Monday Motivation - Becoming a More Productive Writer

"Secrets" to Becoming a More Productive Writer

What is the secret to becoming a more productive writer? (Tweet this.) 

1) Make it a priority to make time for writing.

2) Write.

Let me restate that: Find what works best for you and show up for your writing appointment. Write.

Not much of a secret, you say? No, but it’s what you have to experience on your own.

As I’ve taken time, especially this year, to find out what is keeping me from becoming more productive, I’ve learned some things about myself. In all my years of family life, caring for my husband, children and parents, I set writing time on a pedestal as some unattainable, ethereal reward from another realm. It became something I didn’t deserve to do, because I had to get everything else. Done. First. I felt somehow if I didn’t I was being selfish.

Yet every time I heard a sermon on the Parable of the Talents, where the frightened servant buries the money given to him, I would wonder if that’s what I was doing with my writing. God gave me a desire, a love for stories and words, which I put on hold, and sometimes rightly so, but sometimes out of fear. I feared not writing something perfect, not being good enough. I feared what others thought.

There are times and seasons, but there are also moments we can seize—times when husbands can watch children for a couple of hours on a weekend, when we could leave early for work and write for a half hour at a coffee shop on the way to work. If you’re a homeschooling mom, as I was, what about taking a half hour at lunchtime while the kids read on their own or watch an educational video to do some writing or just some brainstorming on your own? If this is what God has given you to do, it’s all right to give yourself permission to take the time and enjoy it.

I had to learn to give myself permission to enjoy my writing, whether it was good or bad. I am still working and struggling through this, not allowing my perfectionism to slow me down or keep me from sitting down and writing. But one thing I have learned over these last few weeks of purposefully making new goals and attempting to follow through, I am making better progress, because I am planning for it. I’m not waiting for it to happen. Some. Day.

Last week, I decided to take the challenge my friend gave me not to check email

or social media before I reached my word count. I started the week with a 1,000 per day word goal and ended with a 500 a day word goal. I lost my resolve and started checking email when I thought it was important or at least after 500 words. Sigh.

However, I made it to 3500+ words last week. Yay! This week, I will have some research, editing and rewriting to do, but I am hoping to at least reach this word count. I will be happy to reach between 500 and 1000 new words each day, so we’ll see.

My advice to you: Start small with a goal you can attain. (Tweet this.) Can you put aside two hours this week to do research for a story you’re writing? Can you make a goal to write 500 words each day? 250 words? Can you set aside five days to do some writing? Three days? One day? It’s okay, no matter how big or how small, make it a goal you will strive for and achieve. Then show up, write and rejoice in the progress you are making!

What are you working on that you would like to make progress on this week? What are your goals? Please share!

Writing Prompt:  Sunshine on a cold winter’s day makes me feel . . .

Monday Motivation - Productivity and Personality

Productivity and the Personality . . . Disordered 

Recently I asked the Lord to show me why I struggle so much with procrastination when it comes to my fiction writing. I sit at the laptop and stare at the blank page. It’s all up in my brain, but I have a hard time getting it transferred through my fingertips. I can even relate to this in other areas of my life. Is there some kind of fear of failure torturing me? What is it? I mean, I love words, the process of creating a story and especially when I get in the zone, writing itself.

Last week, I watched a video talk given by author Susan May Warren from My Book Therapy on becoming an author and one of the subjects she addressed was the different ways the four basic personality types (sanguine, choleric, melancholy and phlegmatic) and how they affect writing productivity. I happen to be melancholy/phlegmatic. Melancholies, she said, tend to overanalyze while they’re writing, which slows them down. That’s how I am! Just throw in a little perfectionism to make the process more agonizing. As far as being phlegmatic, Susan mentioned that they don’t like putting their characters in difficult circumstances. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I do better with internal than external conflict. This makes for a difficult combination.

Understanding these things about myself, helps me bring order to the disorder of my writing habit. Since I am overanalyzing my writing before I even start, I need to find strategies to deal with it. Instead of feeling like I am looking over a dangerous cliff and unsure how I’m going to cross the chasm from the starting point to done, I need to build a bridge. I’ve been reading about writing productivity and trying to find what works for me. One tip I’ve found is writing a summary of what I will be writing that day. I don’t have to outline every little point, but at least I have a rough sketch to help me get started.

The important thing to remember is not comparing myself to the authors who write 10,000 words a day, but what works with my personality to help me become more productive. What is your personality type? What helps you become more productive?

Writing prompt for this Monday: The house on  . . .

Finish this sentence any way you like and continue writing for one to two paragraphs. Have fun with it!