Ask any writer, and they'll tell you: It's not the actual writing that's difficult, for the most part. It's the actual sitting down to do it that's difficult. Before we sit down to write, we find a million and one excuses not to, and most of those excuses really are just that! Excuses!
Developing the discipline it takes to sit down on a regular basis and pound out a poem, story, article, or chapter in a novel, is the greatest gift you can give yourself as a writer. Whether you aspire to literary greatness, desire a profitable freelancing career, or wish only to record your thoughts, these suggestions will help you learn how to sit down, and just do it.
Discover Your Style
Some of us like to write in pencil on a yellow legal pad, and some of us like to pound away at our keyboards. Others prefer to write longhand in fountain pen in a Moleskine, or leather bound journal. Some select cheap disposable pens and spiral bound notebooks as our repositories. Whatever your preference, discover it, and then use it. Discovering it is a simple matter of keeping a journal in several different ways for a week at a time. Spiral bound one week, computer file the next, and so on until you've found the method that seems to work best for you. Once you've found it, use it exclusively. You'll find that establishing a ritualistic method of writing will help get you focused more quickly when you sit down to write.
Make the Time
Notice I didn't say, “Find the time”. I said, “Make the time” and that's exactly what I mean. Take out your day-timer, or load your electronic calendar. Block out writing time for the next five out of seven days. Yes, you may give yourself two days off each week, but during those other five days, make at least one hour of the twenty-four hour day your writer's hour. Call it that, if you like. Make it sacred. During that one hour, (or more - I need more, because I spend at least a half hour of my scheduled writing time humming and hawing and checking my e-mail before settling down to actually write.) you will focus all of your attention and energy on writing. Alert family members to the fact that this hour is your hour, and you are not to be disturbed. If this means popping in a video for the kids, or sending your spouse off on some errands (or out to play poker, go shopping, or whatever will keep them from knocking on the door of your inner sanctum), then do it. If it means hiring a sitter, or trading childcare time with a friend, do it. If you can write while chaos goes on around you, and being completely alone is impossible, then go for it.
Have An Inner Sanctum
This might be easier than it sounds. I live in a two-bedroom house with my spouse, and two teenagers. On weekends, when I do the most writing, we have a teenybopper over. There is no space that is only mine anywhere in my life, yet I have managed to create my own space.
My "Inner Sanctum" is a couch. It's red. It's leather. It's about six feet long, and it's mine. Adding headphones, which I plug into my laptop, makes this work for me. I can ignore the goings on around me so long as I've got Imogen Heap or Anugama blaring into my ears. People watch television around me. They make and take phone calls. Life happens at an astounding volume, but when I sit here on this couch, and I plug in my headphones, I'm in my inner sanctum. If attempting this would drive you to murder/suicide, create a corner of your bedroom that's dedicated to your writing. Or write in the bathroom. Or the car. Maybe you think I'm kidding, but I'm being completely serious. Find space. And use it.
Create a Goal and Reward System
Personally, I'm all about the word count. I thrill to the chirring whir of my laptop as it tabulates the number of words I wrote that day. Before sitting down to begin a project, I create a list of milestones. The first 1000 words gets me a Grande Frappuccino. The first 10 000? A manicure. Having this list of milestones and associated rewards can keep me going when I'm feeling uninspired, especially since I have told my spouse what these milestones are. If I say, “I'm going to get my nails done” he knows enough to ask me - “Did you write 10 000 words yet?”
