Getting Back In The Habit
Sometimes, life gets in the way, and no matter how good your intentions are, you find that you’re just not writing anymore. Maybe you haven’t stopped completely, but you’ve broken the habit. And for some reason it can be a nightmare trying to re-establish it.
It’s not necessarily all that hard to pick up a pen or open an empty document and just jot down a scene, although it can be; it’s doing it regularly that’s really tough. Getting back to that point where whenever you have a few minutes to spare, your first thought is that you should be writing – that can be a real challenge.
Writing every day used to be easy for me, but it’s been over a year since I let this habit slide, and I’m still struggling to get it back. But there are three things that I’m finding really helpful.
Routine
This doesn’t work for everyone, but for me, habits rely on routine. Whether it’s grabbing your notebook the moment you wake up or turning on the computer as soon as you get in, doing something the same way every day helps me enormously – after a while, I find it’s almost automatic. Eventually it gets to the point where it just doesn’t feel right to miss a writing session.
Daily Goals
One of the things that’s making it difficult for me to get back into a habit is the fact that I’m currently in the editing stages. If I was on a first draft, I’d be able to set myself a word count goal for every day – whether that be 100 or 1000, it would be consistent. Because I’m editing, though, I find that I have to decide my goals on a daily basis, so at the end of an editing session I decide what I want to achieve the next day – for example, to figure out how to fix that broken subplot, or to rewrite a particular scene. Sometimes it helps to bribe myself with wine or chocolate too…
Support
The single biggest factor in getting me back into my writing, though, has been the support and encouragement from my writing friends. The latest Nomads meeting got me feeling like a writer again for the first time in ages. If you’re struggling, spend some time with other writers you know and trust. Even if it’s just online, it helps. And if you can get them to check in with you regularly and ask how you’re getting on, all the better – nobody likes having to admit they haven’t done what they said they’d do!
Sometimes you have to put your writing aside for a while, but the longer you leave it, the harder it will be to get back in the saddle. If you’ve been letting it slide recently, that’s okay – but why not make today the day you do something about it?
Great post. I’m totally with you on the daily goal setting, I find having a target to hit each day really helps me keep focused. And I love your ‘note from Your Writing’ – fabulous!
Reply by @flickimp Imran Siddiq
I used to set myself a goal of 2k per day… then it dwindled to 1.5k…. Now, I just try to get at least 6k for the week.
Of course things do get in the way, and then I go full-steam astro on the weekend.
My motto: One word a day is better than none.
Definitely. One word is better than none. More are even better
I struggle with discipline at the best of times! I recently had a couple of months away from writing due to a family emergency, but I found that I craved getting back into it! Still didn’t help me with my discipline, but I really wanted to write, even when I wasn’t bothering… :0)
Tony
Reply by @flickimp Imran Siddiq
During 2008-2009, I used to have (like) four months off from writing…and sometimes when I restarted, I only put aside one day a week. Those were bad times.
If I know I’m going to have a break, I ensure I have lots of reading to do. Keeping up with your genre is a great learning exercise for when you do return to that keyboard. Yes – I mean ‘that’ keyboard. “Get Writing!!!”
Tony James Slater struggling with discipline!!! – NO WAY!! I won’t have that said
It was said…
For me the support is crucial – just talking to other writers about writing is enough to make me want to do it.
Above all else, it is that human contact (real or via a mac/pc), that helps me maintain focus during what is largely a solitary pursuit.
Great Blog Davina
Perhaps we delay our writing because we are taught that it’s somehow ‘not important’, that we are ‘spending time on ourselves’ instead of putting our energies into other people and housework and other chores? I know I *still*, despite critical success, have to give myself a kind of permission to sit and write. But I’m learning, writing is my other job, and deserves time to be dedicated to it, not to be put off in favour of laundry and dog-walking!
But blogs like this make me realise that everyone has the same problems – which, strangely, helps!
There can always be that dangerous slide when we delay writing. I know some that have had years off, and I still cringe at the one year break I had.
(cringe cringe)
So glad that this post has helped you to believe more.
I agree it is great to hear people are in the same situation.
Jane I can’t believe after your success you still have to ‘give yourself permission to write’. It definitely deserves to have time dedicated to it, so I can have more books to read!
I’m going through an epic dry spell at the moment, and have just resolved to write a detailed plan to try and rescue my current WIP, and if that doesn’t help then I shall move on to the next. Without the support of fellow writers I think I would have given up a long time ago.