Someone wiser than I once said that the trouble with habits isn't doing them today. It's doing them tomorrow.
I have been keeping to my habits the past few weeks. I've woken up at 5AM every morning and written for an hour before stopping to get ready for work. I sleep in on the weekends, have food when I wake up, but then I'm writing. And now that dedication is paying off.
I have a new story I am working on this week (one of my many stories...) I got the idea about a week and a half ago and spent last week exploring ideas. Yesterday, I finally settled on what the story should be and, between spending some time on it both at work and at home last night, I was able to make a list of the first 15 scenes. Today I increased that number to 25.
But that wasn't where the habit paid off. Rather, that happened when I put the new story aside and returned to an old one that I've been working on for years and managed to write several novels in it. Working in the latest book last night, I wrote 500 words in 45 minutes, then doubled it in the next 45 minutes.
It has been a goal of mine for several years to develop a habit that will allow me to do a significant amount of work on one project, then switch to a different and totally unrelated project with only a short break of 10 or 15 minutes in between.
Last night I got to do that.
I know I'm far from making this as regular of a habit as my morning writing. Especially as I have almost nothing to show for tonight apart from those 10 additional scenes in the new story. But I'm taking this as a victory, because now I see that I can do what I have strived to do. It is difficult, and it will take more trials, and probably some errors, until I make it part of my habit. But now I know that I can do it.
What writing habits do you keep? What struggles do you face with them and how do you have to overcome them?
I have been keeping to my habits the past few weeks. I've woken up at 5AM every morning and written for an hour before stopping to get ready for work. I sleep in on the weekends, have food when I wake up, but then I'm writing. And now that dedication is paying off.
I have a new story I am working on this week (one of my many stories...) I got the idea about a week and a half ago and spent last week exploring ideas. Yesterday, I finally settled on what the story should be and, between spending some time on it both at work and at home last night, I was able to make a list of the first 15 scenes. Today I increased that number to 25.
But that wasn't where the habit paid off. Rather, that happened when I put the new story aside and returned to an old one that I've been working on for years and managed to write several novels in it. Working in the latest book last night, I wrote 500 words in 45 minutes, then doubled it in the next 45 minutes.
It has been a goal of mine for several years to develop a habit that will allow me to do a significant amount of work on one project, then switch to a different and totally unrelated project with only a short break of 10 or 15 minutes in between.
Last night I got to do that.
I know I'm far from making this as regular of a habit as my morning writing. Especially as I have almost nothing to show for tonight apart from those 10 additional scenes in the new story. But I'm taking this as a victory, because now I see that I can do what I have strived to do. It is difficult, and it will take more trials, and probably some errors, until I make it part of my habit. But now I know that I can do it.
What writing habits do you keep? What struggles do you face with them and how do you have to overcome them?