What helps you be most productive when it comes to your writing? I know we're all different, but what works for you?
I get out of bed, put the coffee on, open my laptop, then my Scrivener file, and start typing before my brain wakes up and says, "wouldn't you rather check your email, the weather, or the news?"
I make the coffee and return to the story. I'm already hooked and want to know what happens next. It's like brushing teeth, I'm on autopilot and don't think about it, just do it. Before brushing teeth.
It helps to write first thing in the morning and sometimes I even wake up at three with an idea, something new to add to the work in progress. Having a habit helps heaps.
I get to play a minimum of one hour and after that, I do whatever I have to for the rest of the day: make breakfast, clean house, check email (I'm retired). Often, I find I'm still writing four hours later and the coffee is sitting next to me on the table, cold.
Start with five minutes if that's all you can do but do it every day and slowly increase the time. Write what moves you. Find your writing corner and go there. Surround yourself with comfort items, coffee, whiskey, a teddy, a bouquet of flowers, a favorite shawl. Soon you will gravitate there and it will become your sanctuary.
And most importantly - have fun!
Let me know how you organize your writing day in the comments below.
I avoid writing, even though I think about it all the time. I wake up with stories in my head begging to be written down and I tell them there are so many easier and more rewarding things to do. Like growing peas, scallions, tomatoes, lettuces, garlic, asparagus and a few mundane peppers. I have a hive of bees I watch outside my window, when they wake up the birds hoping for a fresh catch. The view from my window is very lively and soon I will put up my bird feeder. I walk my dog with my husband each morning and alone each afternoon. People think I nice because my dog is nice. A few times a day I go out to the garden to collect these fresh things for food and they transform the routine into a celebration. I try to write, ... I really do. I think it's important to make a record, but it hasn't become part of the routine of things I take care of, resulting in few rewards. I want to write about people I research and to tell an honest story about how people thought in a different time and place. In my world they are a noisy lot.
ReplyDeleteYou just wrote a lovely paragraph that could be a page in a book. All it takes is five minutes at a time. I hope you will continue.
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