Dummy Text
I never realized it was an actual thing for writers.
Dummy text is a term which originated for printing and typesetting. It's when you need to generate structured words for filling space on a sample template, such as designing covers or websites. It gives you an idea of what the final product will look like before you add the actual title or start blogging.
The most noted professional dummy text is the Latin Lorem Ipsum. If you've ever looked at blogging theme templates, such as Wordpress offers, you will see it used in their preview graphics:
All well and good if you're making a new blog, right? Well, guess what writers! We, too, can use the concept of dummy text to our advantage.
More often than not, I'll sit down at the computer and feel anxious about the blank screen expectantly staring back at me. My thoughts become a mess. I start thinking about the laundry piling up. I wonder, do I really feel like writing today? Maybe I should take a break, do something else?
But writers write. Even if you don't crank out a new chapter, or anything productive at all, it's best to always write a little bit every day. It keeps your mind engaged and your focus on what it is you do. And this is where dummy text comes in handy.
Can't get your mojo going? Then lay down a few sentences of something. Anything. Start describing a room, or what your character is feeling today. After several lines, you'll find your brain starts registering the things you're talking about and will start thinking ahead. You will build pace as you progress towards that pondered "ahead". If not, at least you've given yourself something to come back to later, when perhaps your ideas are clearer.
Have you been constructively writing for several hours and now face your energy draining? When it's time to call it a day, don't leave your thoughts or plot at a closing point. If you've finished a current chapter, it's too tempting the next day to add nothing; sometimes starting a new chapter can feel like beginning all over again, making it a struggle to once again get back into the swing of writing. Instead of leaving your work at a definite closure, go right into the next scene or chapter by putting down dummy text. Even if it is not what you intended, when you return your mind goes back to that thought process and you can clean it up-and abruptly keep going.
Just throw out a bullet list of ideas, a random moment of dialogue, or a fleeting sensation, it keeps you active in your writing. Lately, I've found this is what maintains my momentum with my stories. I get demotivated a lot, or use the classic excuse "I'm too tired to think!". Yet I know if I stop, it is all over. Keeping my sense of urgency means producing something on the screen for myself to look at. If I'm looking at a new scene that starts: It was cold. Then the wheels automatically start turning. Why is it cold? How cold is it? How does the cold make the character truly feel? Where is he that's this cold? What action does it prompt?
I decided to attempt NaNoWriMo for the first time this year, and to be honest, it was a massive fail. However, I did get down a lot of dummy text (for two titles) which I know I can build upon. So in that sense, I succeeded in at least writing something progressive and useful.
So the next time you find yourself using this as an excuse:
Simply slather text across the page. At last, being a dummy is good!
Dummy text is a term which originated for printing and typesetting. It's when you need to generate structured words for filling space on a sample template, such as designing covers or websites. It gives you an idea of what the final product will look like before you add the actual title or start blogging.
The most noted professional dummy text is the Latin Lorem Ipsum. If you've ever looked at blogging theme templates, such as Wordpress offers, you will see it used in their preview graphics:
All well and good if you're making a new blog, right? Well, guess what writers! We, too, can use the concept of dummy text to our advantage.
More often than not, I'll sit down at the computer and feel anxious about the blank screen expectantly staring back at me. My thoughts become a mess. I start thinking about the laundry piling up. I wonder, do I really feel like writing today? Maybe I should take a break, do something else?
But writers write. Even if you don't crank out a new chapter, or anything productive at all, it's best to always write a little bit every day. It keeps your mind engaged and your focus on what it is you do. And this is where dummy text comes in handy.
Can't get your mojo going? Then lay down a few sentences of something. Anything. Start describing a room, or what your character is feeling today. After several lines, you'll find your brain starts registering the things you're talking about and will start thinking ahead. You will build pace as you progress towards that pondered "ahead". If not, at least you've given yourself something to come back to later, when perhaps your ideas are clearer.
Have you been constructively writing for several hours and now face your energy draining? When it's time to call it a day, don't leave your thoughts or plot at a closing point. If you've finished a current chapter, it's too tempting the next day to add nothing; sometimes starting a new chapter can feel like beginning all over again, making it a struggle to once again get back into the swing of writing. Instead of leaving your work at a definite closure, go right into the next scene or chapter by putting down dummy text. Even if it is not what you intended, when you return your mind goes back to that thought process and you can clean it up-and abruptly keep going.
Just throw out a bullet list of ideas, a random moment of dialogue, or a fleeting sensation, it keeps you active in your writing. Lately, I've found this is what maintains my momentum with my stories. I get demotivated a lot, or use the classic excuse "I'm too tired to think!". Yet I know if I stop, it is all over. Keeping my sense of urgency means producing something on the screen for myself to look at. If I'm looking at a new scene that starts: It was cold. Then the wheels automatically start turning. Why is it cold? How cold is it? How does the cold make the character truly feel? Where is he that's this cold? What action does it prompt?
I decided to attempt NaNoWriMo for the first time this year, and to be honest, it was a massive fail. However, I did get down a lot of dummy text (for two titles) which I know I can build upon. So in that sense, I succeeded in at least writing something progressive and useful.
So the next time you find yourself using this as an excuse:
Simply slather text across the page. At last, being a dummy is good!