Writing Tips – How to build a habit you CAN achieve

Your book won’t write itself…

I don’t know about you, but this just makes me feel guilty. It’s not news, and it’s not helpful. The idea of writing a book, even writing a story, is overwhelming to most of us. We’re fed things like National Novel Writing Month. You want me to write nearly 1,700 words per day?

No. I don’t want you to do that. I don’t want to do that.

I did NaNoWriMo in 2020. It’s now the end of 2023, and I’m still revising the manuscript I wrote. That’s three years, and I’m still not done!

Very motivating, I know. But I can tell you what I did wrong, and what I’m trying to get right.

My biggest leaps in revision, which (in case you didn’t know) also count as writing, have happened since I started to set goals for myself – little ones – habit forming ones.

I set aside a period of time every day that I will “work” on my book. That could be writing, editing, rearranging, mapping character arcs or plot points, or even just thinking about my story.

The point is that I show up for my writing.

I know another author and playwright, J.D. Derbyshire, who set a small goal for themself to write every day, I believe 250 words. That’s half a page. Sometimes that might just be metaphorical throat clearing. It doesn’t need to have a point.

The actual point is, if you show up for your writing every day, even with the smallest of goals, you will build a habit, and that’s how you succeed.

If you write 250 words per day for 320 days, you’ll have 80,000 words. That’s a book. In less than a year.

If I had written 250 words per day from the end of NaNoWriMo 2020, I’d have written three more books.

Also, if you miss a day, or a week, or even a month, you can still get right back on that horse. It doesn’t care that you’ve been away. You have not failed. Practice compassion for yourself.

And so… more metaphors!

You don’t get fit by spending three hours at the gym every day for a week. I’ve done it. It sucks. And I burned myself out. But, run a little every day, do some jumping jacks while waiting for the bus, shovel an inch of snow even when it can wait until tomorrow – that’s what success looks like.

You can do this. Your art matters.

Post Script,

If you want to learn more AND you want an easy read, try Do The Work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way by Steven Pressfield.