HaHA we have broken the romance cycle!
For this month’s WriYe blog prompt, we have: List of “writing hacks” you swear by (and some you wish would just go away).
Now, squiders, for the life of me, I can’t think of any writing hacks. So I did a search to see what I could find. This garnered me a mixture of grammatical things, productivity hacks (arguably not the same thing), and a lot of “show, don’t tell.”
Though I am reminded of the time (Nano 2019, maybe?) where I read something that said using Comic Sans made things flow easier, and so I typed my whole novel in said Comic Sans, not necessarily because it was working (though the first draft did flow great–but I suspect that had more to do with my outlining than anything else) but because I was worried that if I stopped it would break my mindset somehow.
(That’s an idea, though–maybe I should write different genres in different fonts. Or maybe the whole idea is silly.)
(Also, seriously, screw these writing hacks lists. This one honestly lists point of view as a hack. That’s not a hack, that’s an essential part of a story.)
(I also enjoy this one that has “Use metaphors” as a hack immediately after “eliminate unnecessary expressions.” Make up your mind.)
For the sake of argument, let’s say there’s not any writing hacks. Writing is hard. Every story has its own hurdles and something like “eliminate every other speech tag” isn’t going to do anyone any favors.
I can get behind the productivity hacks, though arguably those aren’t “hacks” either. It’s surprisingly hard to find the right definition of “hack” on ye olde Interwebs, but I did find “the act of attempting to manipulate outcomes based on orchestrated actions.” Basically, a way to force the outcome you want in a predictable manner.
Hahahaha none of this is predictable. Creativity is, alas, not predictable. You can take steps to improve your chances–practice, read widely, take classes, etc. But I wouldn’t consider those hacks.
But the productivity, sure. My brain has some neurodivergent shenanigans it gets up to occasionally, and so “tricking” it into doing what I want to do can be useful from time to time. I like making lists, because it gives me a way to remind myself what I’m supposed to be doing.
Other things, like Pomodoro, don’t really work for me. (I can usually get through one Pomodoro, but then I get distracted during the break and never come back to it.) Writing sprints can be helpful, but only if I’m in the right frame of mind, and then I either get into the flow (and so don’t come back at the end of the sprint) or lose my focus during the break between sprints.
So basically what I’ve learned is that if I stop, I’m not coming back, and so those techniques are no bueno for me.
With productivity hacks, they’re really personal. What works for me may not work for you, and vice versa. I do like to try new ones from time to time, to mix things up, in case I could be doing better than I am. Usually not, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to try.
What about you, squider? What are your feelings on “hacks”? Favorite writing and/or productivity ones?
