Quick Writing Advice, Part 2: Start a habit.
Short enough to read over your morning coffee, consider this series the advice I'd give myself when I was just getting started.
Starting your writing journey is extremely exciting and rewarding. The first year I started consistently, so many great things happened. I found a writing group. I started attending virtual writer’s conferences. I had a blast on Pinterest creating mood boards for my characters. I read tons of craft books which made me eager to implement those techniques.
At some point, though, you have to start organizing yourself and this is where my second piece of advice comes in.
Whenever I give advice, I always say to take it as inspiration, not a hard and fast rule, because everyone is different. That’s usually the same advice I give people who are reading craft books.
This is one of those rare ones that I think everyone should consider a rule, no matter what they are writing:
If you want writing to be your job, you must treat it as a job from the beginning.
And we show up to our job every week, don’t we?
If you don’t want to liken it to a job, consider it a practice, like yoga. It’s like exercise and the muscles you’re working on are your brain and your imagination. Practicing writing, and showing up consistently to work on your book, should become habitual. At some point, after doing it enough, your brain will gain muscle memory of the practice and it will be easier to sit down and jump right into it again.
Here are some steps to help create your writing habit:
Find a consistent time for you to write. This does NOT look the same for everyone. Maybe it’s in the morning before work, or on your commute. It could be your lunch break or when you’re waiting in the pickup line for your kid. Any chunk of time will work, no matter how small it is.
Find a frequency that works for you. Remember, if you’re considering writing a job that you do every day, and you also have a 9-5, working two jobs is not sustainable. (I did that for about a year - writing every day and through the weekends - and it was rough.) It can be once a week, a few days a week, only on weekends, etc. The key is just to keep it consistent while also not wearing yourself down.
Give it time, and give yourself grace. It takes time to create a habit. But if you show up each time, it will get easier with time.
Adapt, don’t give up on it. If whatever time or frequency you initially chose isn’t working for you, try another time!