A lot of people (myself included) struggle to write regularly. Life's busy, there's a million and one things to do, friends to see, church to go to, pets to take care of, school to study, body to exercise, house to clean, phone to scroll, books to read, crafts to make, you get the picture. No time, right?
So how do you find time?
The point is not to find time, but to make time.
Writing regularly, every day, is so, so important. It cultivates your skill, helps you grow as an author, along with progressing your story nicely. The point of this post is to aid you in making time so that you can write everyday, or if not every day, then most days.
Here's some things that you can do to help you write regularly. Not all of these things may work for you or do a whole lot, but they help get you there. And I'm just going to say that I'm still working on this myself! Writing this post is actually helping me figure out what I need to do in order to write consistently. I'm not perfect, I don't write every day, I tend to scroll on my phone or read way longer than I should. But I'm trying. As long as you do your best and actually try, you'll get there! It just takes time and self-control.
You have to make a choice to not do something that day in order to write, whether it's not watch Netflix, not read, or maybe miss one hangout with friends if you see them often. I'm not saying you have to completely cut out these things, but to move them around on your priorities list. Instead of watching just one more episode, turn the TV off and write in those thirty minutes you would've spent watching something. If you find at the end of the day you have time to watch an episode of something or read before bed, then great!
Put time limits on things. Limit your social media and phone time. Limit your reading time. Set a time limit of 30 minutes to do your chores, or whatever works for you. Set limits for meal breaks so you don't linger way longer than necessary. This takes so much self control and is hard, I know, but it really helps!
This can go to writing as well. Set a timer for 15-30 minutes, an hour, whatever, and write. Put your phone and any distractions away and focus solely on putting words on paper (or rather, computer screen). These are called writing sprints, where you have a "sprint" and never let your fingers stop typing until that timer goes off. Once it does, take a break, do something else, then later you can come back and write some more. This can help if you're having a hard time focusing or writing for a long period of time. I haven't actually tried this, but I want to!
Set a specific time of day to write. Maybe in the mornings before you have breakfast, in the evenings after you finish your schoolwork, or whatever time you are the most free and creative. Doing this helps train your brain, and eventually your brain will know that this time is "writing time." Also I've heard people say that if they put writing first, everything else was a lot easier to do because they weren't stressing about needing to write.
Treat your writing like it's your job, because that's exactly what it is. It can be easy to view it as a hobby and therefore not as important as other things, but that's not true. If you want to be an author, if you want to make money off of your books, you have to change your viewpoint to seeing it as your career, or even a side job if that's what it is for you. Making that simple switch will help you so much! Don't let your family or friends make you do something else when you're supposed to be writing because it's "not important." It is important––as a job that you have to attend to daily and as something that you love––and should be seen as such.
Take breaks! But Katie, you might say, doesn't that go against writing every day? No, because when I say write every day, I don't mean every single living day of your life. Take weekends off (or a day during the week if you work best on weekends), go on vacations, hangout with friends once a week, etc! Just like any job, if you work every minute of every day, you're going to burnout bad. If that happens, it would've been better for you to just have taken that break!
It's good to write every day and be consistent, but know that if you just can't do a day or the words just aren't coming, it's okay. I'm actually just coming out of a writing slump myself. I have only written a few times these past 2 months and I didn't have any motivation at all. But I'm starting to come out of that now, which makes me so happy! Don't stress if you miss a day, a week, or even a month! Like I said I just missed two months, but I'm getting back to it.
Things happen, life occurs, and motivation drops. As long as you keep at it and know when to give yourself some grace, you'll do great.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future blog posts, let me know in the comments or shoot me a message! I'd love to hear from you.
–– Katie Marie