Barstool Writing

When I'm having a hard time getting the keys moving, I remind myself to do what I call "barstool writing." That entails conversationally and writing quickly.

I write conversationally and I don't look things up while writing a first draft. I know a bunch of things, and my characters and narrators usually know less than I do. Writing round-about descriptions of things I know nothing about, like women's clothing, has resulted in writing that I find satisfactory. If I looked up the right words for everything, the characters would know things that would not be reasonable for them to know.

I write quickly without thinking too much of what to say, for almost exactly the same reason that I don't look up words. I can sit for an hour trying to think of the perfect word before I go on, convinced it makes a difference. If I did that while telling a story in a bar, the bartender would cut me off. Even though I don't have time to think of all the right words, I still, miraculously, get the point across. I may have to be repetitive, and even say things like "you know" or "it was kind of like," but I get the point across, and end up with more genuine, unexpected descriptions.

(Note that "conversationally" refers to the style of writing, and "quickly" refers to the rate with which I write. These are both important considerations when analyzing craft in order to improve.)

Example:

I didn't know what kind of dress it was that I knew I wanted to describe, but I had an image of it in my head.  I started looking it up and then decided, there is no way my narrator would know that, and wrote:

"She had on an off-white dress with tiny, pale blue flowers and a pucker under the bust line, which she did not fill out."

I find that much more interesting than any fashion-catalog description of the dress, and it illustrates what the narrator thinks is important.