Welcome to 2021

Here we are in 2021. How many of you doubted we'd ever see the back of 2020, yet here we are, with panting breath, waiting for whatever 2021 throws at us. 

Because we are all feeling the New Year fibes, all starting over shiny as new pennies.  I thought I’d talk a bit about finding time to write. 

Tim Mossholder@timmossholder

I know that we've talked about this before, but if you're still working like myself, its very easy to make those too tired excuses, and those disparaging head voices, somehow make sense. 

There are five rules to creating good writing habits, and as we all know, rules are meant to be broken, and everyone has their own way of doing things, that’s ok, but for those who need a starting point the following can be helpful.


Set aside time each day to write. We’re not talking about writing a whole saga in one sitting here, but breaking that novel up into bit size pieces. Whether you write 50, 500, or 5000 words in a sitting you still need to find the time to do so.

1.  The best way to do this will depend on your own individual day’s structure. There are two ways to approaching the timing schedule. These are either by word count or physical time, whichever you choose, you need to be consistent.

If you choose word count then obviously you can steal small junkets of time throughout your day to scribble a few words until you reach your daily goal. 

The downside with this is you may find it hard to keep up the flow of your story. To alleviate this you could record your story into your phone and then download to your laptop etc.,

Or you could just bite the bullet and steal, beg or borrow an hour or two of your day totally for yourself to write. 

Once you’ve established the best time of day to abscond from reality, then you need to make it a habit, same time, not necessarily same, place, each day. There is a theory that whatever you do for 28 days becomes a habit. Start now make your time for writing a habit, you will see instant benefits.

2.  Minimise the distractions around you before you write. There’s no point trying to get your thoughts in order when next door is mowing the lawn, the kids are running amok, and the dog is sitting next to you with his lead in his mouth, and the cat is laying across your keyboard.

Remember this time allocation is totally for you. Close the windows, flick on the air con. Wait until the kids are in bed or at school. The dog and cat, throw them a well earned biscuit, because they’ll probably end up being your writing muse anyway.

Edger Castrejon@edgarraw

Put up a Do Not Disturb sign on the door to your office, load yourself up with snacks and goodies, coffee or tea, and off you go. 

Put on some quiet music, and start typing away. Remember same time, same place every day.

3.  Turn off your inner editor. You can edit later, this is the time to stop being a perfectionist.

You’ve come so far. You’ve made the pact with yourself to write every day, you have a time and place to do so, don’t stumble now. Inner editing can ruin the whole game plan. Editing while writing is just procrastination, it’s your Ego mind putting in barriers to your intentions.

 

You may already have a plot, and characters, decided on tense, and who’s telling the story. None of that is worth a snap if you can’t get the words to flow onto the page. 

Set a writing intension. Say “I’m going to write 500 words or more per day for seven days, NO re-reading, and NO editing.”

At the end of your seven days re-read, do NOT edit. 

Then start again for another seven days. 

If you start editing too early, you enable Peter Perfect to slip his leash, and then you’ll spend your allotted writing time changing a word here and a word there. 

Your progress will come to a great screaming halt. Leave the editing to the very end. That’s what editing is for cleaning and tiding up.

Estee Janssens@esteejanssens

If you have an epiphany, and think the girl’s voice should be in 1st
person, just start doing it, then you’ll have a comparison between the two at editing time. Don’t go back and make changes, remember your goal, getting the words on the page.

Do what works best for you. We’re all individuals; some of us even sleep at night. 

Most importantly make an intention to write every day, and make it a habit, you’ll be surprised at the results.

Ok let's go 2021 is the year I finish my novel. What about you?