Tomorrow begins NaNoWriMo, that magical one month a year when aspiring writers commit the time and effort every day to actually write. For thirty days, people commit to putting 1,667 words per day into some tangible form. At the end of the month, voila! a novel!
I don’t know how many of those who start the month actually complete their 50,000 words. I suspect fewer than half. And of those, even fewer will continue the daily practice of writing — even those who desperately want to be writers.
For me, the intense 1,667-words-per-day sprint just doesn’t work. I’ve tried it. I’ve done the “get your characters and outline ready ahead of time” dance. I’ve done the “just write the words, even if they are dreck; December is for editing” waltz too. I’m a tortoise, I suppose. But I write every morning and I have done for years.
Every. Morning. And my first novel is nearly complete. A sequel is in the works already. I have a third novel that I started two decades ago in outline form, and a fourth that just presented itself to me, demanding to be written, in October.
One bucking and three in the chute: a pretty good rodeo lineup for a tortoise.
Writing is a habit. Like any other habit, it takes time to coalesce. If you were making homemade jelly from gorgeous autumn grapes, you’d add pectin to firm up your jelly and make it a successful product. If your product is writing, you need to add the ingredients for success to the fruit of your ideas in much the same way.
Join me over the next seven days as I show you those ingredients that have helped make my writing practice a solid, gorgeously jelled daily practice. Don’t miss a single tip — sign up to get new updates by email, over there in the righthand sidebar.
Day 1: Carve out a dedicated time for writing
Start by considering your personal energy levels and daily schedule. Are you most creative and energized early in the morning? Late at night, right before bed?
For me, early morning is my time to write. My brain is clear and words flow easily. Right before bed each night, I review where my story is and where it’s going next, what I need to write in the morning, and then I sleep. My unconscious mind nibbles at it all night long and in the morning I’m ready to commit the next chunk to paper.
In the years when I worked for someone else and had to have butt planted in chair at 8:00 am, I arranged with myself to wake up earlier in order to do my creative work. At 4:30 in the morning, the world is asleep. My children are still in bed. The birds haven’t even started chirping yet. The precious quiet, especially when I know I have only an hour or so of it, is expansive. It opens possibilities before me and begs to be filled with my words.
Now, when I work for myself, I still schedule my writing time first thing in the morning. It isn’t quite as early now. My children are grown and I no longer plant my butt in someone else’s chair at 8:00 am. But the first item on my To Do list each morning is still the same:
Write.
Tomorrow: Part II. Want the update by email? Sign up at right.
