Writing Without Writing: 15 Minutes with Allen Arnold

Do you ever feel like you should be doing more writing? Or that you don’t have time for it all? I do, and I’ve been especially struggling with it because of my clear stance on discipline. Why am I not getting more done? Am I really disciplined, or am I just all talk?

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I attended the One Year Adventure Novel summer workshop in mid-June. This year, one of the featured speakers was Allen Arnold, author of The Story of With.

Mr. Arnold gave his first session on Tuesday evening and it was phenomenal. He talked about how we are co-creators with the God of the universe, how He loves creativity, and how He is writing our story. Mr. Arnold hit on so many things close to my heart, so many things that I’ve been contemplating and considering writing in my next novel, and I came away from that session overflowing.

After the session, he signed my folder for me, and we chatted a bit. I would have loved to have talked to him more, because everything he talked about hit home, but I didn’t.

I’m a pretty shy person, so even though workshop attendees can talk with speakers during mealtime, I have never pulled together the courage to do that. So, when Mr. Arnold sat next to me with a few other girls to eat his dinner on Wednesday evening…I was pretty excited.

He engaged us both as a group and as individuals, asking what we did for work, if we liked having non-creative jobs to save creative energy or if we liked having creative jobs. He also asked, “What is your biggest writing struggle?”

I took a minute to think about it. And then I said, “Finding the balance between being disciplined and being a beast.”

And it’s true. I struggle with sticking to it. I struggle being okay with failure. I struggle with feeling like a hypocrite.

Mr. Arnold said that what he does is he takes a journal everywhere so no matter what, he gets a chance to write something every day—an observation, thought, description, idea, etc. He also keeps a notebook with thoughts and ideas for his projects. As he adds those ideas to his book, he rips out the notebook pages containing them until the notebook is empty.

Even if he’s not writing a chapter, working on outlining, or revising, he still gets a chance to write every day.

I call it writing without writing. Even though it may not feel like real writing because it’s not directly working on a project, it still counts because you will probably use the material eventually. If nothing else, it helps practice observation and working on description.

I’ve begun taking a notebook with me everywhere and when something strikes me as an interesting thought, or I see something beautiful, or I get an idea, I write it down and capture it as best as I can.

So even if you don’t have time for the “big stuff” you can still have success in your writing day.

How do you write without writing? Share it in the comments, and I’ll see you next week!

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Even if you don’t have time for the “big stuff” you can still have success in your writing day.

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