Do you write every day? Isn’t that part of being a REAL writer? Well, I have a confession to make: I don’t write every day. Yes, I do post here every day but some days I write 3 or 4 posts and schedule them to appear in the future. For a long time I felt a bit guilty about not cranking out pages every day, but now that I’ve been making a good living as a writer for more than 20 years, I guess I’m a writer anyway.
Having said that, I do work on my writing projects almost every day in some form, and I recommend doing that even if you have another job (maybe ESPECIALLY if you have another job, so you keep your identity as a writer strong). Here are three steps to achieving that:
1. Allocate a minimum of fifteen minutes per day to this. I know you can find a quarter of an hour somewhere in your day.
2. During that period, choose between three activities: jotting down notes about what you want to write (I like the mind map format for this), or actually writing, or editing something you’ve written.
3. Remember that you can ‘write’ in your head even when you’re not near a computer or pad of paper. For instance, while you’re on the train or subway or in your carpool (ideally not when you’re the one driving…) you can think about what could happen in the next scene of your novel or screenplay. Jot down these ideas or speak them into a little digital tape recorder as soon as you can, so they don’t get lost.
You can find your own way to write every day—and no matter which one you choose, you’re a ‘real’ writer!
(you can get more tips & techniques by signing up for my free monthly Brainstorm e-bulletin, by request to [email protected])
