A Writing Tip by Karen Rile
WRITE IN SAFETY
Recently I wrote about The Most Dangerous Writing App, an efficient but hair-raising way to generate fresh ideas for your writing. If you haven’t tried it, give it a spin. You might catch something you can use; at very least you’ll get a three-cups-of-coffee adrenaline spurt.
Yesterday, a student of mine told me she has a friend who drafts all his writing in The Most Dangerous app. Imagine that! For most of us, however, such a heart-pounding practice isn’t sustainable for more than a few minutes at a time. To write deeply, to compose, one needs to be composed. Maybe, like me, you compose on a keyboard, fingers flying to keep up with your thoughts. Maybe as you type you’re struggling against the urge to look away, to Google that last reference, to answer that ding (typing this, just now, I floated away for five minutes into Instagram.) You know what I mean.
This week, I challenge you to connect your head and your hand. Shut the laptop, turn off your phone, find a pen, and write. Savor the sensation of your skin against the paper, of the small muscles in your fingers working. Take your time forming the letters. Instead of crossing out and crumpling, stay in the moment. Your time here is safe. Your notebook isn’t going to slam itself shut and delete your work if you pause to daydream or reconsider. Fill the page. One page, maybe, or a second, or third if you like, but don’t stop until you reach the end of the current page. Do it every day this week, and maybe next week, and the week after. Make a practice of setting aside these few daily moments.
What will you catch in a page or three? An idea, a draft, a memory? Most valuably, perhaps, your breath. Neuroscientists have long known that handwriting on paper activates more areas of the brain and promotes better memory and deeper thinking than typing. It’s true for note-taking and it’s true for drafting paragraphs and poems. Writing by hand pulls on thoughts buried deep and calm. Let this practice inform and augment the rest of your writing.
Karen Rile is chief editor of Cleaver, which she co-founded in 2013 with Lauren Rile Smith. She is the author of Winter Music, a novel set in Philadelphia, and numerous works of fiction and creative nonfiction. She lives in Philadelphia and teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania. Follow her on Instagram @whatkindofdog.
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