"Habit is your friend. It takes 30 days to make something part of your routine, so write every day at the same time. Soon, you'll find yourself showing up at the keyboard even on the bad days."
~ Dawn Atkins
~ Dawn Atkins
The latest winner of our 5-page Super Critique is Laura Russell
Please use the contact page to claim your prize.
You have all week to comment here and let us know how our tips have worked for you.
One name will be drawn for an anonymous 5-page Super Critique.
11 comments:
I love all of them, but particularly Carrie Weaver's pig story. ;-)
I think it's a great reminder how voice and the right details can really catch a reader's attention.
I haven't tried setting a goal of just writing every day--my goals are always tied to word count and I usually only get around to it 2-3 times a week at most. Maybe I should just try minutes per day, every day, and see what happens.
Thanks for making me think about this, and good timing too. The New Years resoltuions are already wearing a little thin, so now is the time to get motivated to keep going.
from Marcie
For us unpubbed, we need to think of writing as a job. We show up to our day jobs by a certain time, so we need to take that mindset and put it towards our writing. Great tip!
Love that quote and absolutely believe in it! I try to write 1000 words a day
I just saw I won this week's critique. WOW. I am so grateful.
30 days to a new habit is a self-improvement mantra in vogue. It's a great idea. My experience is that new habits take longer than 30 days but focusing on 30 day segments at a time is encouraging because then there is light at the end of the tunnel. And 30 days of practice is 30 days of practice that result in important changes.
Thanks for the writing advice, Dawn!!
Congrats, Laura!! Too cool!
I like this advice. I always say, "Don't over analyze your exercise routine or your writing life. Just do it."
Congratulations on your win, Laura.
I like "habit is your friend" that works for exercise! I know if I starte getting back into the habit of exercising at the same time every day, I will make sure I slot the time for it and it will happen. Right now its so easy to not do it with the excuse of I don't have time today!
Excellent advice! I wish I could follow it but with young kids finding anytime in a day is tough. For the moment I try and write everyday at some time - hopefully in a few years I'll be able to make it the same time.
Yay, Laura on winning the crit.
I try to keep to a semi-set schedule, most mornings I start by checking e-mails and reading my favorite blogs between taking my two kids to school. On days I work while the kids are in school, I write while they do their homework. On days I don't work, I excercise, run errands or sometimes I throw on my workout clothes but spend the day writing instead, only jumping in the shower so I don't embarrass my 12 year old -unless there is a really cool 80's song on the radio and I sing along!
On the days I don't get to write in the afternoon I've found that if I spend a few hours after the kids have gone to bed saves me from not sleeping. If I go two or more days without writing I tend to get a little cranky.
I've definitely been finding this idea works for me. I have a long commute, including a train ride morning and evening. I wanted to write on the train but used the excuse I was too tited. Most of the time I just ended up reading instead- and usually the newspaper, not even something constructive like a SuperRomance!
For January, I made a committment that my commute WAS my writing time. No try, just do. "I'm on the train , I'm writing." Now I find my brain is in writing mode pretty much as soon as I open my mini-laptop, and my word counts are climbing steadily as I get even more productive within that same amount of time each work day.
It's like a switch has turned on- I also used to be so brain fried when I got on the train going home after a day's work I'd feel I couldn't do anything but vegetate, now I'm happy and excited to be able to get into "my time" as fast as I can and start writing. Work is still just as brain frying as ever, probably even more so, yet I'm being amazingly productive (for me- anyone else might consider my word counts sad!).
Yeah, there have been some days when I've had to force myself to open the computer and start, where I've only just scraped the 500 word a day target I set myself. There have been other days where I've gone far over that.
My brain starts in writing mode before I even sit on the train now! I am thinking about the story, planning other writing, and coming up with new ideas during the walk to the station and while I'm waiting for the train.
The commute that used to be a drudgery, time I resented for being sucked out of my day, is
now a bonus- time just for me which no-one can interrupt.
After over 30 days now, I'm hoping this is now a habit that I won't ever break!
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