There are so many comments from the peanut gallery that make the goal of wanting to be a modern-day writer feel…unreachable. This applies to just about any industry or dream job: being a paid author, owning a business, or working at Space-X.
Here’s a few lovely things specifically said to my face that I’ve collected:
“The market’s flooded.”
“All the good ideas are gone!”
“You came from X so you’ll never get to Y.”
“You don’t live in LA anymore, so forget about it.
“But I–”
“I said, tell Miss Laura goodbye.”
Now here comes some opinion; A lot of this negative self-talk comes from within. I personally have internalized a lot of crap teachers have told me over the years, insults bullies have said specifically to me, or form rejections I’ve received; and those hurt the bestest of all, because that’s what I’m most sensitive about!
One way to help beat down these demons is to write more often and improve your craft. Yup, I’m talking about writing EVERY DAY. I don’t just mean writing on projects every day, but writing SOMETHING every day. “But I’m too tired,” you say. “I’m too busy,” you mutter. “I just don’t wanna,” your subconscious shouts at you.
GASP!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again (mostly for me, but if it helps, it helps) How badly do you actually want it? Do you want your life to radically change in such a way that the dream isn’t just a dream anymore? Or do you want to be on your deathbed full of regrets?
If you want to, make a change.
I have heard the above tip regarding “write every day” from working writers, authors, screenwriters, playwrights, journalists, and entrepreneurs that I have admired and I have to say, nothing helps beat down the shoulder demon quite like sweat equity and perseverance.
So today, I wanted to reflect on writing every day and offer a few suggestions on how I do it.
- Set a reminder
Basic. We all have alarms on our phones or at least the ability to set one. Just do a little friendly reminder set at a point in the day (or several points in the day) where you know you’ll get the chance and go for it. Mine is my lunch break, where I’ll fix some amazing food (because I’m awesome) and will write just a bit while scarfin.
2. Set a timer
I got this awesome tip from Chris Fox’s book “5,000 Words Per Hour.” We’re talking about starting wicked small here. I mean like, five minutes. Five minutes of no interruptions. That’s about the length of a Pixar short. Set a countdown for five minutes on your phone or just use google’s trusty countdown and do NOTHING for five minutes but write. I’ve knocked out many a daily word count thanks to just five minutes of nothing but closing all the doors, shutting off all the things, and putting the butt in the chair.
3. Get up earlier
For years, I was not a morning person. All that changed when my first job out of college started at 4:45 am. I worked 3 thirteen-hour shifts a week for months and nothing helped get a quiet day going like knocking out some writing goals. Ever since then, I’ve been a morning person…ish….on most days…anyway–
Or conversely…
4. Don’t go to bed until it’s done
My wife and I don’t have [living] children, so I know I’ve lost a ton of readers already at this point. So I consulted a good friend with a few kids who does write every day and asked for his anonymous thoughts. The takeaway was that the best opportunity is when the kids are in bed. Whether that be a midday nap or bedtime or right before they get up. He said writing every day was important enough to him so he did his best to get in just a bit no matter what it cost. Even if that meant in the minutes before his head hit the pillow, swiping a few words into digital notepad to review another day.
5. Writing on a variety of things
Ah-ha! The crux of my true opinion piece. I personally believe the “write every day” thing need not be limited to work or specific projects. Brainstorming, journaling, hell, I wrote a damn fine Costco grocery list just the other day, and in my book (on a Sunday no less, THE LORD’S DAY) that counts. Dare I admit that I’m writing this blog post on a Sunday?
But I will give this small caveat.
What I have personally found is that writing even something as simple as a grocery list or blog post does inspire and motivate me to work on the dream goal. Your mileage will vary here, but it does help this chunky dude.
6. Go to your special writing place
The picture above is from a place my cousin Joe and I used to love writing at. It’s called the Bourgeous Pig and if you’re in the So Cal area, you’ve gotta try writing here at least once. The pic is from the forest room where Joe used to enjoy writing in the tree.
It was there and the Tea and Coffee Bean on Lankershim where we got sooooooo much writing done. And the best part is, with no outlets, you literally had until your battery died before you knew it was time to go home, so there was a super special awesome ticking clock that we brought with us every day we wrote there.
Do you have a special writing spot? Is it in your home or?
7. Get in the zone, but FASTER
Do you know what really helps me? Awesome inspirational music without any words that just gets me into a ZONE. To that end, I’ve created a playlist of about 5 hours worth of awesome music to write to. Click here and be sure to subscribe to my channel!
And to make all things equal–
BONUS: When it’s become a habit, you won’t need this post.
As always, I just want this post to help and inspire you to write more often and go after your writing goals. To that end, I don’t need this advice as much, because I’ve been writing every day for at least the last year and I can tell you, once it becomes habit, once that chain is secure, it becomes quite hard to break it. So go forth!
Hope this helps! I’ll be updating my progress bars this week with two 100%s (Just updated my first one this morning!). Can’t wait to get there. Just gotta follow my own advice and do the above and I know it’ll get done.
I’ll end with a tweet from my favorite person to follow on Twitter:
All the best,
~Nic
