How do you 'keep writing whatever happens'?

Question

I've heard the same thing from almost every writer whenever I ask a question or read an answer, and that thing is : "Just keep writing. It doesn't matter what it will be, because you can edit it later." I know it's the real strategy of writing, I can feel it. But honestly, I'm tired of hearing it.

And whenever I tried to do that, I always get distracted and try to make things better even I haven't finish writing the whole plot outline.

Is there any secret, rules, or anything that could make me not worried about the things that I write and just keep on going to a race?

Answer 1

This is going to sound very odd, but I've found it surprisingly effective: Figure out whatever time of day you're most alert and then write at the OPPOSITE end of the day. So, if you're a morning person, stay up and write. If you're a night owl, get up early. Your internal editor goes to sleep, and you just write and write in a kind of half dream state. (This is from the book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang)

Also, if you're not making progress with your outline, shift to a different approach, or just dive in. The only right writing process is the one that works for you. I'm a big outliner myself, but sometimes you need to do a little discovery writing first, and then go back and outline.

The big key is --if the writing is flowing, let it flow. Don't judge it, and don't expect it to conform to certain rules or processes. Editing is a whole different step, and must come AFTER the writing.

Answer 2

Actually that is not the real strategy to writing. Planning and organization is the keystone and capstone to writing.

Just writing and hoping you can edit it later is a fantasy shared by millions of Walter Mitty-type writers playing at 'author' and who cite Stephen King as their justification.

Sorry, but you are likely not any Stephen King. Just writing and hoping to edit is a very slow, longer, harder path to take to finishing, should you ever actually finish.

One you have planned down to the scene level then pantsing scenes can work. But trying to pants the whole novel and hoping somehow it comes together logically while still being interesting is a foolish approach.

If you can't do a small outline, how are you going to do a huge tome?

Answer 3

I believe that the best strategy to writing is just to write and not think about what you are writing. To start, I plan my entire essay/book/article out, and gather my sources/evidence/references, and then write a skeleton draft which basically says the main points/ideas in my writing. After that, I just expand off of the skeleton draft, and keep writing based on my plan. I don't think about the writing itself, but the plan, and this keeps me both on track in my writing, and sane, not just staring at a screen (or paper) all of the time, but having something that I can actually keep track of my progress on. So that's the best strategy that has worked for me so far, and I hope that it works for you as well.