Writing just seven hundred and fifty words wasn't my own idea of how much to write per session. The concept came from a website called 750 words dot com, which provided a blank page and word counter. You could write more than 750 words but are not encouraged to write less. While the website gave me a great start, I continued writing in Microsoft Word. As I became serious about writing, I discovered Scrivener two years after writing three novels. Even with all the various software options writers have at their disposal, the point is to write something.
I had limited time to write when I first started. I was busy working as an attorney, caring for my elderly mother, and raising three special needs kids. I'm not trying to sound as if you have no excuses not to write. On the contrary, I'm trying to encourage you to steal moments in time to devote to that essay, short story, or great American novel. Writing doesn't have to be done linearly. By that I mean, sitting and writing for three hours in an ordered timeline within your story.
Do you know that advice that says to write every single day for the rest of your writing life? Sometimes, writing every single day means taking a scene out of my head by keeping a note on OneNote or Keep, sending myself an email of a scene that was sparked by a picture, or jotting down a note in a dedicated section of my planner, which conveniently gets lost in the volume of other ideas. Writing can be watching a TV series while I mine a nugget of an idea. Oftentimes, my writing hiccup is solved by going for a walk and then dictating a note to myself when the "aha" moment appears.
If you consistently think about writing, even if you're not writing 750 words, you're writing. You're a writer. I had to come to declare that mantra to myself many times. Last year, I needed surgery. My blood pressure took a while to get back to normal. I was in bed for three out of the six weeks of recovery time. At that time, I watched Romantic Comedies. RomComs saved my life. I would journal my thoughts about my own writing, trying to get through a bout of writing paralysis which is different than writer's block, in my opinion. I knew what to write, I just couldn't make myself write it.
I forced myself to journal daily, at least one full page, front to back, of why I couldn't make myself write and what would I write if I could. And I wasn't lacking in stories. For each RomCom I watched, I could easily craft three retellings in various locations. I even decided to mashup two RomComs and highlight the trope. When I knew what I wanted to write, I scheduled myself to begin writing again.
A contract made within you is key to getting started. You take a paper calendar or a planner or a digital calendar with alerts, and you declare a day to start writing. Then you calculate how much you plan to write for how many days. Writing takes a bit of math.
In my case, I wanted to write a 75,000-word book. I planned to write for thirty days during Camp NaNoWriMo. Every single day, I was required to write 2,500 words for the month of April in 2021. And I did it.
While 2,500 words a day seemed like a daunting task, I have to admit, I'm a full-time writer. Not a successful or financially secure one. I'm presently a stay-at-home mom so I have chunks of time to write. But I promise you that getting into the mindset of writing X-amount of words, sitting down to write them out, will help you write. Math helps—timers for sprinting, noting your word count per sprint, calculating your average word count per sprint sessions each day, or keeping a word count graph like NaNo offers.
Yes, life happens, making it hard to complete your task.
DO NOT beat yourself up if you cannot write anything for one or two days—or more because you're so busy with your career, family, friends, illnesses, and plain ol' "I don't wanna." You're human. Give yourself some grace. But don't give up on your writing and publication goals to share with readers. Consider Wattpad to share your work, a great community to support your writing and provide feedback. Most of all... Happy Writing!!!
YOU ARE READING
Ten Year Writer
Non-FictionI started writing in 2012 and self-published my first novel, Rebound, Boundless Series, Book 1 through eBook distributors. Over the last few years, I'd become disillusioned with writing and the publishing industry. While I used to give a lot of advi...
