Take a writing class as an adult and the number one piece of advice will always be the same. Set aside time every single day when you put your butt in the chair and write.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
I’m one of the lucky people who doesn’t really suffer from Writer’s Block. It’s not a problem to make the ideas come. Sometimes I have to make a choice to flip to another of my projects, but ideas are always there. My problem has always been finding the time.
I have two kids. My full-time job involves over thirty of your precious kids. My personal kids are involved in sports. I’m involved in sports. Sometimes, even though the ideas are all there, when I sit down to write I’m just so tired. It’s much easier to be on Facebook or Twitter than it is to craft full paragraphs, isn’t it?
This time around, with this writing class, I’m taking it more seriously. I put my husband on “make me write everyday” duty. It’s so much more effective when someone else is holding you accountable. My goal is simple. To hit 1000 words everyday. I use the computer, so that’s easy enough to track. Moment of honesty: there are days when I’m fully aware all 1000 of those words will not make it through my first draft. But they got typed. My goal was hit. I think that’s okay.
In the weeks I’ve been holding down this goal some awesome things have happened. The obvious one is that I’ve made ridiculous progress on my YA sci-fi story. Like how-did-I-do-that-so-fast progress. Second only to that is the fact that I’ve gotten a ton of editing done. Seems odd, but it’s happened. Somehow making myself write first thing every morning is firing me up for finding time to do other writing tasks during the day. It’s the weirdest thing.
I should be more tired, right? I mean I’m getting up earlier to write. But when that alarm goes off, I want to get up. I write for about an hour and then I’m just ready to go. It’s the craziest thing.
I always knew writing made me happy. But meeting that daily goal first thing when you wake up is a whole new level of happy. You wake up and check something off your to-do list. You’re already accomplished, at 6 AM. Go you.
Hey you, yeah you reading this. Are you a writer? When do you write? I’d love to hear about it!
I tend to do most of my writing at night when the world is quieter and my kids are in bed 🙂
I always end up so tired at night! I’m a night owl though. Maybe I should give it a try just once and see which I prefer.