Missed the first posts in this series? Check them out here.
#3 Write Daily
With the exception of Sundays and the very occasional day off, I blog every single day. This might seem exhausting to some people, but honestly, I’ve found that I’m much more inspired and creative when I’m regularly exercising my writing muscles.
In fact, it seems the more I write, the more inspiration I have to write. When I was in the middle of writing my book, I felt like my brain was going to explode with all the post ideas coming to me everywhere I turned.. There wasn’t time enough to write half of them, so I just had to tuck them away for later.
Truly, creativity breeds creativity. If you want to blog regularly, don’t wait until you’re feeling inspired to write… just write!
Schedule a Daily Writing Time
Set a daily scheduled writing time, put it on your calendar, and train yourself to keep that commitment like your life depends upon it. Soon, it may become such a habit that you would be able to imagine going through your day!
Eliminate Distractions
When you sit down to write, you’ve got to focus on the task at hand. This is not the time to be checking social media, answering emails, or surfing the internet.
I’ve found that I work best when I shut down email and all other online distractions, set the timer for 15 or 20 minutes, and just dive in and write until it goes off. I’m amazed at how much I can get done when I just shut everything down and work in concentrated chunks. {Since I usually write in the early mornings, I can usually accomplish this without worrying little people walking in and needing their mama right then. :)}
Create Conducive Conditions
What are your ideal writing conditions? If you don’t know, now’s the best time to find out — especially because you’ll want to schedule your writing time when you’re going to be at peak performance.
Some questions to ask yourself/things to experiment with:
- Where do you do your best writing? Try writing in different rooms in your home and in different work spaces. I don’t write well sitting at a desk, so I have a big comfy writing chair in my office that most all of my posts are composed from.
- When do you do your best writing? I am usually freshest first thing in the morning,
- Do you write best with a pen and paper or do your ideas flow best when you’re typing on your computer? I do some of both — I usually outline my posts with pen & paper (more on that in a later post) and then type up the complete post on my laptop.
- Does music enhance or detract from your creativity? For me, most of the time it detracts. But I know that certain kinds of music really gets some people’s creative juices flowing.
- Do certain actions fuel your inspiration? I find that washing dishes, showering, and exercising are often times when I get great writing inspiration and ideas. I often exercise right before my writing time — it seems that getting my heart rate up really gets my brain cells firing, too!
You can’t always hit our ideal conditions every day, but put forth effort to do everything you can to make your environment as conducive for great writing can go a long way in making your writing time more productive.
Stacie D Wyatt says
great post. i need to try writing daily.
Nicki says
A NYT best selling Christian author I interviewed recently gave me a great tip. She said to bring a notebook with you everywhere you go. Plus have a notebook in all the key places that you hang out – your office, bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. That way when the inspiration hits, you can grab a designated book and get to writing. I haven’t exactly put it into practice yet, but she’s written 12 books in three years….I think she’s on to something. 🙂
Jo Lynn says
I definitely try to write daily but it doesn’t always happen. I do all my writing at night right now as I hold my son as he’s sleeping and finishing his gtube feeds. It’s definitely not ideal writing conditions but its working. I do find that some of my better writing comes from when I write even when I don’t feel like it. My ideal writing conditions would be an evening to myself to write after a good nap 🙂
Luba says
Yes, in order to be good at something, a person needs to keep doing it. It applies to writing and so many other areas of life. 🙂
Victoria says
I do a lot of what you do. I write mostly mornings. I write in a comfy chair with either a lapdesk on my lap or I place the laptop on a portable laptop table. I outline about half my posts on paper first. I get a lot of ideas on my runs and bike rides, and use the note section on my cell phone or iPod to jot down the idea quick so I don’t forget it by the time I sit down to write. I don’t like music going at all…I actually hate noise so much that on Saturdays when I write in our bedroom while the hubby keeps charge of the house I wear noise reduction ear protection like you see people using at construction sites. One of my greatest writing inspirations as of late has been our camping trips. I take a lot of hikes, bike rides and runs around the campground alone and with my family and suddenly I will look at something and have a thought. So I snap a picture, make a note and when we get home I write up the post.
MK says
I needed this kick in the pants! Haven’t found my writing groove since the baby was born…but with seven months under my belt, I need to make scheduled writing time a priority again.
Also, for anybody trying to write more at a time, I read this the other day and got a lot out of it: http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html
It’s long, but it was definitely worth the time!
Missy says
I normal were in the morning and figure out what I’m going blog about for the day. I also research some information on gardening for my Facebook page. I normal plan 45 minutes but sometimes it takes a hour. I do better writing with pen and papper frist but dont normal. Im going to have to try it again.
You can visit me at https://m.facebook.com/#!/PaGardeners or check out my blog at http://missy-lifeofaworkingmom.blogspot.com
Yvonne Reynolds says
Since the beginning of this year, I have been blogging on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Monday, I blog about Compassion. On Wednesday, I do a recap of a week of photos since I am following along with the Capture Your 365 photo challenge this year. On Friday, I blog about various things. This schedule seems to be working well for me right now. I have also been doing a guest post on the Compassion blog once a month that has been fun to write!
I find it easiest to write without a lot of distractions. Usually mid-morning while my daughter is busy with school or other things. Right now during the summer, I make sure a have a big glass of iced water or iced coffee nearby. Also, I have been using Evernote to keep ideas for blog posts handy when an idea comes to mind.
angi says
I try to write 5 days a week. Sometimes it’s blog posts but I’m also trying to write one guest post a week and I’m working on an ebook series. I agree that the more you write the more you think like a writer. But there needs to be a balance of writing and living. I once heard the author of the Hank the Cowdog series say that he writes each weekday morning until noon, whether he feels like it or not. If he’s on a roll, he still stops at noon. I thinks he’s acheived a really good balance for him.
By the way, I’m really liking this series.
Darlene with BlogBoldly says
Angi..
“Hank the Cowdog” still cracks me up to this day!!
darlene 🙂
Kate says
I wish I could write meaningful posts everyday, but I do struggle with thinking of ideas. I am a scheduled person, so I don’t have as many spontaneous things to write about. It is one of the reasons I can’t wait until we have kids, so that I can use my blog to document all the things I want to remember.
Jamie Rohrbaugh says
I do write every day, but mostly out of necessity rather than desire. I try to knock out some blog posts in advance on Saturday, but usually most of my Saturday blogging time is taken up with technical changes, etc. I suppose the daily writing is good, though!
And my ideal conditions: alone; early in the morning; in the quiet; and kicking the cat out of my office so he doesn’t stand broadside in front of my computer screen, singing the song of his people.
Darlene with BlogBoldly says
Well, now that I think about it.. I write most every day but not for blog posts necessarily.
I have scheduled blocks of time several days a week for guest posts and my books.
You are definitely right about the more you write, the more creative you become.
I read once (I think it was Brendon Burchard) that if we’ll give away our best stuff, we’ll create even more. I used to notice this when completing a guest post. It was SO darn good I hated to give it away! haha.. but then I noticed the more I wrote, the better I got. So it became okay to give it away my best stuff as there was more to come.
darlene 🙂