How to Have Written

About How to Have Written

Practical advice for getting words out of your head. dennisdiclaudio.substack.com (https://dennisdiclaudio.substack.com/s/how-to-have-written?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Dennis DiClaudio

Category

arts · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

11 Nov 2024

Latest episode

25 Jun 2025

Latest episodes

3 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Jun 2025

   Ep. 4: Re-Animating the Podcast

   Host DENNIS DICLAUDIO discusses his podcasting journey, including challenges, creative processes, and future plans for "How to Have Written" and his new horror podcast, offering insights into his creative world.

2. 

   18 Nov 2024

   Ep. 3: Don't Just Write

   In an earlier episode, you advised aspiring writers to just start writing because, as you said, anything is better than nothing. But when I do that, what comes out isn't just bad—it's wrong. It confuses my original idea in such a way that it discourages me from continuing. Why would you give us such shitty advice? —Hesiod in Rampart, New Jersey Oh man, that's a good question. And one that’s really close to my heart, because I’ve dealt with that problem so many times. It’s traditionally been one of the biggest things standing between me and being productive. There’s this general advice out there that writers often give, and while it might seem useful—and probably is useful to some people—it’s not for me. Or at least, it hasn’t been. The advice is: just write. On the surface, it seems logical. If you want to write a story, you have to write it. And I even kind of echoed that sentiment in a recent episode. But I don’t mean it in the sense that you have to just start writing prose right away. You don’t need to begin at the first chapter. You don’t need to begin with the first sentence—or with sentences or chapters at all. Not really. If you don’t feel like you know the story well enough to sit down and start describing scenes, actions, or dialogue, you don’t have to force it. There are plenty of other ways to make progress. So that advice—just write—I’ve rewritten it for myself as don’t just write. Very clever. Very creative, I know. But there are two ways to interpret it. The first is a rejection of the conventional wisdom. Don’t just write if that approach doesn’t work for you. If sitting down to start typing feels useless or unproductive, then don’t do it. Now, to be clear, eventually, you do have to write. You’ll need to put words on the page, shape them into sentences, turn those into paragraphs, and so on until you have something people can read. But that doesn’t have to happen right now. And for some people—myself included—it isn’t even the best way to begin. I know there are writers who can sit down and discover their story through narrative description or dialogue. I’ve heard George R.R. Martin calls this “gardening”—just writing and finding the story as you go. If that works for you, that’s fantastic. By all means, do it! But it doesn’t work for me. In fact, it’s often had a negative effect on my writing. For years, I’d hear that advice—just write—and take it at face value. I’d sit down and start typing, even though I had no clear sense of what I was writing or where I was going. For example, let’s say I want to write a story about a guy who gets bitten by a zombie at work and then goes on a rampage through his office. Where do you begin? You could start with him at his desk. You could start with him waking up in the morning. You could start with a prologue about how the zombie plague began. But if I don’t know who this guy is, what his office is like, who his coworkers are—then I’m just throwing darts blindfolded and hoping I hit something. Sure, some writers can do that and discover great things through contemplative drafts. But for me, it often feels like spinning my wheels. This is where don’t just write comes in. If sitting down to write prose doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It doesn’t mean you’re not a writer at all. It just means there are other ways to engage with your story. The other way to read it is don’t JUST write. Do more. It’s not just about avoiding writing for writing’s sake. It’s about doing other creative work that moves the story forward. There are so many parts of the writing process you can tackle, even if you’re not ready to put sentences on the page. For instance, with my zombie-in-the-office idea, I don’t just have a concept. I have themes. The idea of chaos overturning the order of a mundane office intrigues me. From there, I can brainstorm. I can think about typical office life and imagine how it changes when a zombie shows up. I can come up with characters—like people I’d love to see eaten by a zombie—and scenarios pulled from my own office experiences. Once I start collecting these ideas, I’m off to the races. I usually start with a placeholder title—something simple like Office Zombie—and then jot down thoughts. This feels productive. I might not be drafting, but I’m gathering the pieces I’ll need later. Sometimes, I sit with my notebook while my wife and I relax in her office, and I scribble ideas as they come to me. It’s satisfying to see a story take shape this way. It’s like gathering Lego bricks for a larger build. Maybe I note down a scene where someone gets hit with a fax machine or pulled out from under a bathroom stall. Over time, I collect enough of these bricks to see the shape of the story. Eventually, I’ll know the story well enough to figure out where it begins. Maybe I decide it starts with the boss arriving at the office for reasons tied to the plot. At that point, I can start writing actual prose. Or maybe I’ll just make detailed notes about that opening scene and keep adding to my document. This process—brainstorming, gathering ideas, and organizing them—is writing. You’re creating the story. You’re doing the work, even if it doesn’t look like traditional drafting. And here’s the beautiful part: You don’t have to focus on just one story. If I have multiple ideas—like a zombie story and one about a guy who builds race cars—I can work on both simultaneously. I keep separate documents or pages in a notebook, adding bits and pieces as they come to me. It’s like a fun creative hobby, and it keeps me engaged. Over time, as my notes grow, I reach a point where I’m ready to start drafting. The process feels organic because I’ve done the groundwork. I know my story. I know where it’s going. And when I sit down to write, it feels natural. So, what I’m saying is: Don’t just write. If drafting isn’t working for you, don’t force it. But also, don’t just write. Do all the other creative work that builds your story. Sentence structure is one of the least important parts of storytelling. The narrative, the heart of the story, is what really matters—and you can start working on that right now, even without a clear sense of direction. Get full access to Thought Magnet at dennisdiclaudio.substack.com/subscribe (https://dennisdiclaudio.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   11 Nov 2024

   Ep. 2: The Work Is Its Own Reward

   Now that we're living in the end times, I'm wondering what's the point in finishing my novel? Why should I spend all this time and mental energy creating something that probably won't be read by anyone? Shouldn't I just give up?—Auhwktor in Windowville, Maine That is a timely question. And I think it's a valid question. But I completely disagree with the conclusion that you sort of make. I would argue that it's more important now than ever to be writing or working on whatever you want to work on. Putting your energy into something creative, whether or not it's ever going to be read or listened to or watched by anybody in the future, really isn't the point. Or at least it shouldn't be the point. It's understandable that we want to get something out there into the world, and we want people to like it. But that is banking your happiness on other people's nervous systems. You know what I mean? You're thinking that you're going to get your contentment from your work by the pleasure that somebody else gets listening to it. You probably won't be there when they read it or listen to it or watch it anyway. So, you're not going to get anything from that ultimately anyway. What you want to do is find the pleasure in the work right here when you're doing it right now. Because this is the only way that you're going to. I mean, if not, then where?  If you're not getting your pleasure from here, then what are you going to get it from? Because you're not going to get it from them. And you're not going to get it from the money. If you make money. (I don't know if the economy will exist in the apocalypse. I'm sure there'll be some kind of an economy.) The work is its own reward. The work is its own reward. Because it has to be its own reward. The point is that you have to find what's fun about the process right now. Because if you're not doing that, then why are you even doing this in the first place? You know what I mean? We have these activities that we do like projects, hobbies, things that we do that may or may not ever make us any money. And we theoretically do them because we love the work. Or we're interested in it. But then when it comes time to do the work, a lot of times we get all tense (Again, I'm talking to me. And, Auhwktor, I'm also talking to you.) We get all tense and we don't enjoy the process. So then why the f**k are we doing it anyway? If that's the case, if we're not going to have any fun with it, why am I wasting my time with this? Which is a good question! Why are you doing it? If you're doing it so that people can read it, then you might as well stop anyway, because you're never going to get that pleasure. You're never going to get the pleasure from that. If you're doing it because you love doing it... Because you like walking around with a story in your head that you're putting together. You like waiting in line at the supermarket with a thing to think about. And you like having time alone with your notebook where you just close out the rest of the world and focus on this one thing that is just for you. That's the joy of writing. Or creating anything, in my opinion. So what I would say is to answer your question, shouldn't you just quit? No, absolutely not. You should continue with your novel. As a matter of fact, you should get more into it. You should try to find ways to connect with it better. Try to figure out ways that you will have a better, easier time enjoying it. Enjoying the work. You should allow yourself to get more engrossed in it. Now, more than ever. There's so much bad s**t out there, so it's the perfect time. If you already have a novel going, you're already ahead of the curve, because you have a thing to get into. You don't even have to go find one. You have a thing you can retreat into. Someplace to find sanctuary, find comfort. Because the world is hard out there, but you have a thing that's yours. And you can hold on to it no matter how bad things get. And here's the interesting thing: most likely, the more you retreat into it, and the more you make it about you, the better it will connect with other people. Because you can't ever predict what they want. Not really. All you can do is make something that is satisfying to you and hope that you find the readers who will make those similar connections. Or will make their own connections with the work. By making it more personal to you, you'll stand a better chance of bringing pleasure to the other people living in your cave when you read it out to them by the firelight. So, anyway, I think that answers the question. Auhwktor, I hope that you get back into the novel. Or stick with the novel. And anybody else out there. You might also want to consider getting back to your novel or your album, your song, getting back into your instrument. Because this is the perfect time. You can take an eye away from the sideshow and bring it back to what's important to you. Get full access to Thought Magnet at dennisdiclaudio.substack.com/subscribe (https://dennisdiclaudio.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Podcast Authority Score: 8 / 100

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