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Writing Habits: Borrow Good Habits from Yourself

Published on by Kristi Holl

Writing habits can make or break your writing career.

With NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow, I’ve been getting organized and ready. But I know from past experience that all the organizing in the world won’t do any good without the writing habits to back it up.

Did you ever wish you could magically transfer some good habits from one area of your life and apply them to your writing? You probably can!

“But I don’t have self-discipline in anything!” you might say. You may feel that way, but it’s probably not true. Don’t believe me? Think about something you’re especially good at. (Can be anything: running races, keeping a clean house, raising children who like vegetables, keeping your weight stable through the holidays…anything.) Next, write down five or six habits you practice regularly that make you successful in this area.

Analyze Your Best Habits

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Well, I was a good student” or “I learned to play the piano,” but you’re not sure what habits made you successful. If that’s the case, pretend that someone approached you and said, “I’d love to be as self-disciplined as you are with your (fitness, music, housekeeping, whatever). Tell me how you do it!”

Then make a list of what you’d tell them to do. Which of those habits can you transfer over to your writing life and make them work for you?

The habits that help you lose weight or be fit or run a business might include:

  • having a support system
  • keeping a written record (of food eaten, miles run, income/expenses)
  • setting small, sustainable goals
  • rewarding yourself for meeting small goals
  • journaling through successes and failures
  • monitoring self-talk to counter-act negative thoughts and beliefs

Borrow Those Habits for Your Writing Habits

The next time you can’t seem to make yourself write or blog or do market research (or whatever is on your “to do” list for the writing day), think about areas where you are successful. Borrow those habits–they’re habits you already have under your belt in one area–and simply apply them to your writing.

Does having a support group help you lose weight? Then maybe a support/critique group would help you be accountable for your writing. Does keeping written records help you balance your budget? Then maybe keeping records of pages or words written and marketing progress would help your writing. Did setting small daily goals with a reward at the end help you get your closets and garage clean? Then would setting small daily goals with rewards help you get your book written?

Whichever habits work for you and your personality would probably transfer well into good writing habits. For me, I don’t need the accountability of a group. I’m a good self-starter and a hard worker. But I’m also that proverbial donkey with a carrot. I get going much quicker and work with more enthusiasm when I have a reward at the end of the task!

Writing Habits: Build on Your Past Successes

Good habits free up our time and attention so we can focus on more important things than overcoming procrastination. Chances are very good that you have had success in at least one or two other areas of your life. Take time to analyze those habits that work for your particular personality–and try applying them to your writing life.

I intend to make a list today and post it on my computer. I intend to use every trick I know to write through National Novel Writing Month!

Focus: Are You Centered Or Are You Fragmented?

Published on by Kristi Holl

Any writing day can feel overwhelming if you’re trying to juggle several projects. Right now, I’m proofing a book due next week, finishing one not due for a while, and plotting a novel to get ready for NaNoWriMo. I blog and Twitter and do Facebook. I have a novel critique to do. EEEEEEEEEEEK!

Bouncing Off the Office Walls

My own writer’s personality prefers working on one project at a time. I like to fully immerse myself in the characters and plot, writing and rewriting, rethinking and editing, polishing and submitting. In the early years, before it was my career, I could do it that way. Everything was written and submitted “on spec,” and no one was waiting for my prose, so I could take my time–and do one thing at a time.

Just thinking about what needed to be done today put my brain in a cramp. I could almost feel the neurons short-circuit.

Is It Possible to Focus?

First, today and every day, I need to accept the fact that (except for the critique), none of the other things will get finished today. I need to make my “to do” list reflect this, and yet move each project closer to completion. (I’ve tried just working on one thing at a time before, but I found I lost mental contact with my fiction characters and had to keep starting over. Working on the books daily helps me “remember” who everyone is and what comes next.)

I’ve discovered that if I make a “to do” list that says I will write for one hour on each project that needs to be moved along, then I will do that. I set my kitchen timer for one hour, get my project papers out and ready to go, put on blinders, start the timer, and then focus on that one project for an hour.

I don’t get up during that time or think about any of the other projects (which are out of sight–very important). I work on the computer that will NOT connect to the Internet, so there is no temptation to check email. I let my answering machine take calls. [NOTE: This is me on a good day like today. The “yesterday” me made the mistake of getting online early in the morning, and it was downhill from there! Will I never learn?]

Just One Hour?

Can you get much accomplished in an hour? An amazing amount! In fact, I am constantly surprised how much just fifteen minutes of concentrated writing time can produce. At the end of a writing day where I’ve focused one hour on each project, they all have moved along significantly toward the finish line.

Do I like writing this way? Not really. But there’s one big plus: I’ve discovered that I can write many more hours in a day when I change projects–six or eight hours, as long as I stretch frequently. Writing on the same novel, I am fairly burned out in three of four hours of writing (four hours total, usually a couple of two-hour sessions.) So productivity is higher when I have to work on multiple projects with multiple deadlines.

Maybe–in the end–I’ll enjoy working this way for that very reason. In the meantime, it’s a good way to get the work done.

Just curious… What is your own preferred way to write? One project at a time? Multiple projects?

Focus: Avoid Split-Brain Writing

Published on by Kristi Holl

Over the weekend I spoke with a writer dealing with some worries that are daily robbing her of her hours of creative time. It reminded me of an earlier post on Fighting to Focus.

Where’s Your Focus?

From studies I’ve read, when you’re going through a crisis (yours or someone else’s), there is a single-minded focus that will help you regain your peace. And there’s a (more common) split focus that won’t help you at all. In all likelihood, it will make it worse. If your goal is to keep hold of your creative hours when problems hit, then staying calm is paramount.

Studies were done on people facing severe problems ranging from the terminal illness of a child to divorce (yours or someone else’s). The people under strain who re-gained and maintained their peace and continued to be productive did one thing very differently from those who fought desperately to be peaceful, but failed. This is a truth that can also apply to even the simplest worrisome problems you’re facing–worries that are stealing your writing time.

A Healthy Single Focus

The people who regained their peace and rode out the storm were those who had one focus: regaining their peace of mind. Once they did that, they were able to offer comfort and aid, but without worrying about the outcome of their help. And they could then focus on their own work.

A Split Focus

The people who continued to worry and obsess and eventually get sick had a split focus: they tried to regain their calm mind too, but they also tried to control some aspect of the outcome. They were trying to control another person or an event that was beyond their control. There is nothing quite so crazy-making as trying to control something outside your control.

Regaining Your Focus

The quickest way to stop worrying is to give up trying to control something you have no control over. Instead, pour all that wasted energy into regaining a calm mind. I use a variety of things: prayer, surrender, running, a bike ride, meditation, talking to a trusted friend, and watching uplifting movies. Find what combination works for you, and make that your single focus.

Get calm. Give your aid, if it’s healthy to do so. Then get on with your life.

If you’re consistent with this, you’ll find your emotions coming down out of the rafters and settling in nicely. And then you heave a sigh of relief, rest a moment or two, and head to your writing room.

Creativity awaits!

Writing Habits: Routines–or Ruts?

Published on by Kristi Holl

I love routines! It streamlines the daily business of life and lets me get more done. I have some habits (like how I brush teeth or do dishes) that haven’t changed in years–maybe decades. They work efficiently.

Writers have habits too, and I think that’s a good thing. It streamlines daily chores like email, website updating, reading professional journals and blogs, and other writing-related chores.

BUT…routines can become ruts without anyone noticing.

Habits: A Slippery Slope

You may suspect your routines have become ruts if you are more bored than inspired when you sit down to write. When all your writing has the same tired voice, when you continually repeat subjects and themes–it may be a sign that your writing routines have become ruts.

So how do you break out of ruts? Try making changes in some of these areas:

  • Writing area: choose another place to write, change the furniture around in your office, move your desk to the window, clean up the clutter, make a traveling writer’s bag for the airplane or car
  • Time: even if you’re a morning person, try writing during the lunch hour or in ten-minute segments every hour on the hour; try a Saturday morning
  • Length of session: experiment with writing daily for short periods, writing daily for longer periods, writing just on the weekend
  • Tools of your trade: experiment with writing longhand, writing on a laptop, using online journals, Internet vs. library research
  • Sound: if you’re used to writing in total silence, try background music you love or a white noise machine (mine makes raindrops and ocean wave sounds)
  • People: if you always write alone, try writing with a group or joining a critique group (in person or online)
  • Body position: try writing at your desk, standing up, lying in bed or a lounge chair, curled up in the porch swing

Mix It Up

If you’ve lost some enthusiasm for your writing, it may be nothing more than you’ve allowed your routines to become boring ruts. Try mixing it up a bit. Choose another time, place, and position to write. Change your environment with new sounds or new people. See what that does to your creativity.

What about you? What writing habits will you always keep–and where do you like to make changes? Let’s share ideas!

Writers: Curators of Contentment

Published on by Kristi Holl

Today I want to share something with you that I read about dreams.

“Only dreams give birth to change,” the meditation for writers said. “Gradually, as you become curator of your own contentment, you will learn to embrace the gentle yearnings of your heart.”

Guardian of Writing Dreams

What longings about your writing life do you have tucked away somewhere? I think we all have them. Some get tucked away until that fictional future of “when I have more time.” Others are hidden because we don’t believe that we have the skill or ability to produce the kind of writing we hold dear.

“There are years that ask questions,” said Zora Neale Hurston, “and years that answer.” Right now, with the publishing industry changing so much (in both good and challenging ways) some of your writing dreams may be on hold. But this time shall pass. We are growing and adapting as writers. So don’t let “dreams on hold” become “dreams forgotten.”

Sowing Until You Reap

Don’t stop dreaming. Continue to sow the seeds of your dreams. Water them daily. Be the curator of your writing contentment. Your dreams need guarding and protecting, and you’re the only one who can do that.

Take a moment today and write down your most private writing aspirations. Name two things you can do to protect those dreams. Today, do at least one of them!

Writing Through Interruptions

Published on by Kristi Holl

In my book Writer’s First Aid, I talk a lot about dealing with interruptions and distractions because I began writing when I had a newborn (ten days old), a todder (two) and a preschooler. If I couldn’t write through interruptions, I couldn’t write at all most days.

People protest all the time that they can’t write with continual interruptions, and I never had much of a response beyond “just do it!” I knew it was possible if they’d really try it. Then recently I heard about someone who’d led a workshop dealing with this very thing–and she taught the participants a valuable lesson.

Start! Stop! Start Again!

The speaker was ostensibly talking about “carving out time to write.” She suddenly stopped and said, “You may choose to write on your current project or a new one, but decide on something, even if it is just an account of your day. Pick up your pencil and paper and write when I say go.”

She timed the group of writers for three minutes and said, “Put your pencils down” and continued her talk for several minutes. She then repeated the interruption and her instructions. They wrote for three more minutes. The speaker interrupted her talk four different times during the hour and had them write.

At the end of her workshop the participants compared notes. They had all written at least one page, many had more, despite being interrupted four times in only twelve minutes of actual writing! Each time they’d been able go back and pick up a thought and continue. The speaker ended with, “You can revise bad writing, but you cannot revise a blank page. Give yourself permission to write junk, then fix it.”

Change Your Mind

I know this sounds awfully simple, but I encourage you to change your mind about being able to write despite interruptions. So few of us live on a deserted island. Most writers–probably 90% or more–have to deal with distractions and interruptions.

If you need to prove to yourself that you can get back to your writing after an interruption, try that workshop experiment. Either try it alone or with your writing group. See what happens.

It just may turn out that you’ve been believing a lie all this time. Writing may not be as enjoyable when you’re interrupted, but it can be done.

Dismount!

Published on by Kristi Holl

My good writing friend, Sherryl, and I were Skyping about a seriously time-consuming writing project we’d like to take on together. Since we both spend our lives constantly trying to squeeze out five more spare minutes, we realized that something in our schedules would have to give.

“Where’s the dead wood in your life?” we asked each other. “What can be cut?”

Take a Closer Look

I thought about it a lot last night and couldn’t come up with much of anything. I have a couple of writing jobs, I hold offices in a couple organizations, and I lead a couple of church groups. Some are new responsibilities this year, and some I’ve helped with for years. I was clueless about what to cut.

Then I heard someone on the radio this morning say:

“If the horse has been dead ten years, it’s time to dismount.”

Put It Out to Pasture

I made a list of my paid and unpaid jobs then. Which lifeless “horse” was I still trying to make gallop? Which job or position that once was fun and satisfying and productive was now just an unproductive time drain? Which things had run their course? Where should I “dismount”?

Some of our time drains are just habits we’ve had for years. Or they’re community or school obligations we took on, and somehow we feel they’re life-time commitments.

Take a close look at your stable of horses. I hope this month to dismount a couple of dead horses so that I have time to ride a new one!

Follow-Up

This is a re-posted blog–and here’s the follow-up.  I did resign from two of my long-term volunteer activities. In both cases, people who were on the sidelines stepped forward to take the positions. I stopped doing free book critiques too.

The changes took nearly a year, but I now have five hours per day to work on my writing, compared to the one hour I had when I first wrote this blog post. It was hard saying “I can’t” and “no, thanks” many, many times. But I love the outcome! I love looking forward to my work days now. Our lives are all different, but I bet you could get rid of some dead horses too.

Can you name ONE that could be eliminated from your over-crowded life?