Tina Haapala, Excuse Editor

I’m not here to discuss how great or dangerous it would be to have one of those treadmill desks (although I just came across a blog post where a writer found that while her husband and cats were perfectly willing to bother her while she had her butt in the chair, nobody bugged her while she was on the treadmill, so she started writing there ); I’m talking about the process of continuously “writing in place.” Many times over the years I have found myself reaching a writing plateau and I need to find something to shake it up. Taking stock of my use of treadmill writing is one way to break free from the writing stagnation it sometimes causes. Let me explain: Pro: Treadmill writing gets SOMETHING on the page. One of the most simple, yet true, pieces of writing advice is “Just Write.” Getting to the page eliminates the first obstacle, showing up. Pro: Treadmill writing allows you to get your writing in shape. If you are just starting, you get a chance to discover your limitati...

Earlier this month, I was discussing my own creative process with another writer. We talked a bit about where ideas come from, and the difficulty, at times, of getting those ideas onto the page. For the rest of the day, I thought about how much of my own writing works, and I'm sure it's true for many other writers-- I allow an idea to make its way back and forth, to and fro, in my mind, until it finally (hopefully) makes its way to tangible prose. The trick is: don't let it stick there for too long, and don't use that as an excuse to avoid work on that project. Excuse Editor Tip: It's fine to let an idea simmer, as long as you are preparing the rest of the meal. The Simmer I read the newspaper everyday, not just to be informed, but to find ideas. Sometimes, I will go directly from the crinkle of the news to the flat freshness of my own journal page, inspired to write about something I'd just read. Often, the idea stays right there. But because I've writ...