1. Write Every Day
Christy Hall nailed it when she said, “A writer writes. There are no exceptions to this reality. No excuses.” There’s nothing sexy about this. It’s tough work and requires dedication and persistence, but it’s the only way to make consistent progress. Almost everyone who writes for a living or is a productive amateur will tell you this. It’s no secret, but it’s often ignored because it’s hard. Unfortunately, there’s no magical way to make it easier, but you can form a habit through discipline. Once habit sets in, you don’t have think about it—you just do it.
These are the five most effective methods I've used to build a daily writing habit:
These are the five most effective methods I've used to build a daily writing habit:
- Have something to say. This should be obvious, but what’s the point of writing every day if you don’t have something to write about? Develop your idea first, and then start holding yourself accountable to the “write every day” mantra. It’s nearly impossible to put words onto a blank page if you don’t know what you want to say, and it’s hard to justify slaving away just to say something.
- Make the time to write by giving up something else. Writing every day is a commitment of time and attention, and it generally means you’ll have to give up something or spend less time doing something you currently do every day. You have to choose what’s worth your time and attention and what isn’t. Do you really need to spend an hour a day on YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, watching Netflix, TV, etc.? Or maybe you can carve out time on your lunch break or get up earlier to write every day. Figure out what it will take to make writing a priority and then dedicate yourself to making it happen. If writing isn’t worth the sacrifice, you probably won’t be able to make consistent progress.
- Cut out all distractions. This means unplug your internet, go somewhere that doesn’t have it, put your phone away, write with a pen and paper or typewriter, go somewhere quiet, lock yourself in your room, etc. Writing takes 100% of your brain power and focus, and it’s too easy for one little thing to pop up and distract you. Do yourself a favor and get rid of all distractions (or as many as you possibly can) while you’re writing.
- Start a “don’t break the chain” calendar and check off every day you write. (This can be a physical calendar or one of many habit-building apps.) If you miss a day, there’s a hole in the chain that feels like disappointment. The longer the chain gets, the more confident you’ll become and the more you won’t want to break the chain by missing a day. This helps build momentum and psychologically inhibits you from skipping days because you just don’t feel like writing.
- Get a writing accountability partner to check in with you every day and nudge you if you skip a day. You don’t want this to be someone who will guilt trip you for your failures but someone who will encourage you to keep making progress.
Of course, there are lots of other useful tools worth exploring that could help you form a daily writing habit, but these are the ones that have consistently made the biggest impact in my experience.
2. Turn Your Shoulds Into Musts
We’ve all had the saying, “A dream without a plan is just a wish,” shoved down our throats since the dawn of self-help books and blogs. But goals are merely external motivators and sometimes do more to make us feel discouraged and unsuccessful when we fail to meet them than they do to help us. The time and dedication it takes to develop any skill requires strong internal motivation as well as external motivation. You have to want to write, but you must also need to write.
Developing this internal motivation means changing your frame of mind. Sure, having a goal to “write a novel” sounds great on paper, but it’s a daunting task when you really dig in and begin to put in the time and work. It can become easy to look at all the necessary effort and feel that maybe you don’t want to write a novel after all. So don’t tell yourself you should write a novel (or whatever your writing goal is); tell yourself you must write a novel.
Instead of telling yourself, “I should write today,” try telling yourself this instead:
I must write today
I must write the next sentence
I must finish this scene
I must finish this draft
I must edit this manuscript
I must find an agent
I must keep going because this is what I’m truly passionate about and find satisfaction in
Don’t write simply to reach an end goal, but rather do it because the process of writing itself brings you joy. If your only motivation is an end goal, you’ll most likely find it difficult to stay focused and motivated. Falling in love with the process of actually writing the words will bring you satisfaction every time you write.
Give it a try and see how your perspective begins to change and your priorities and actions begin to better reflect your goals. Learn more about this philosophy here: How to Make a Damn Decision
3. Align Your Short-Term Actions with Your Long-Term Goals
Most of us have no trouble identifying our long-term goals. It’s the day-to-day effort of working toward that goal that’s the struggle. So here’s what you do: take your ultimate goal and compare it to what you’ve done today. Do your short-term actions align with your long-term goals?
As a motivational exercise, take a piece of paper and divide it into two columns. On one side of the paper, write down your end goal, whether it be writing a novel, starting a blog, getting published, etc. On the other side of the paper, write down everything you did today.
Which of your actions over the course of the day helped contribute to your long-term goal? Circle those things and tell yourself you must continue to do them. What can you do tomorrow that will help you get closer to reaching your goals? Make a list of action steps you’ll need to take in order to reach your goal and work on them every day.
Keep in mind that your daily goal should be reasonable and attainable. Not too easy, but not too hard. Ideally, you want to build momentum and make reasonable progress without overwhelming or sabotaging yourself. You’ll most likely have to try different daily goals and make adjustments until you find what works best for you. Don’t compare this to what other people are doing, and try to stay focused on your own progress.
4. Focus
Focus is about more than overcoming distractions—it’s about switching your brain from intake mode to output mode. This transition alone can take half an hour or more before you find yourself in a consistent flow of words. It gets easier with practice, but it takes iron will to get there because it means focusing on one thing at a time and staying dedicated to that thing until it’s finished.
Writing requires 100% focus on the words you’re putting on the pages as you pen them, and the best way to set yourself up for success is to work on one thing at a time. This doesn’t mean you can’t have multiple projects going at once, but it does mean you have to totally focus on the project you’re working on while you’re working on it. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, and don’t get ahead of yourself. Be ambitious, but know your limits. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
A common temptation for novice writers is signing yourself up to write a trilogy or series before you’ve finished (or even started) the first book. Yes, new projects can be exciting, and sometimes you can’t wait to add on more and more content, but that’s not necessarily the best approach in terms of productivity nor quality.
Writing is hard work, and it’s imperative that you put in the effort and focus on each stage of the process without worrying about what idea will come next. David McCullough said, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it's so hard.” If your mind isn’t in the same place as your pen, you’re sabotaging yourself.
It’s easy to get excited by new ideas or think your current project is a lost cause in comparison, but don't tempt yourself into believing that any new idea will be easier or better than your current project without solid evidence to the contrary. Write down your new ideas for future reference and get back to work.
Ideally, the most productive projects are the ones that are one step above your current skill level and focus on a concept that captures your interest and ignites your passion, giving you reason to put down the words. This will help you stay interested and provide enough challenge to keep you from becoming bored, but it’s not enough. It’s just a start. Writing is mental labor, you have to train yourself to tune out distractions from your inner editor and your muse constantly stabbing your brain with new ideas. Otherwise, you won’t get much work done.
5. Separate Drafting from Revision
Don’t edit your work while you’re working on the first draft. That’s a surefire way to begin questioning your creative genius and give yourself justification to jump from project to project or never make progress on a project because you’re paranoid about getting it right the first time. The truth is, it’s impossible to write something perfectly the first time. William Faulkner said it well: “Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything really good.”
For specific tips about writing first drafts, check out this article: How to Write a First Draft Without Perfectionism
6. Deliberate Practice
Everyone sucks before they get kind of good at something. No one is a natural-born expert at anything. Some people have a natural propensity for a specific thing, which we might call “talent,” but they only become great at it through countless hours of intentional, focused repetition and effort.
Anders Ericsson, PhD and professor of psychology at Florida State University, calls this process “deliberate practice.” He wrote a book on the subject called Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise. He says that, in his study of deliberate practice, “We actually find that with the right kind of training, any individual will be able to acquire abilities that were previously viewed as only attainable if you had the right kind of genetic talent.”
That’s great news for everyone! But it also means you have your work cut out for you, so never stop honing your skills. Listen the the Freakonomics podcast episode that dives much deeper into the subject here: How to Become Great at Just About Anything
Everyone starts out as a bad writer, and the writers who become masters of their craft are the ones who are always learning, challenging themselves, experimenting, and marching forward. Learn from the writers you admire, and study your favorite stories until you’ve discovered exactly what makes them great. Then use that insight to tell your own stories.
7. Learn to Work Through Setbacks
Things happen. Life throws a lot of crap at you sometimes, which often can’t be helped. Don’t let this derail your writing progress. Come to terms with the reality that you won’t always meet your goals, and realize that it’s not the end of the world nor the end of your writing. Stepping away from something for a while isn’t failure, and it doesn’t mean admitting defeat—unless you use it as an excuse to give up.
Sometimes, the best thing you can do for your writing is to cut yourself some slack. It’s easy to become obsessive, perfectionistic, and even pessimistic. While these traits can seem natural for creative people, it’s imperative that you don’t let these qualities take over. Writing is an adventure, and discovering a story or character or simply a new way to put words together is what makes it beautiful and fulfilling. Don’t let goals and unrealistic expectations cloud your judgement so much that you lose sight of this magic.
Keep writing, keep exploring new imaginary worlds, and you'll keep the magic alive.
“Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.” - Stephen King
I originally write this as a journal for 