Day 2 – Establish your habits

30 Days of Encouragement for NaNoWriMo (and other writers, too!)

Congratulations on beginning this project!  You’ve taken a step that, whether driven by a plan or by sudden impulse, is often the hardest for people.  You’ve started and managed to churn out a few (or a lot) of words onto the screen.

I want to encourage you very early on to establish habits and a routine for your NaNoWriMo efforts.  Decide today to schedule your writing sessions in advance.A project like this requires daily writing for most people, and if you have obligations other than writing you absolutely need to decide ahead of time when you will be able to work.

If you can’t pick a specific time, that’s ok.  Something like, “Every evening after dinner” or “Right when I wake up, after walking the dog” is ok if you know you will be able to stick to it.

As you’re getting started, you may not need the extra motivation to sit down and write – the excitement and newness of the project drives you to it with little effort.   However, when week 3 rolls around, you may find that your days have filled up with a lot of activity and you’re struggling to work in time at the desk.   Prevent that now by using tools to help you plan (Google Calendar and TeuxDeux are two of my best friends) and setting a routine you can stick with.

Wishing you good work and happy writing!

There is No “There” There.

I loved Julie’s post today over at Writing Roads about the Phases of the Writer, so please go check it out. ( I have particularly experienced 1, 3, and 5  a lot lately!) It ties in perfectly with my thoughts on cyclical creativity, and the process of writing, and with this post I wanted to write today.

Something that is hard to grasp as a writer (or any creative person) is that there isn’t a destination at which you will finally Arrive and someone will declare you Finished.  You don’t “become” an artist in the same way that you can go to school for a set amount of years and become a doctor.  You won’t master all the tips and tricks, figure out a great writing routine, and then be on autopilot for the rest of your career.   Instead, there will be highs and lows, constant learning, adjusting and readjusting. This process in ongoing, forever and ever amen.

Does that sound like it sucks?

It doesn’t.

Once you realize, I mean really, really internalize that idea, you are free.  You can look at those nights where nothing is coming, or the days when you can’t stop working, and just take them in stride rather than seeing them as a reflection of your worth as at artist. The big lesson here is that  having an unproductive day (or week) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be an artist.

This can be really hard for us to believe.  Most of us are way better at believing something negative, something that implies we are no good, than something that is redeeming and hopeful.

Have I mastered this idea yet? Certainly not, but I am way more comfortable with it than I was when I started this blog and really started looking at my own creative process.  Now when there’s a drought, I’m not completely wrecked for weeks and worried that I am washed up.  I just try to find some other ways to get inspired and wait for the rain.

Falling off the wagon with a loud thud.

The past two months have managed to suck me back into a pattern of non-productivity on the writing front. It’s official – I fell off the writing wagon.  Work got crazy,  My performance schedule got (thegoodkindof) crazy, my allgergies hijacked my body a couple of times,  and my brother is getting married at the end of the month, which is its own kind of crazy.  It’s easy for me to get so busy that one of things that keeps me the most grounded, my writing, falls to the wayside…and that’s exactly what happened, as evidenced by my complete lack of blogging.

This happens to everyone from time to time, and I think it’s important to remind yourself that it’s OK.  The best thing to do is just to start over, get back into a routine, and keep writing.  If I spent two more weeks beating myself up about NOT writing, I still wouldn’t have anything to show for it, so why not just skip that part and get back to work?

I started a yoga class this month and a pleasant but unexpected side effect has been that it clears my mind perfectly to prepare for a writing session.  I’m going to reschedule one of my weekly sessions with myself so that I can have time to write after yoga.     If you’re having trouble with your own hectic life and not having time or energy to work on your writing, I definitely recommend a yoga class or another type of exercise.  It manages to make me both relaxed and absolutely present at the same time, and that is a fantastic feeling.

What do you do when you “fall off the wagon”?  What’s the best way for you to get back in the habit?