Take Writing Seriously

Get in the habit—the writing habit, that is. The more you do, the better you’ll become. Unfortunately, life’s little annoyances—work, kids, grocery shopping, T.V. binge watching—all interfere with just plain getting down to work.  Such can be the life of a freelance writer unless you buckle down and take writing seriously.

There’s lots of advice for the taking—write every day, don't edit while you write, have goals. And while all of these are good, none are very helpful if you're trying to figure out just how they apply to you.

Before you can develop a new writing routine, you have to discover where you are. For how long do you normally write at one sitting? How often do you write? How many words do you produce in one session? When do you write—morning, afternoon, or evening?

To begin, figure out what type of writing ’s easiest for you to write—description, narrative, dialogue. You should be able to find out easily enough by paying attention to how much you write in any one session and what type of writing it is. You’ll soon see a pattern emerging.

Keep track of what you’re writing. Put a small notebook or pad of paper by your computer and note the following: type of writing, time you started, time you finished, and approximate word count.

When and how much you eat can also affect your writing. You’ll find that you’ll write more on an empty stomach. Your brain processes slow down on a full stomach, so your writing will also suffer.  And don’t think constantly sipping on a cup of coffee will help you to stay focused. In fact, it’s just the opposite. You’ll write better by reducing the amount of caffeine you have daily.

The same goes for exercise. A brisk walk before writing will get your endorphins going and thus make it easier to think and write. This doesn’t mean you’ll have to get up at sunrise and run five or six miles. Even walking briskly around the block will help get things going. Strength exercises, however, will have no effect on your writing.

If you’re addicted to your smartphone, as many people are today, turn it off when you’re working. Anyone who tries to call you will try to call you back later, or they’ll leave a message on voice mail. Answering just one call can distract you from your current train of thought. And if you don’t have a cell phone, make sure you have an answering machine and let it screen your calls.

The old adage is to write 500 words a day. That really refers to fiction writers. But if you can manage to write more, do it. Try to write a little more per day each week. It’s just like walking or jogging. Trying to do a little more each week will give you more stamina and, in the case of your writing, a way to increase your daily word count.

If you write non-fiction, the daily word count doesn’t necessarily apply. Most of the time you may be writing articles which are better dealt with in drafts rather than pieces. Non-fiction books, on the other hand, demand the same sort of daily word count objective as fiction.

In either case, if you can write more, you may want to switch projects. Perhaps work on an article in the morning and then on a chapter of your latest book in the afternoon. Switching subject matter or type of writing will stimulate you.

Do you just sit down to write, or do you know what you’re planning to write when you sit down? If you do the former, it will take you a bit of time to get started which cuts into your total writing time. But if you informally plan out what you’re going to work on, you’ll find you get a lot more done. And better yet, make a To Do List of the day’s or week’s work and check things off as you complete them.

Some writers, like athletes, are superstitious. They think they need to put on the right clothes, arrange their work materials in the right way, and turn on equipment in the right order. None of this will make you write more. These little rituals only get in the way of just sitting down and putting your fingers to the keyboard.

Above all, develop some good writing habits. Try to write for at least two hours a day. Don’t start writing and just go on and on. You’ll find you’ll have to redo most of what you wrote in the last half of the time. 

Strike when an idea is hot. If a good idea comes to you, even at odd times of the day, take advantage of it and get to your computer—or at least jot it down on a piece of paper. This could be an idea for a story or perhaps a way of solving a problem you’re already having with a passage. If you travel a lot, you may want to start carrying a small notebook with you to write down ideas as they come to you.

Work in your head. If you’re going to be writing full-time, you’ll find yourself writing even when you’re not at the keyboard. A good time is just before getting up in the morning. For many, that’s an ideal time to think out scenes or chapters.

Lastly, find the time to write that’s best for you. It’s different for everyone. Some writers get up super early and then knock off at Noon. Others start around 8 or 9 A.M. and write until perhaps 2 P.M.. And still others write in the evenings. Find your best time to write—not do research or read, but write—and stick with it.

Getting and Staying Motivated

There’s nothing harder for a writer than getting and staying motivated. In this high-tech, whirlwind world, it’s often hard to focus on the job at hand. If your cell phone isn’t buzzing to let you know someone desperately wants to speak with you, then it may be vibrating to let you know that you know that someone posted something on your Facebook Page. And then, of course, there’s your family, the stress at work, and who knows what else. What can you do to stay motivated when you’re bombarded with all this?

Well, take heart. There is a way.

There are probably lots of times when your head is just bursting with ideas. You can’t wait to get started—but you never do. If that’s the case, you have a problem with getting motivated. To sort things out, jot down as many of those ideas as you can. Look them over and pick three that stand out from all the rest.

Study those three and ask yourself why each is a good idea. Also ask how relevant each of them is. And finally ask how passionate you are about each one. One of them will stand out after asking these questions. That’s the one to start working on. At this point, forget about getting published and just get to work.

Get yourself excited about this new idea. Dive into researching it. The deeper you go in your research, the more fascinating the topic will become. You may even get so motivated that you ignore that blasted cell phone vibrating in your pocket!

But getting motivated and staying motivated are two different things. That initial surge of writing energy will only last so long, then what?

Visualize where you’d like to be with this project and your writing in general in say six months. Do you see your work being enjoyed by readers? That’s not the same as being published. While the two are intertwined, most writers don’t go beyond seeing themselves published. They forget about their readers. And the secret to success is that you just can’t do that. Your readers are the most important part of the process.

Imagine readers getting excited about what you’ve written. Imagine them laughing or crying. When a reader says they just couldn’t put a book down, that’s a testimony to good writing. Make that happen to your work.

To be sure you stay on track, set a writing time and place. Work writing into your schedule just like eating and exercising. Develop a writing routine (See “There’s Something to be Said for Routine While Working” from Feb. 17, 2014).

Ask yourself what would you like to accomplish with this piece of writing? Every piece of writing should afford you some sort of accomplishment. It may improve your writing skills. It may help you to advance your characterization skills. Or it may increase your knowledge substantially about a particular subject. No writing project is worthless. All contribute somehow to your writing ability and your outlook on life.

To stay motivated, set some goals for yourself. Look ahead. See the bigger picture. Set some long-range goals covering perhaps a year and some short-range goals covering a month or so (See “Setting Goals” from Jan. 4, 2013).

Take time out to read. Reading will stimulate your brain and give you even more ideas. Non-fiction is best. The fantasy of novels doesn’t always stimulate your brain enough because you get involved in the everyday lives of the characters in them. Everything is pretty much thought out for you. But with non-fiction, you’re often forced to think of other things related to what you’re reading.

Above all, decide why you want to write. What drives you? Why do you torture yourself with it? When you know the answers to those questions, you’ll be able to stay motivated, perhaps for a long, long time.




                                          
       

There’s Something to be Said for Routine While Working a Day Job

Many beginning writers work a day job while working on improving their craft. Some get up extra early and write before leaving for work. Others work after dinner when they get home. But either way, their writing often suffers because the majority of the day when their mind and body are fresh, they’re working for someone else.

It’s hard to juggle a full-time job with writing. There are only so many hours in the day. So how do you work a job that drains your creative energies and still get your writing done? The answer is simple—routine.

Everyone does a few things by routine—brushing their teeth, showering or bathing, even eating. While working in a routine can seem humdrum, it’s a way to get organized and get more things done in a limited amount of time.

Before you can work out a routine for your writing, you need to figure out what you need to get done. Make a list of your typical writing chores—everything from thinking up and jotting down ideas to researching them to applying that research to your writing to the writing, itself. You can’t do all of these things every day, and you probably don’t need to. Allot a certain amount of time to each type of chore. Some will take just a few minutes while others may take several hours. Divide up the ones that take longer to do, such as writing an article or story, and divide them up into segments that you can work on daily.

It’s actually a better idea to write for shorter periods of time rather than in long stretches, so dividing up your writing, and perhaps your research times will most likely help you in the long run.

Take a look at your daily schedule. You probably don’t think about that much. Instead, you get up, clean up, eat breakfast, go to work, work at your job, eat lunch, work more at your job, go home, eat dinner, relax, and go to bed. The next day you start that basic routine all over again.

What you need to do is work your writing chores into that already established routine. You probably don’t think you have any time, but if you analyze your daily schedule, you may find that you have quite a few blocks of extra time that you could spend doing one or two writing chores.

Map out a schedule—create a spreadsheet of it so you can carry it with you. One good thing about all the technology that’s around you is that you can use it to your advantage. To paraphrase an old saying, “You can take it with you”—your writing, that is. (More next week on using technology to expand your writing and create a portable office.)

Begin by blocking in all the necessary things you need to do every day—washing, eating, cleaning, driving kids places, and working at your job. Study what you do for a week to see how long it take you to say eat breakfast. Do the same with all the other things you have to do. Then adjust your spreadsheet schedule for the times you’ve discovered.  What’s left is the time you have for writing chores. At first it may not look like you have any time left. But look again.

Can you add time anywhere—get up an hour earlier or go to bed an hour later, take less time for lunch, take less time for relaxation or relax while doing lighter writing chores like thinking of ideas or even researching online?

Now add writing chores into your schedule. Work up a routine. For instance, housewives used to reserve Mondays for wash day, Tuesdays for ironing, Wednesdays for cleaning bedrooms, Thursdays for cleaning living and dining areas, Fridays for food shopping, etc. You need to do the same with your writing chores. Assign particular chores to particular days of the week. And do them only on those days whenever possible. In addition, you need to allot time for writing every day or every other day. If you’re schedule is packed, then write for a time on weekends.

While this may sound like a lot of work, it will take a while to establish a writing routine, just like it has taken a lifetime to establish your daily routine. You’ve got to re-educate yourself so that writing becomes an integral part of your daily life, not just a once-in-while pastime.

Building Confidence

Nothing builds confidence in a freelance writer like money in the bank and words in print. Until these accumulate in sufficient amounts, you’ll be forced to rely on words of hope and encouragement from friends and colleagues.

Whatever kind of writing you do, you won't feel confident all the time. Some days you'll be very positive, able to take on any challenge. On other days, you'll feel like pulling the covers over your head and staying in bed. What you need, no matter whether you're a beginner or an experienced freelancer, are some steadying influences—things you can count on.

Establish a writing routine. One of these steadying influences is routine. Establish a good writing routine early on. If you feel like you know what you’re doing, you’ll have the confidence to continue. Too many beginning writers constantly have doubts about their abilities. Write something every day. And remember to look over pieces you’ve written a while back to see if you can improve them. On the other hand, read one or more of your published clips. Nothing builds confidence more than reading our published work and saying to yourself, “Wow! I wrote that.”

Take a writing course. In the very earliest phases of your career, you can build confidence by taking a writing course or two. Perhaps you need to start with a good foundation course like creative writing, then branch out to more specific courses like article, short story, or novel writing. The feedback you'll get from your instructors and fellow students will go a long way to building your confidence as a writer. But don’t’ go into a course with the idea of just getting patted on the back. That’s secondary. Take a course for what you can learn from it.

Publish some short articles. Once you've made it into print, you'll need to keep moving farther out on a limb, so to speak—but without falling. Perhaps you’ve published several short articles in your local paper. Your next step might be to query a regional magazine, suggesting to them that you write on a subject you know well. But don’t try to move up the publishing ladder too fast. The more pieces you write and publish on a particular subject, the more you’ll know about that subject and the more confident you’ll feel.

Take a survey. Talk about what you do with friends and colleagues. Try your ideas on them for their reactions. Discuss your ideas. The more feedback you can get at this stage, the more confident you’ll feel as you progress into the writing stage.

Do your homework. You’ll gain confidence by conscientiously doing your homework—studying the publications in which you hope to appear, perusing publisher’s book catalogs, scouting  possible clients among the businesses and ad agencies in your immediate vicinity.

Make a positive use of rejection. If the letters, notes, or E-mail messages you receive from editors contain any expressions that you can interpret as praise, study them. But be careful. You may put more stock in an editor’s words than he or she intended which will lead to even bigger disappointment. It's more professional to quickly submit the rejected manuscript to another possible market, or to revise and resubmit it. But if an editor's words indicate some interest in your topic, immediately send more ideas or manuscripts his or her way.

Compare your work to that of other writers in print. A big confidence builder is to compare your work to that of other writers in print. But be honest. Look at the stories and articles in your targeted periodicals. Is your writing superior in research, wording, organization, timeliness, and clarity? If you can give yourself good marks on all of these counts, you deserve to be confident. In fact, it may be just a short time before you join or replace your competitors in those magazines’ pages. If you discover that your work is deficient on two or more counts, then you should correct those problems. That, alone, will increase your confidence.

Take credit for your successes—no matter how small. Lastly, it's important to see that you get credit for whatever successes you have achieved, from good feedback in a writing class to rave reviews or an award for a first book. Nothing raises the confidence of a writer more than being recognized for writing excellence by his colleagues in the form of an award.

Writing as Routine

Do you sit around waiting for the writing muse to strike? Do you have to go to some exotic place to get inspired to write? Do you think writing is all about imagination–well, fiction writing at least? Do you have trouble getting started writing? If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, then perhaps what you’re lacking is a routine for your writing.

Good writing relies on writing as much as you can–regularly. While this applies to just about anything you do, most people don’t consider writing in that way. It stands to reason that the more you cook, the better at it you become. So why wouldn’t that apply to your writing?

I always tell my writing students that learning to write is like taking a shower or a bath. Someone had to teach you when you were very young. First, they washed you daily. Then, as time went on, you learned by repetition to wash yourself. But you didn’t stop there. As you grew older, you began to establish a washing routine. Only you know where you begin to wash your body and where you end. Some people even have routines for “quick” showers when they’re in a hurry and “soaking” showers or baths when they want to relax. And let’s not forget the “body beautiful” shower or bath when you take care of other things such as trimming hair and nails.

Now let’s apply this to writing. To get your mind in the write mode, you need to write regularly often–daily if you can. And you need to write at the same time every day, even if it’s for a short time. By doing so, you’ll require less time to warm up, so that you’ll be able to continue where you left off the last time you wrote. If you wait too long between sessions, you’ll lose your train of thought which means you’ll have to digress. So each time you sit down to write, you’ll have to go back a step before you move forward.

It also helps to work on the same piece of writing for a stretch. This way your mind is only working in one direction for a while. If you flit from piece to piece, your mind won’t be able to pick up all the pieces, and it will take you more time to get started each time.

I’ll be discussing this more in the coming weeks. But for now, figure out when you can spare an hour from your busy schedule. This can be daily or two or three times weekly. Then stick to it. Writing is like exercise. If you don’t do it regularly, it takes a while to get back in the swing.