Why Do You Write?

If you are a writer, or especially if you are in my Creative Writing class, ask yourself this:

Why do you write?

I had to really ask myself this over the weekend. While on my long drive back home from my out-of-town Easter weekend, I decided to spend my time reading some free kindle books I downloaded that all have to do with writing. I've been really lazy with my writing and haven't been as committed to it as I'd like to be, so I first read The Diving Guide to Creating A Daily Writing Practice by Pernille Norregaard. (Click the link to get the free e-book!) Surly, good ol' Pernille must have the secret to success and will show me the rainbow bridge I need to cross to be writing everyday.

How dare I think it would be so easy! Good ol' Pernille had me rushing to get out a notebook and write notes as her words whipped me into mental shape! So let me share with you some of the things I've learned. Heads up, it's gonna be a long post, but it really helped me and I'm hoping it'll help you. Everything in bold are the notes I wrote down in my bullet journal (planner), to carry around with me in case I need reminding, or have highlighted on my e-book.

MAKE TIME

So apparently there are only 24 hours in a day, and no matter how much you pray to the writing gods, they won't give you any extra time to add daily writing to your busy schedule. Dammit! Norregaard tells you like it is: you and only you can make yourself write everyday, which also means you are the only one who can make the commitment of finding time to do so. As the author puts it, "Your family, your boss, your coworkers, or your clients will not suddenly offer to help you work less or reorganize your life so you can write for a couple hours a day. You have to decide to do it."

"I don't really have time to write everyday, though."

"I'm so busy at work/school right now."

"Next week I'll have more time."

"There's so much going on in my family and the kids are sick, but when everyone is well again..."

I get it, really I do. I'm a nineteen year old, full time college student, desperately looking for a job, living with my mother (which means listening to her and doing chores now, not later), and I like to think I have a social life that really includes a few friends and of course my boyfriend. However, as it turns out, there will always be an excuse, my friends. But let me give you the secret Norregaard gave me:

Time is not something you are given. It's something you take.

That's the ugly truth. Writing and pursuing writing easily becomes a "when I have time" task. Norregaard says this is why so many "dabble" in writing. If writing is something you want to be successful at, you absolutely have to make it a priority. 

Finding time in a busy schedule to write everyday means prioritizing. Often, it means that you have to give up things you love.

Now let me be clear, I am AWFUL at time management, so prioritizing is hard enough. I'm more of a doesn't like to watch one episode every week, but more so a season per day type girl. I love running over to my boyfriend's house to have dinner with him, watch him play video games or get lost into the depths of youtube, and then have him tell me we need to go to bed at 2 a.m. If I would just use half that time to write, maybe I'd have a book done or have time to blog everyday!

When you start a daily practice, it's natural to feel resistance. Resistance to writing shows up in 3 ways:

1. Perfectionism

2. Procrastination

3. Multitasking

Perfectionism - You fixate on writing the perfect text. The red line under that misspelled word drives you mad, so you go fix it, and you need to search that one fact. This disrupts your flow of writing. The cure? Write for your own sake. You can always edit and improve later!

Procrastination - I know you do it. I don't need to explain it, because you know you do it. Hell I'm procrastinating right this second on a number of things!

Multitasking - We are mentally doing too much at once. Say you are writing and a blog post pops into your head, so you jot it down as well as a possible basic structure for it. You don't want to forget right? Wrong. Actually, it distracts you from the real task at hand. I have ADHD, so a silent work environment has never really worked for me; I actually get more distracted with utter silence, so I usually have music going, or have background TV on of a show I've already seen (so I don't have to pay attention). Turns out, according to Norregaard this is a no-no...

The solution to procrastination and multitasking: Norregaard's Seven Steps to Monotasking.

1. Choose the text you want to work on

2. Set a specific amount of time to write

3. Clear your desk of everything else

4. Have everything you need to write in arms' reach

5. Turn of your cell phone, close your email, close the door, put up a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it

6. Set a timer for the designated time and write until the timer goes off

7. Take a break (or do another interval, if you've got your flow on!)

For this blog post I tried to follow these rules (meaning I don't have music on or TV!), and oh my Atlanta! I'm writing at godspeed and plowing through this blog post. Turns out, maybe when it comes to things I'm passionate about, I can focus without background noise. Take that ADHD!

LOVE DEADLINES

This really goes hand-in-hand with that procrastination problem, that you and I both know you have. In seventh grade I did my entire science fair project the night before; I had two and a half months to do it. That's what Norregaard explains as Parkinson's Law.

Parkinson's Law - the law that states that any task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted for its completion

In other words, your tasks grow to fill the amount of time you have to complete it. If you have a week to do the task and a day to do another, which is more important? The one with the sooner deadline! So if you set a deadline earlier than it's actual deadline, completing it becomes more important. 

Setting deadlines keeps tasks from growing to fill all your time - and if they do fill all your time, it is only for a limited time.

The author wrote, "If you have 24 hours to finish a task, you have to focus on getting the job done, so you focus on what's necessary, not what's possible. This increases productivity immensely. If you have a week to do the same task, you have six extra days to make a mountain out of a molehill." Deadlines are supposed to be a gift not a punishment according to Norregaard.

She suggests breaking down your book, script, article, or blog post, preferably into bits that take no more than 15 minutes to write, and to set deadlines for each bit. Lots of short deadlines.

SET DAILY GOALS

Here it is, the daily part of creating a daily writing practice. There are two ways to set daily deadlines for your writing. 

1. Write a specific amount of words each day

It's really up to you and your writing genre to declare your word count goal. Norregaard suggests at least 1,000 words, but notes that some of the most productive writers write about 2,000 words a day, like Stephen King. 

2. Write for a set period of time

Some people write slowly, so the thought of producing that many words makes their blood run cold. Writing for a set period of time allows you to always have a set period of time to produce whatever you can. I think you'd be surprised with how much you write if you give yourself 1-2 hours to solely focus on writing. Also, if you are looking to create that daily writing routine, I feel it might be easier to plan your writing in time so you can make a schedule. When it becomes a habit and part of your routine, then up the ante to a set word count goal.

The focus during your session should be on producing text, not editing, research, or fact checking. Just write.

NOW WRITE

If you are critical like me, you might spend more time editing than actually writing. I suggest learning how to turn of spelling and grammar check as you type, then go back and do your editing at the end. That way those annoying squiggly lines won't bother you, making you stop and fix them.

Don't stop if there's something you don't know. XX marks the spot.

If there is something you want to research for your writing or maybe you want to thesaurus another word, put an XX where you may want to add your research or after the word you want to change. Highlighting is another option; One that I probably prefer, so those XX's don't disrupt your writing or word count. 

Perfection can kill creativity, flow, and joy of writing.

Norregaard states the scary thought that whatever you write will never be perfect. You can rewrite, change the opening sentence, spell check again, or research a better example for chapter 4 as much as you like. It still won't be perfect. The author tells of her severe case of perfectionism when she took journalism, and how she constantly turned things in late cause she always had to check one last thing. 

As she read over her paper again after everyone had left, her teacher told her, "I don't want it perfect. I want it done." Her teacher was right. Norregaard says as a writer it is your duty to share your talent with the world. If you constantly try to edit that one last thing, you'll never get it out there. So just write.

Find your peak writing time (when you have the most energy, drive, and focus to write).

Maybe you are a morning person. You like to hear the birds wake up singing as the sun rises. Go to bed an hour or two early, set your clock earlier than normal, and then wake up and write if that is when you feel energized. If you hit your peak writing time as the sun hits its peak height in the day, take your lunch to go and spend and hour or two writing. But maybe you are a night owl like me. I like the world to be asleep and all their energy to be silenced, as I write into the depths of night. I love it to be dark outside and that's when, after a long day, I find myself the most focused on finally being able to write.

WHY DO YOU WRITE?

Now all that is left is to fully commit to writing everyday. It only works if you commit to making your daily writing session sacred time, not to be traded, squandered, or ignored. Create a schedule, hold yourself accountable and don't let excuses or fear stop you. Of course you can take a day of every week, but only one. Don't slack off and really put your everything into writing everyday. Remind yourself why you do this. Remind yourself how this daily practice will change your life. Find out why it truly is that you love to write. Now use that to fuel your writing and your new daily practice.

So before I end this, let me ask you one more time:

Why do you write?