We call ourselves writers, but every so often (or quite often?) we find ourselves not so in love with having to write. We know we should if we want to get our books done and our blog posts written . . . but what we want is to make writing easier.
And then later comes and we come up with another excuse not to write. Disappointment in our laziness comes up and we put off writing for months and years at a time.
We don’t need to do that. Writing is an expression of love (at least in part), and we can do better than than self-flagellate ourselves with hateful words and criticism over not writing.
I included tools for writing. Five of them listed below are simple mind tricks. Hey, if a simple trick can help us get our words out, use ’em! Our goal is to make writing easier!
Schedule writing time. Put it on your calendar like you would an appointment, because it is. It’s an appointment with your creative self to write. And be kind to yourself. This is a lovely appointment, not a trip to the DMV to renew your drivers license.
Use writing prompts. So simple that it would seem these no longer work, or are relevant. Not true. Prompts always work and they are even more relevant in this busy, mind-cluttering world of choices, voices, and loud noises (my description of the internet, where we spend a lot of our time).
Share with a receptive friend.What I mean is, go ahead and write, knowing that you’ll share your work with someone friendly and receptive to your work. Who will provide kind and nourishing criticism, or just feedback on what is good about your writing. You need a cheerleader to share our vulnerable writing self with, not a policeman who assumes you guilty of some writing crime. Cheerleader NOT policeman.
Write without thought to quality. Come back later to edit. What’s funny in the world of “writing” is that we talk about good and bad writers. Beginning versus advanced writers, but we are basing our opinion on work that’s been edited. Almost always does writing improve with some form of editing. So, when you see a lovely piece of writing done by a colleague and you’re feeling envious of her ability to write, stop for a minute. Remember that you’re reading edited text, and also know that with editing, everyone’s writing improves. Even yours.
Make incremental goals. I call it the 500 Rule. You make a 15-minute appointment on your calendar for a minimum of three times per week. During the 15 minutes, you write 500 words. Think you can’t write 500 words in 15 minutes? Go back to #2, Writing Prompts.
Now, using a little simple math, 500 words x (3) 15-minutes sessions/week = 1,500 words written/week. Multiply the number of words by, say, 45 weeks (not a full year, but most of one), you get 67,500 words written. That’s a book-length number, I might add. You can continue on to higher numbers (some genres do better with more chapters; Fantasy fiction comes to mind), or be complete at approximately 68,000 words. Well done!
What tools do you use to make writing easier?