. If you write a paragraph, re-read and edit it, you need to overcome stiction to start writing again for the next paragraph. And so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One more anecdote: over 15 years ago, I took part in a 24-hour short story writing challenge for charity. Every hour, on the hour, the group leader would post a selection of writing prompts, and we could write against one of those prompts, or one of our own. And I found, after writing about 5 pieces of flash fiction, I got into a real flow of writing – a groove<\/strong>, if you wish. The words and subtexts flowed, drawing admiring comments from readers. I definitely felt intensely focussed on what I was doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So: start a habit, set your boundaries for those around you, apply realistic targets, and really get into that writing habit!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GET IN THE FLOW As a trained engineer, I studied many subjects for my degree. Amongst them, two of the most important were Statics and Dynamics. Statics – the study of stationary objects; Dynamics – the study of moving objects.\u00a0 For instance, in statics, we developed formulae to tell us the safest angle to lean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,6,7,15,16,17],"tags":[70,73,46,81,80,82,54,71,25],"class_list":["post-1342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice","category-inspiration","category-mindful-writing","category-thinking","category-writing","category-writing-on-writing","tag-advice","tag-beginner","tag-creativity","tag-flow","tag-get-in-flow","tag-practise","tag-success","tag-tips","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Flow.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5y3CH-lE","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1344,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1342\/revisions\/1344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gerald-hornsby.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}