Watched a guy at a coffee shop write a scene on a napkin and it hit me

I was at a local shop called Brew & Ink last Tuesday. This older guy sat down, pulled a crumpled napkin out of his pocket, and started writing a dialogue between two characters. No laptop, no notes app, just a pen and a napkin. It made me realize I've been overcomplicating my writing process with all these planning tools and templates. I spend more time organizing my story than actually writing it. Now I keep a pocket notebook in my car and write for 15 minutes before I even think about structure. Anybody else find that going back to basics helped them finish a project?

2 comments

2 Comments

morgan51215d ago

Honestly that napkin method sounds genius. Might have to try that.

parker_jones5015d ago

Honestly, I had the same wakeup call a few years back. I was so stuck on outlining chapters and using plot software that I barely wrote a thing for months. Then I started just handwriting scenes on index cards during lunch breaks, no editing, no second guessing. That little shift got me from zero words to a full first draft in like six weeks.