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Monday, April 12, 2010

Discipline

I have to admit, I don't do discipline well. I think it has something to do with the time I spent in the military. I'm not very organized either, though I've gotten better in the last several years.

What's discipline got to do with writing you ask?

Just this…if you want to write a novel within a reasonable amount of time, you have to be disciplined. This means writing on a regular basis. It's one of the things that serious writers have in common. They write on a schedule. They make their writing a priority.

I had problems with this. Call it procrastination or call it lazy but it isn't a good thing. So, I followed the advice of many writers and decided to make writing a priority for me. To make it something important in my daily routine.

About this time, James Scott Bell tweeted about completing his Nifty 350. Meaning, his goal for the day is 350 words, written in the mornings. I took this idea and ran with it, so to speak.

I decided on a "First 500" and put my self on an internet diet. Harsh yes, but it really worked. I took my laptop into the bedroom so first thing in the morning, I could fire it up and get to writing.

The first couple days, it took about 4 hours to get those First 500 words. Now, I'm one of those writers who tend to write, edit, rewrite and then revise each sentence as I go along so that's not a long time for me.

After the first week, I found myself looking forward to writing first thing in the morning and the word counts rising and not taking as long to get on the page. It only took a couple days of  doing this before  I started to get between 1,000 to 1,500 words in the same 4 hours.

I also learned that the internet won't wither up and blow away if I'm not there. I discovered that many of the things I did online, once thought of as necessities, really weren't.

And I've discovered I like writing more than reading many other writing blogs. Sure, I still have a favorite few I read on a regular basis but now I've gotten my priorities in the right order and when I spend some time online, I don't feel guilty because I haven't written.

I don't have any books to recommend to you however, if you have a problem with procrastination, check out Procrastinating Writer.

Then, take a look at your schedule and make writing a priority.

4 comments:

Nicole L Rivera said...

I had to do the same thing. Now I even added deadlines for a first draft, editing, etc. The deadlines help me focus and get things done on a timely basis. :)

Cheryl said...

Nice post. I spent most of my life complaining how I was too busy to write to-do lists, all to discover over the past 5 years that I'm really too busy not to write to-do lists.

Keep up the great work!

Cheryl

Cheryl said...

Nice post. I spent most of my life complaining how I was too busy to write to-do lists, all to discover over the past 5 years that I'm really too busy not to write to-do lists.

Keep up the great work!

Cheryl

Nicole L Rivera said...

I had to do the same thing. Now I even added deadlines for a first draft, editing, etc. The deadlines help me focus and get things done on a timely basis. :)