Guest Post
by Elizabeth Grace Saunders @RealLifeE
New Year’s
Resolution #1: Write More in 2013.
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| Purchase Book Here |
If you’re
like most writers, you really want to find more time to practice your art in
2013. But the distance between your resolution and your reality often seems
like a span too far to cross and full of detours like writers groups and
writers blogs where you talk and read a great deal about writing but rarely put
words to the page…
I
understand, as a time coach and the author of the newly released book The 3 Secrets to Effective TimeInvestment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress , I’ve lead many a writer through the
process of finding more time to write.
The BIGGEST secret to your success is
strengthening simple routines that make investing time in writing automatic.
Let me tell you a little story about a writer I helped unlock the power of this
secret…
Breaking Through Creative Blocks
A few
winters ago, I worked with a successful, well-published writer who also taught
in a university graduate school Masters of Fine Arts program. She was stuck.
“I am scattered and making erratic
progress with this or that. I want to make solid steps forward. I want to
reclaim my life and place in the literary firmament, get healthy and in shape,
and have fun!”
She also
had just been diagnosed with ADHD and was wondering how much of an impact ADHD
had on her life-long frustrations with writing and other areas of her life. One
of her most important goals was to move forward on her next big creative
project–a collection of linked short stories. It had been a long time since her
first book had been published, and she needed to regain professional momentum…
“My friends are mostly writers and
successful. I have lots of ink in the New York Times that I have written and
that has been written about me. So I have talent. I also need to know what I
need to do, like a solid schedule? work impulsively? Okay I know the answer to
that.”
She did
know the answer, but turning the answer into practical action took time
coaching… We came up with an initial
plan of how she could get in a good, solid, writing time in the morning. Then
each week, we worked on assessing the results and evaluating how to move
forward based on what happened.
The first
writing routine involved: drinking coffee, eating breakfast, taking the dog
out, meditating, getting dressed, and then starting to write. The second
involved just getting coffee and starting to write. The end result was a fusion
of the two with pouring a cup of coffee, meditating a bit, taking out the dog
and then writing.
The end
goal wasn’t to have this creative writer crammed into a rigid schedule but to have something that turned
writing (her top professional priority) from a dreaded activity to a peaceful
part of her daily schedule.
Over the
course of our work together, she found that if she followed her morning routine
and put herself in her writing space for two hours (with a timer set), the
inspiration came and the writing moved forward.
- Writing didn’t need to be something that she dreaded.
- Writing didn’t need to be something that took over her
life.
- Writing could be something she choose to move forward
on each day.
At last!
Freedom to do quality work without losing herself, her relationships or her
sanity was possible!
“I’ve found that the actual schedule
that I longed for would absolutely drive me around the bend so I have a
flexitarian schedule and am getting things done.”
“Having and sticking with a schedule is
the single most important thing I can do for myself as an artist, as a woman
living a rather complex and exciting life, and as someone newly aware that many
of my problems stem from having ADHD. Nothing, nothing, nothing will move me
forward like following my schedule will. Period.”
A Few Key Points
The same creative
freedom could be possible for you. Here are a few key takeaways to get you
started:
- Even if you consider yourself a spontaneous person, some writing rituals can dramatically increase your productivity and decrease your stress. If you loathe this idea, you can find out how to overcome your inner routine rebel in my book.
- Look at developing custom routines as
a process that includes editing. As you saw above, this writer didn’t just
have one routine and stick with it. She needed to try out a few iterations
until she found one that was exactly the right fit.
- It’s OK to have a “flexitarian”
schedule, meaning that not everything needs to happen with clockwork
precision. For instance, this could mean picking a start trigger, such as
“after I eat breakfast,” instead of a start time, such as “8 a.m.,” to
begin your writing.
- Focus on consistently following your
schedule instead of worrying about constantly being on it. No matter how
hard you try, there will be some days when following your writing routine
just isn’t possible. Instead of beating yourself up over it, you can
simply acknowledge the deviance, forgive yourself if it was due to some
fault of your own, and then move on in the realization that the only thing
you can control is your decision of the present moment.
For a
comprehensive step-by-step guide to creating your own custom routines, flip to
Chapter 7 in The 3 Secrets toEffective Time Investment.
May you
enjoy writing more in 2013 by developing, practicing and adjusting your custom
routines.
What
routines do you have in place to help make investing time in writing as
effortless as possible?
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