by Jenna | Dec 30, 2015 | Writing Articles
It's that time of year. We're all making resolutions and setting goals, thinking about our biggest, fondest dreams, and what we hope to accomplish with our lives in the year ahead and beyond. As writers, usually our resolutions, goals, and visions have a lot to do with our writing, along with the other big goals we'd like to accomplish.
And once you're clear on the dream -- you'll want to have a way to put it all into action.
This is where building a lasting writing habit comes into play. Habit will get you through to the end, where willpower and determination might otherwise fail you.
5 Tips to Build a Lasting Writing Habit
When it comes to building a writing habit, habit itself is the key word. We want you to get your writing to a place in your life where you wouldn't even consider NOT doing it, the way you wouldn't even consider not brushing your teeth every day. That's when you know you've got a solid writing habit.
Here are 5 tips for how you can build a habit that lasts:
Tip #1: Write daily or near daily.
When you're trying to build a habit, aim to write DAILY. Writing on a regular basis is a hell of a lot easier than writing infrequently, it stirs up more frequent creative thoughts, and it eliminates the whole need so many writers have to "warm up". It turns out that most "warming up" is procrastination and resistance in disguise, and you won't need it once you're writing regularly.
In fact, when you write on a regular basis, you'll find that your subconscious mind is always working on your project, so it's much easier to dip in and out of it on the fly.
So when you're starting out building a writing habit, or even rebuilding one, aim to write every single day. There's a kind of open window into our writing that closes more tightly the longer the span of time that passes between writing sessions. So keeping that window of time to 24 hours or less, when you're building the habit, is key. Once you've got it down, you can start experimenting with taking days off here and there.
When I first started writing regularly, I had to write every day or my resistance levels would build up to code red proportions. Now I can take weekends off and step back into the writing come Mondays with less drama and angst.
Tip #2: Set small, attainable goals for your daily writing.
Lots of writers crash and burn by setting unrealistic goals for themselves. Many writers are surprised to discover how much they can accomplish in just 15 minutes of writing every day -- it adds up over time into so much more than you would ever think. (Check out the story about Rick, who went from 5 minutes of writing a day, to now working on finishing a 6th major draft of his novel.)
Do yourself a favor and start out your habit building with a super small, easily attainable goal that you KNOW you can do, every day, even if it's just 5 minutes day. When new members start in my writing community, we encourage them to focus on even just checking in every day as a way of building the habit muscle.
Tip #3: If you're not writing, make the goal smaller.
Once you set your goal, if you don't find yourself doing it, don't despair or call yourself a failure!
Instead, take that as a useful piece of information (your resistance is higher than that goal) and set the goal smaller, even if it's writing for one minute.
Truth be told, when you're building the habit, it's NOT the size of the goal that's important, it's the habit itself that is.
Once you're meeting and succeeding with your initial goal, you can build up to more over time. I started out aiming to write for 15 minutes a day (and finished a script that way) and gradually built up to writing three to four hours a day at my peak before I had baby #2.
Tip #4: Create triggers for your writing habit.
You always brush your teeth when you get ready in the morning and before you go to bed, right? Getting ready in the morning and going to bed are triggers. You don't debate about whether or not you'll brush your teeth, you just do it because you're so used to it, it would feel weird NOT to do it. So if you can set up a trigger for your writing, it makes it easier to do.
Here are some examples of possible triggers:
- Write immediately upon awakening. A huge benefit of writing first in the day is that it clearly separates it from other life tasks and obligations so you don't have to transition so much between other things to writing and back again.
- Write with a timer or during a group writing sprint. When you use a timer or you're writing alongside other people, the writing energy just kicks in and carries you along.
- Write after meditating or exercising. It's nice to stack other resistance-provoking activities next to each other in the day and hit them with a one-two punch.
- Write before exercising or before doing some other kind of regular activity. Then you have something to "bump up against" in your schedule.
- Write immediately after you get home, eat dinner, or put the kids to bed. Know that when you're done, you'll write before you do anything else.
- Write before going to bed. If you're a die-hard night owl, consider making writing the last thing you do.
If you keep doing the same thing, over and over again, it will become a regular part of your routine, and much easier to sustain over the long term.
Tip #5. Create as much accountability as you need to keep writing.
There are many different kinds of accountability, including writer's groups, mentors, deadlines, accountability parties, and writing buddies.
The trick is to figure out exactly how much YOU need to keep the fire lit under your writing motivation and put it into place. Look for the right combination that keeps you in action.
For example, you might want to have a writing buddy you exchange pages with every week, to keep you honest, whether you actually read each other's work or not. You could combine that with a writer's group, like my Called to Write program, which provides daily accountability. If that isn't enough for you, you could also add in an in person writing group and/or a contest or submission deadline to keep you focused.
There's no one size fits all answer here. You might be someone who is either great at staying accountable to yourself or someone who rebels against any kind of accountability. If that's the case, you may you prefer to put your focus on community and connection, rather than accountability, so that what helps keep you motivated is that your identity is tied to your writing and the group you're in.
Put these five tips into action and see what you can do! It's amazing what happens once you start. I wish you all the best in 2016 for a creative and productive year!
by Jenna | Dec 22, 2015 | Writing Articles
I waited for years to start writing fiction.
Inside, I felt like I had to get some kind of stamp of approval before I was "allowed" to write. That I needed an expert or agent or mentor or master writer to see my potential and encourage me to pursue writing. That otherwise I was chasing a fool's dream or breaking the rules somehow.
Change Your Mindset
I think many writers or want-to-be-writers do this. It's tied to perfectionism. A belief that we have to be "good enough" before we start. That there's a qualification level we have to reach before we even begin.
But how can we learn how to do anything, until we actually start doing it?
One of my mentors, Hal Croasmun of ScreenwritingU.com, talks about how he makes a point, every two years, to learn a new skill, so that he always remembers what it's like to be a beginner. This helps him develop the programs he runs for new writers because he can put himself in our shoes. I'm willing to bet he doesn't wait for permission to learn karate or poker or horseback riding. I'm betting he picks something that interests him, and goes for it.
Why can't we do the same with writing?
Perfectionism, again. This has to do, in part, with the black and white nature of writing in this digital age. Back when I wrote drafts on paper, I didn't hesitate to scratch things out. I knew I was writing a first draft. (I can even recall telling my father that I didn't think I could ever write without real paper! How times have changed...) There's something about seeing our words looking so final that makes them seem like they should be final draft, publication quality. Which is entirely unfair to our early stream-of-consciousness drafts.
Underneath the perfectionism is also fear, the lurking originator of perfectionism and other writerly issues, which tells us to play it safe and protect ourselves from potential failure, ridicule, and rejection. It's a powerful force that works against us and our writing.
But again, how can we learn, grow, and develop ourselves as writers without actually doing the work?
We cannot.
We have to change our mindsets from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
And we have to stop waiting for permission -- for some kind of pre-approval that will guarantee our success -- otherwise, we are really just kidding ourselves.
Don't Wait for Permission
Here's the thing.
You do not have to wait for ANYONE to validate you or tell you that you are good enough or deserving enough or talented enough to write.
No one has to “see” or recognize your writing as “good enough” before you can write. There’s no outside evaluation or assessment of “potential” needed or required.
YOU ARE A WRITER.
You are a writer because you are CALLED TO WRITE.
You know you are called to write because you have been persistently nudged, cajoled, and pestered by your deeper, higher, wiser self to write.
That means, by definition, you have been invited by the Universe to write.
And therefore, you have all the permission you need, right now.
by Jenna | Dec 10, 2015 | Writing Articles
I believe in callings.
I believe that each of us has something that we were put here to do, and when we find what it is, we must do it with all our hearts.
And... it isn't always easy to get clear on what our calling is.
Why?
The noisy, busy world we live in and the noisy, busy minds we are encouraged to cultivate by the mainstream makes it hard to hear ourselves and the deeper whispers of our souls.
And that's often how a calling comes through, as a whisper.
It took me a number of years to come around to realizing that my deepest call is to write. I spent my 20s and 30s sorting myself out in that regard, changing careers, soul-searching, and more (like helping other people get clear on their life callings!), only to come back to the insight that my 6th grade self already had hit upon: I want to write.
Are you called to write?
If you're here, reading a website named "Called to Write", I'm going to assume that you also feel that call. That you have the inner compunction to put words to the page in some form. You may or may not be doing it yet, or maybe not yet quite the way you want to be doing it, but I'm guessing that one way or the other, you've been feeling the call to write for some time.
When I conducted a survey a little while ago, 71% of you said that you felt called to write without a doubt. That's huge. And fantastic!
And, interestingly, 71% of you also said that you struggle with procrastination.
Isn't that fascinating?
The very thing we feel called to do is the very thing we tend to avoid.
And it's entirely normal.
One of my favorite things Steven Pressfield says in The War of Art (aka "Jenna's Bible") is this:
"The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it."
In other words?
The bigger the dream, the more we fear and avoid it.
by Jenna | Dec 2, 2015 | Writing Articles
It's a busy time. There's a lot going on and a lot expected of us with the next round of holidays looming on the horizon.
It's also a time when we start looking ahead to the new year. Maybe more in the backs of our brains where we don't have to pay too much attention to it, but most of us are starting to think ahead to our writing in the new year and what we want to accomplish.
Some of us are even putting off writing until the new year, thinking we don't have enough time to do it now, with all the busyness.
Don't fall for the big blocks of writing time myth
The truth is, though, that most of us are putting it off because we think we need a lot of time to write. That it isn't worth writing unless we have a big block of time to write, where we can really dig in. And it's true, those long blocks of time to write can be lovely (when they don't scare the bejesus out of us and cause us to procrastinate even more!).
But we don't really need big blocks of time to keep our writing in motion.
We just have to do some writing.
10 Tips to Keep You Writing Through the Holidays
Here's what I suggest to my Called to Write members to keep writing through the holidays:
- Write small. Even if you're accustomed to longer stretches of writing time, it's okay to scale it back to a more manageable amount while you're balancing the busyness of the holidays too. Even just 15 minutes of writing a day (or 5!) is worth doing and will keep you connected to your project.
- Write first. Writing first in the day--even if you have to get up early--will help you bypass most of the challenges the holidays bring. This is because when you put your writing first, everything else comes afterward and fills in the remaining time. It will reduce your stress levels, you’ll feed your soul, and everything else will still miraculously get done.
- Set a rock bottom daily writing goal. If you know what your rock bottom minimum for writing is, it’s easier to know what to do on the really busy days. You might want to aim to write 250 words, or three sentences, or write for 15 minutes as your rock bottom. Then you know what you have to do when you’re in tough. (And it's okay to set your "write small" amount from tip #1 at your rock bottom minimum!)
- Set a holiday season writing goal. Whether you’re targeting completion of a major project or simply determined to keep writing no matter what, knowing what your goal is makes it easier to know if you are on track. This year, for instance, with a young toddler in the house, my goal is super, super simple: just to keep writing. That’s it. For another writer, it might be, to finish the draft of a novel by the end of the year. Once you know your goal, you can reverse engineer what you need to do to accomplish it.
- Know what your specific challenges are and how you will address them. For example, my older son will be off school for two weeks, so I’m thinking about what he’s going to be doing when I want to be writing and making plans to write when my husband is home and/or the kids are otherwise occupied. Maybe you'll be traveling, or having house guests. With some forethought, you can come up with a simple strategy to protect your writing time.
- Be clear about what days you are taking off. I know of writers who ONLY take off Christmas Day every year. I know others who write 365 days per year. I also know of successful writers who write only on weekdays and take weekends and holidays off. If you decide to take days off from writing, be clear with yourself about when, where, and how you will start writing again after the day or days off. You have to be ready to combat the inertia of not writing.
- Assume you will write. On the days you’ve planned to write, make the assumption that writing is happening, one way or the other. Ideally, you’ll have a plan and a schedule to help you stick to that plan, but if all else fails, just assume it’s a question of WHEN not IF. (Don't waste your life energy deciding whether or not you'll be writing. Just decide, and then do it.)
- Create support & accountability. Habit trumps inspiration, discipline, and motivation almost any day of the week, but habit can still get disrupted by changes in our routine, like the holidays, travel, vacations, extra social commitments, and just generally having more to do. You can use the power of accountability to help keep your habit in place even when it’s being disrupted by other things. Whether you’re checking in with your writing buddies, participating in a writer’s group like my Called to Write community, or talking to your writing coach, having people around you who believe in the importance of your writing and support you to keep doing it helps you stay strong when you’re around people who don’t get it.
- Be creative. When the going gets tough, be creative about how and where you write. For example, you might want to arrive at your appointments early so you can sit in the car and write for a few minutes, write on your phone in bed at night (this is one of my favorite tricks), keep a notebook with you at all times for moments of inspiration, or find other clever ways to keep writing even when life is happening.
- Write last. Last but not least, if you can’t write first, write last. Even if you take just a few minutes at the end of every day, write. This is my saving grace these days with a busy life with a little toddler.
I hope this list of ideas will get you thinking about what you can do to keep writing through the holidays so you can feel great about beginning the new year with a strong start.
Happy writing!
by Jenna | Nov 26, 2015 | Writing Articles
It's Thanksgiving here in the U.S., so many of us are thinking about gratitude.
It occurred to me that since here at Called to Write we focus on writing, it might be worth thinking about what we are grateful for that writing has brought to our lives.
So here's a place to share, if you feel so inspired.
Let us know in the comments ... what has writing given you that you're grateful for?
I'll go first:
- The satisfaction of pursuing one of my two most deeply held dreams, alongside my dream of becoming a mother.
- The joy of playing in far off imaginary worlds that I've always loved but never believed I could be responsible for creating.
- Incredible amounts of personal growth, self-discipline, self-confidence, self-trust, new habits, and new beliefs.
- Exciting adventures in learning about writing fiction and screenwriting.
- A tribe of incredible writers I'm grateful to call friends and colleagues.
It's your turn. :)
What has writing given you that you're grateful for?
