S1E8 Writing/C. L. Mullikin

Hello friends! Welcome back to the Inked blog, this week we are here to talk about one of the hardest things of writing. Starting the first sentence of your story can be really difficult, especially when it's your first time. But today I am hoping that our guest and I can break it down for you so that it doesn’t seem quite as intimidating. So, with that, welcome our guest C.L. Mulliken as she is joining us today to take the fear out of writing for the first time. 

1. Why do you love the actual part of writing so much?

“That is a hard question to answer, but my best way to explain it is that there is something magical about writing after the planning and the outlining. Just sitting down at the computer and feeling the words flow and watching the story come together. In that moment, perfectionism doesn’t even matter. The quality of your writing is not as important to you anymore because you’re so attached to the process versus the product.”

2. How do you motivate yourself to keep writing?

“The biggest thing for me was grasping the fact that the only way that anything will get done (in this case my writing) is if I actually sit down and do it. Nobody else is going to be doing it for me and if this is what I want to be doing as my career someday I have to treat it as important. And I have to realize that it’s not always going to be easy, but it’s necessary.”

Reilly’s Note: “You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.”

-How do you in your life make time for writing?

“It’s good to acknowledge that you will always be in a different season of your life. And sometimes that season will allow you to have time for a lot of writing, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s good to recognize that sometimes you’re going to be more busy than other times and knowing where your responsibilities and priorities are.  

If writing is important to you, you will be willing to let something else go and make time for it.”

Reilly’s Note: “Especially with school and with juggling responsibilities, give yourself a time zone. A time limit and see how much you can get done within that slot of time. Because you can get writing to fit into your day.”

3. What are your biggest tips to actually get writing done?

“When you start looking for ways to improve your writing outside of just writing, you notice so many things that you could be doing to further your process. 

The biggest thing for me is to just sit down at the computer and set a timer. During that time that I am supposed to be writing I don’t let myself get on any other tabs or get distracted and focus on writing.”

4. Do you keep track of your wordcount as you write?

“I sometimes do word counts, but I usually set timer limits and write as much as I can within that time. I don't like to run the creative well dry, and I always like to have an idea left that I can come back to the next day.”

Reilly’s Note: “Don’t burn your brain out. Keep a notebook full of ideas, you don’t have to use them all, but it will be a good place that on the days you feel burnt out you can go to and be inspired.” 

That is all for today, thank you so much for reading and I hope that this was helpful for you and your writing process. Bye guys!

-Aletheianna Black (Writer)