” At forty I’m beginning to learn the mechanism of my own brain– how to get the greatest amount of pleasure and work out of it. The secret is I think always so to contrive that work is pleasant.” Virginia Woolf
Developing and maintaining a writing habit is very much like exercise. You think about it, you dread it, you often start out doing it half-heartedly. You want the end result far more than you want to do the hard work of making it happen.
And the key to the both enterprises is harnessing that willpower into a habitual pattern that keeps going. Becuase once you stop exercising, stop writing, it is very difficult to get back on track.
A few tips to staying in writing training shape:
- Delay. When you start thinking should be writing: your novel, articles, blogging, your resume, whatever it may be, I have learned that it may be better off if you make yourself wait a while. Keep thinking about it, read similar kinds of things other people have written, read your own past writing, organize your space– basically, do all the kind of procrastination techniques we are all so skilled at, and don’t let yourself start writing immediately. Delay can help you build interest, excitement.
- Schedule. Put it on your schedule. Try to keep your writing time at about the same time each day.
- Get the equipment. Make sure you have all the supplies you need: pens, computer working, paper, typewriter ribbons, research materials, before you even start on a schedule of writing discipline. It is very discouraging to get excited and want to go off running on a project to be stopped in your tracks by a missing or broken item you need.
- Dress appropriately. Several writers have talked about having a writing uniform of some kind, a special kind of dress that sets your writing time apart. Just as you have work clothes and exercise clothes and clothes for sleeping in, this might help. I have never personally done this, but it sounds like a good idea.
- Record your progress. Keep a log of how long you work each day, how much you have achieved. If you are working on a project with a finite goal (book with a certain number of chapters), set up a checklist so you can check off segments as you complete them. Do this on paper or on the computer however you want, but having a way to track yourself helps more than you could imagine. I love being able to check off boxes that say I did something; I also love writing down that I spent 1 hour or 2 hours writing today.
- Don’t overdo it. Exercise programs always say to consult your doctor before starting. And just as you know that if you are completely out of shape that running three miles a day is not a good idea, if you are not disciplined in your writing, don’t plan to write for hours at a time at first. If you have to start with 15 minutes or even 5 minutes and build from there, it is better than having a complicated and overly ambitious schedule you end up not following.
- Don’t forget the body. make sure you have enough to eat, drink, sleep, exercise. These things can help you concentrate better when you are in your writing time.
- When you fail, get right back up. Nobody is perfectly disciplined to keep their schedule every day for the rest of his or her life. nad even if you are that kind of person, the rest of the world is bound to intrude on your plans eventually. So accept that you had a delay, small or massive, and get back to it