I’ve always been a writer. From my earliest memories, the written word has fascinated me. Like most people, I easily default to the excuse of, ‘life is busy’ when struggling with finding time to write. Over the years, I’ve tried numerous suggestions that have worked for other authors.
- Write on the weekend
- Write in the evening
- Write during breaks at work
- Write early in the morning
- Write on vacation
- Write during the commute
- Create a word count goal
I have to be honest, none of these have really worked. They have provided me with some assistance and helped me achieve some success with my writing goals, but nothing lasting. Creating a lasting discipline that works for me is my goal.
When it comes to the discipline of writing, there are a few things I’ve learned on this journey. While I consider these points common sense, I believe they provide balance and perspective when establishing a writing discipline.
First, discipline is something you have to do whether you feel like it or not. Discipline is something we commit to because ‘it’ has to be done. There isn’t a lot of immediate gratification with discipline, but we are usually happy with the outcomes.
Second, discipline is something we do with a high degree of regularity. Depending on the reason for the discipline, this means something we do daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, etc. We make a commitment to the task and we do it with a regularity that works for us.
Third, very few people cheer us on with discipline. Therefore, discipline is a mindset we develop because it’s about the goal, not the ‘right now’. It is driven by internal passions, desires, and dreams. Because of this, others can’t truly appreciate the journey when the outcome is unseen.
There are more things I can say about discipline, but these are perhaps my top three. As a writer, how do I take this and turn it into actionable steps?
Do you remember the list above? My try-and-fail list? There’s nothing wrong with all those suggestions; they obviously worked for other authors. And I did have some success with them. In order to create a lasting discipline, I mixed the try-fail list with my perusing on discipline and came up with some of the following:
First, find the time that works for you. My best writing time is in the morning, so I wake up early. However, it’s easier for me to manage the social media and other aspects of writing in the evening.
Second, make your life and schedule work for you. A number of years ago, I was too busy to write. I had a job that creatively drained me. Even waking up early to write wouldn’t work, as I was always exhausted. My life went through some unexpected changes, and I started to have time and energy to write. As I saw the positive change, I intentionally started making more changes based on my commitment to writing.
Third, I’ve made realistic goals. A friend of mine is quite busy with work, kids and a husband, and a close extended family. She makes a daily commitment to write 500 words. That might not seem like a lot, but look at the outcome: 500 words a day X 365 days in the year = over 180, 000 words. I personally have a similar goal. I aim to write a certain number of words each day. It is a realistic, achievable number of words. I look at it as, ‘I can do this’. And guess what? Because the number of words feels realistic and achievable, there are days I easily surpass this number. Essentially, my productivity has increased.
So, I can’t give you a ‘steps to success’ method, but I can offer some methodologies. All those steps above work. I just had to find a way to use them that worked for me. You have to do the hard work of trial-learn-grow. Find out what works for you and you are well on your way to achieving your goals.
K. M. Wray 