Simple Advice To Writing More Consistently

Speaking for myself, writing on a steady and consistent basis was much easier in the beginning. As time goes by, it often gets ‘put on the back burner’ to other self-proclaimed important matters. Many of those ‘important’ things could easily be done at a later portion of my evening…such as email, internet surfing, etc. Somehow writing had become more and more of a ‘chore’ or ‘duty’, constant and new material is not always easy to think of or I’m just ‘not in the mood’.

I take no less than weekly personal inventory of myself to catch any new ‘bad’ habits creeping into my life. This change in writing habits had me worried, but I was at a loss of what to do. Yes, I read through countless blogs by others here at WA; I actually began a damaging habit of rationalizing that my lack of writing was due to my diligent and thorough ‘research’ of my problem and seeking advice from others. Baloney! After skimming through 5 – 10 blogs, I had more than ample examples; I had turned this ‘research’ into a perfect procrastination machine!

I am a firm believer that if you are truly seeking an answer or a solution and positively expect an answer…it comes in one form or another. Such was the case with my writing difficulties. During one of my Facebook meanderings, I came across a post that referred to a free e-book that had yet another diversion….hahahaha, this was right up my alley….all that clicking and wandering. Somehow I was led to an article promoting some sort of writing seminar that was being promoted with a short paragraph and interview with the author/founder/whatever….

This short paragraph grabbed my attention and my ‘inner voice’ said DO THIS! You see, the whole gist of this ‘teaching/training’ was based on allotting a set amount of time daily to do nothing but write continuously the entire time. They were suggesting 15 minutes, but if you are sitting there just writing whatever comes to mind, it can be a terribly long 15 minutes..The idea was that if you had an idea, go with it and write whatever came to mind irregardless of spelling/grammar/etc. If you mind began wandering/rambling, write down whatever it was that you were thinking … but don’t stop writing or put that writing utensil down until that timer went off. You were instructed to set a timer/alarm for that time span; this reminded me of those ‘timed’ tests in school….

I started with 5 minutes and used a keyboard and ‘Word’; I started a LONG document entitled writing and began each daily session with a new page and that day’s date…..before the end of the fourth day, I increased it to 10 minutes; two days later, I am now at 15 minutes.

It is amazing, the clouds in my brain are dissipating and even my meandering writings are beginning to make more sense. At the end of each daily session I have bits and pieces of an entire project! This is actually working! I share this in the hopes that this method be of some use or help to other members.