Remember Myspace?

Myspace was one of the earlier social networking platforms that launched in 2003.

It was so much fun!

You could change your background image.

You could post your status and your bio.

You could set your music – the music that played when someone came onto your Myspace site.

You could also set your top 5 (or was it 10) friends on the site as well.

And remember Tom? ‘Tom from Myspace’. Tom Anderson, the technology entrepreneur who co-founded the platform.  

Oh, the memories!

I had a Myspace account, of course.

Well, until it got hacked and I lost total control of well, my space.

Writing this blog, I tried to Google myself, to see if I could find my account. Alas, no luck. This could be why (click here). I did, however, find Google images of Kim Kardashians MySpace account. Too funny!

Speaking of space, I recently watched a MasterClass Live video on YouTube.

With uni on a break, I’ve been feeling slightly at a loss as to how to fill my evenings. Normally, my days go something like, work – uni – unwind – bed. But with uni over for the year, my evenings are free.

The MasterClass Live I watched was the one with best-selling author Dan Brown – author of The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons among his other popular thriller novels – that originally aired on YouTube on 18 June 2020.

It followed his first-ever MasterClass where he teaches how to write thrillers.

In the MasterClass Live on YouTube, Dan gives the audience his writing tips.

Yes, please! I need all the writing tips I can get, which is why I was drawn to this video one night last week.

Protect the process

The first tip: protect the process.

Dan says the writing process is incredibly important – “now more than ever” – and says that if you “protect the process the results will take care of themselves”.

“A lot of people think that writing a novel is 90% inspiration and 10% perspiration,” he says.  

“It’s actually the reverse. Writing a novel [and I’d argue any writing] is about a routine.

“You need to do it [writing] as close to every day as you can.”

Explaining “the process”, Dan says this is all about where and when you write.

For example, Dan writes at 4am every morning.  

“[It’s] a great time of day,” he says, “because nobody is writing you e-mail, and nobody is bothering you.”

For those of us who write, Dan says, “You can really write whenever you want but I’d suggest that you make it the same time every day – when you have some energy in the tank, and you might be inspired.”

My space

He then talks about the writing space.

Most important is where you write, he says. “Creating that space in which you can be creative […] ‘no distractions’ is critical.”

Staying motivated

Another Dan Brown writing tip, from the MasterClass Live video, is about staying motivated.

It can be challenging, at times, to stay motivated with the writing process and it can be really easy to second guess your ability and question your talent.  

“Is there a moment that you should accept that you don’t have the talent?” says Dan repeating a viewer question asked of him during the MasterClass Live.  

“The only moment that I would ever accept that someone doesn’t have the talent is the moment they say, ‘You know what? I can’t force myself to sit down and write’,” he says.

“If you can get up, sit down, and feel motivated to write you are nowhere near the end of your ability.

“Writing is a learned process.

“I wasn’t born knowing this [writing]. I learned it. By making mistakes.”

Dan continues: “By reading other writers who I admire and saying, ‘Wow I want to pull that into what I do’.

“So, how do you stay motivated? You stay motivated the same way a violinist who’s learning scales stays motivated. I want to do this better tomorrow.

“You become inspired to just get better and better.”

You can watch the MasterClass Live here:

Happy writing.

x G.