Writing on my phone??
Recently I’ve been reading a lot from Andrew Mayne. I started out in March reading “The Girl Beneath the Sea”, got curious and read a few of his non-fiction pieces such as “How to Write a Novella in 24 Hours” and “The Cure for Writer’s Block”, both of which I found interesting and full of nuggets of inspiration. I recently started the sequel to “The Girl Beneath the Sea”, titled “Black Corral”. I think I’m a little drawn to Andrew because he, like myself, seems to go in several different directions at once and still writes. He’s done magic, had specials on Shark Week on Discovery Channel and wrote a ton of books. One of the techniques he spoke about in “How to Write a Novella in 24 Hours” was that he writes literally every chance he gets. Instead of mindlessly scrolling the phone, he uses that time to create content. I dug that concept. If you were to get a peek at my physical notebooks I ponder that concept alot. I’ve always felt I would be more happy creating more content than I took in. I feel like when we’re taking in content endlessly it makes us passive, and passive me isn’t a happy me. I crave being active and want to create, not consume. A lot of the time I feel like I’m swimming upstream as we live in a world of endless streaming services, which means and endless array of content battering you in the head. One of the ways he stays productive is to shatter the myth of “the perfect writing moment”, as in there is no perfect moment to write. Instead he writes anytime he feels like it. Anytime it strikes him. Which means not always being in front of his computer. As a result he has done a lot of typing on his phone. At the time I was dumbfounded by it. I couldn’t imagine typing out a novel, novella, or short story on a phone. I mean I do similar stuff with practicing my music. I will literally be waiting on a phone call and spontaneously pick up my uke and bang out a few songs (as you’ve seen on my recent social media), but the idea of literally writing on my phone, which has primarily been a tool of keeping me plugged in and consuming seemed so foreign. So of course you know I had to try it…
I’m currently in the midst of final edits for Tears of the Dragon, and I’ve started working on a new novel, so what better time to start a grand experiment? I changed a few things for this experiment. For one, I wanted to start, and maybe finish my first draft on my phone. Second, I’m a notorious planner, I literally have every chapter laid out before starting on a book, so I decided to totally take a concept I had bouncing around my head and make it up as I went along. This is commonly known as writing by the seat of your pants. Oh, I also decided to write this novel from the first person perspective, which I have yet to do. So far, I’ve found it drastically changes the way I approach the writing. Writing from my phone has, so far, given me a much more intimate relationship with what I’m writing. When I have outlines and am banging away on my keyboard, I tend to be very much in sprint mode and want to get from point A to point B. With the piece I’m writing on my phone, I spend a lot more time inside my characters head and move at a slower pace. So far it’s a fascinating experiment and very stimulating. I’ll keep you guys posted on how it continues to unfold. What’s some weird things you’ve done to stimulate your creativity?
Talk soon! Happy writing!
– Ryan
