Writing Practice: Easy Mode

Dear Reader,

The Celestial Librarian has been sending me a message lately, so I'll pass it on to you:

The message first popped up when I read Greg McKeown’s Effortless — a long-standing library hold that arrived over the holidays. The book contains wonderful gems about writing—including the advice not to put upper limits on your writing each day.

Then I read Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It’s structured as four weeks of daily thoughts, and day 16 is “What If This Were Easy: On the False Allure of Difficulty.”

That’s the moment I felt the Celestial Librarian trying to get my attention.

I’ve been playing with “easy” lately. If I feel tired one morning, I tell myself that I’ll do the day on Easy Mode. Oddly enough, I still get about as much writing done as on an ordinary day, with less sense of effort.

Hmm. There's a lesson here.

February's book: Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

While not a "writing" book, it gets at the heart of the issue for many people—why we often do everything other than write.

Plus, I've found that writing advice and life advice nearly always intersect.

To enter the drawing, respond by Sunday, February 23 and let me know you're interested.

Your Writing Practices Post: Writing on Easy Mode

This week's Writing Practices post riffs on the theme of easy vs. hard in writing. Perhaps you'll find some ideas of how to simplify your own writing life here!

A fun, free book on freewriting

Here's another book you can grab, free of charge today: Set Your Story Free by the folks at Freewrite.

Freewrite makes distraction-free keyboards for writers. They asked me to contribute a chapter on "creative flow" to their book on freewriting. The first half is all about the theory, and the second half about their devices.

If you're interested in freewriting (the verb), with or without one of those devices, you might enjoy this book. You can get the ebook for free, or order the print one. Here's the link.

That's all for this time. Keep writing!

Anne

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