How this ‘Writer’s Box’ Will Make You a Better Writer — Faster

Self-imposed boundaries help boost your writing game

As a writer it can feel impossible to pick something. There are so many options. We want to express ourselves and show our talent to the world. We want to leave a mark — to make a difference.

Some feel writing rules, frameworks, and boundaries are too limiting.

I’d like to argue that boundaries are a great way to get better. When we’ve got unlimited writing choices, it’s easy to get lost, or buried in the vast-ness. But when we rope ourselves in, put a tall fence around an idea, and bring the magnifying glass to a project — this is when the good stuff happens.

It’s time to put a box around your writing.

A box has six sides, not just walls. There’s a floor and ceiling too. This is important to your writing project. Both green and seasoned writers be overwhelmed with a project. There are too many options. When your limits are literally a blank page, it’s too easy to write yourself into oblivion.

So we go micro instead.

Instead of an entire restaurant, we write about two people at a single table. Instead of a town full of folks, we choose a single relationship. Maybe two neighbors. Instead of a galaxy of issues, we zoom to a single rock.

The writer’s box give us restraint. When we have restraint we’ve got more space to focus on our craft, not less. Restraint gives us room to adjust individual word choices.

When there’s no limit to your writing, we also leave room for craft to suffer.

Some walls are genre-imposed

Every genre has certain tropes. Readers expect these tropes to be met, or you book may not qualify for the genre you say it is. Some writers see tropes as formulaic, or limiting. That’s nonsense. You can have walls and a creative piece of writing, simultaneously.

Know your tropes and write within them.

There’s plenty of room to show your writing style. There’s plenty of room to deliver a great story. There’s plenty of room to hone your craft.

Genre rules help writers know where to go. Like a 50,000-foot map of a town. We can’t see the people or the buildings yet, but we know the shape and the topography. Tropes give us these boundaries. We don’t want to write ourselves into the bottom of a lake if we can help it.

Some walls are self-imposed

For fun, I used to write twelve-sentence thrillers. Each sentence was a step along the Hero’s Journey. I had to tell the entire story in three paragraphs (one for each act).

This kind of micro-writing forces you to critique every word. Later, when you zoom-out to write an entire article or book, you keep the same mindset — that every word matters. We can move the walls in our out, but we should never remove the completely.

This is the writer’s box.

Some walls are skill-imposed

Maybe you’re new to writing. If you’ve never written before, your first project should not be a novel. The box is too big. Maybe it’s best to start with one sentence. Or a short story.

You’ll find out what you can handle.

We become better writers, not by one, giant project, but by getting a little better every day. Maybe today we focus on character. Tomorrow might be dialogue. The day after could be scene design.

Skill-imposed walls help us select our next writing project.

Sure, it’d be cool to write the next Hemingway knock-off, but you probably aren’t there yet. Writing is a daily pursuit. This isn’t a vocation you try once and win. Some days we work harder than others, but it’s a life-long pursuit.

The stuff you write today better be worse than the stuff you write next year, or you’ve done something very wrong.

We all need limits. The box makes us better writers. The box helps us connect with our readers on a deeper level. When we connect with our readers we sell more of our work. It’s time for you to sell more of yours.

We’re waiting for you.

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August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. A self-proclaimed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indie authors how to write books that sell and how to sell more of those books once they’re written. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.