KD Rouse-Recipe to Write

1) Clean and fix up your house, until you can walk through and not be distracted by dust, clutter, burnt out light bulbs, or where you once kicked a hole in the wall. Then forget about your house.

2)Write first. Talk later. If you talk first, chances are that you won't write it. You've released it, and it loses its impetus. You have to have it burst from you like a secret you can't wait to tell. After you write about it, you'll rarely care to talk about it. It's been done and you are on to the next thing.

3)Turn off the radio. Turn off the TV and stereo. Give yourself time to think.

4)Do not discourage your own attempts.

5)Always have projects in different stages to work on. If you slow down on one, go on to something else. Leave it alone and come back to it with a fresh eye.

6)Get your first draft down as quickly as possible. Put it away and don't read it for at least two weeks before you begin your first edit. Count on editing as being as important to the process of writing as your initial thoughts. Through edits, you learn a flow, and develop a style which eventually feels natural.

7)Don't try to write. Just write. Don't worry about anyone else seeing it. Learn to create for yourself until you are pleased. Then you can think about sharing.

8)Jot down phrases or words that please you to use later.

9)Listen to people. They will "write" for you.

10)Amuse yourself.

11)If you think of something twice, you might as well have written it down the first time. Train yourself to catch the musicality of the moments. You think you will remember, but you won't.

12)Challenge yourself to do things that surprise and delight, thereby unlocking the chains that bind you, and giving you inspiration. If you flow within, you can't help but flow without.

13) There really is no such thing as writer's block except that thinking makes it so. You just sat there too long trying. You have to replenish, and sometimes rest. Sometimes you have to switch genres. If you run out of words, stop trying to use them. Do something else. Paint what you feel or bake a cake or go ride your bike. It's easy to get mixed up and think you live to write, instead of living to live and then writing about it.

14)Beware of other people and who you share things with. You'll need input eventually, but it's also easy to get squashed down. Do listen to people, but don't let it destroy you when you hear the negatives.

15)Never underestimate the Power of the Pace, i.e. don't be shy about a physical representation of that which you seek. If you want your words to flow, try pacing in a circle as you're thinking about what you want to say. Dance, and then match your own stride with your words.

16) In my experience, people are pretty nice to beginners, writer's groups are catty and easily turn vicious, and family members do not make good critics even when they are right.

17) It is important to understand the power of editing. What you cut  is as important as what you keep and you have to learn to be ruthless with your precious words.

Basically: Read, Write, Edit, Read, Write, Edit, Read & Write & Edit and so on.

17) Writing, like masturbating, is not done in public, and to be a writer, must write.