Just Do It

In the continuation of Friday's series, "How Do You Write Novels?"...  

# 2.      Make a plan and stick to it. No excuses.

For me, it’s four thousand words a day, or three chapters a week (my recent chapters are around 8,000 words, and I take one day off from the novels every week). I understand that for a lot of people that seems like a huge number, but even five hundred words a day would be better than nothing. Writers write. Every single day, we write. Even if all you write is a blog post, an email to a friend, or a birthday card, write something every day.

This is where a lot of writers get confused. The point isn’t to write in your novels or short stories every day: it’s just to write. This blog post is counting toward my word total for today.

A lot of people don’t want to think this way, because it means that they actually do have time to write every day. The truth is, everyone has some time to spend on writing, each and every day. It’s just a matter of priorities.

The only thing I don’t count is text messages, because I text my best friend so frequently that if I counted those, I’d never get any real writing done.

As soon as you’ve mastered writing five hundred words a day, bump up your goal by fifty words. Doing this every so often will make it much easier for you to keep writing, to write consistently, and to recall what you’ve written in the past so you don’t have to keep going back to check before you get going again. 

In case you didn't want to read all of that, here are three simple points to keep in mind: 

1.      Just write.

2.      Keep track of your work.

3.      Challenge yourself.  

Thanks for reading!

 Keep an eye out for Monday's post, "Why Writers Love Lists", Wednesday's exercise in character development, and next Friday's continuation on how to write novels.

{Rani Amber}