[Stylist] organizing

[Jim Homme]

Hi,
This may sound silly or simplistic. As you are going about your day, do two things. Ask yourself when you can find an hour to do writing activities, and ask yourself what you do now during your day. Then ask how valuable the things you are doing are compared to writing. Then ask which thing you do you can replace with writing activities. 


You have just found possibly the hour every day you can do writing stuff, rather than unimportant stuff. 

Another thing to think about. If you do not think you have the time to do writing stuff the same time every day, maybe you can pair it with something else you always do. For example, for me, this is not doing writing for my blog, but it clears my head. I do free writing right after I do my daily Bible reading in the morning. I do not always get up at the same time every day, but I know that at least five days a week I will sit down and make my fingers fly for ten minutes about whatever. 

I am still getting the hang of getting organized with my blog, as you know by my post asking everyone about organizing. To help with that, I bought 8 and one half Steps To Writing Faster, Better from ThePublicationCoach.com. I’m just now making myself follow the instructions in that book. The book is for non-fiction writers of books and articles, but maybe it would apply to fiction, too. I feel unqualified to tell you this. I recognize that if I don’t have structure, it will not happen.

Finally, be gentle with yourself, but firm. If you want to do this, you will. If you think an hour is too much, scale it back to ten minutes. Make it easy. Then when you are doing this almost every day, and it feels comfortable, make it fifteen minutes. Do not force yourself to quit after ten minutes if you are on a roll on one of your writing days. 

Ans while I’m at it, this writing thing is a walk, not a sprint. You will get there if you keep walking. If you don’t write for a very long time, then kill yourself by writing all day, you will burn out. Just like physical exercise, you should keep at it a little for most days. You should, I think, take one or two days a week off so writing doesn’t get to be a chore. When you do that, you will miss it and want to get back to it, kind of like spending time away from a person you like to spend time with. 

You can do this, and we are here for you.

Jim

On May 10, 2020, at 11:52 AM, ang345x--- via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:


How does one find an hour to write  organizing time any suggestions?
 
From the desk of
Angela Perone
 
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