Strategies to mould ourselves into the writers we want to be
How many of us struggle to find the time to write? I can’t be the only one who sometimes wishes I had an extra hour in which to squeeze yet another sentence onto the blank page.
Whether pro or amateur, established or up-and-coming, many writers find it difficult to carve out some me-time for their craft.
It takes years to come up with a suitable schedule that leads to a writing practice. Along the way it’s useful to come up with strategies and methods we can deploy in order to make our métier enjoyable.
Find your time
I don’t have a favourite “writing time”. I’m drafting up this post at almost half nine at night. My most recent article was written at around eleven in the morning, and the one before that at around three in the afternoon. What I do have is “creative flow moments”. Ideas make up the bulk of these moments. We always have ideas. Not all of them will produce boosted stories, but the majority will find their way into my work.
Humans are pattern-dependent individuals. Our creativity is an attempt to break out of the norm. To tear away from obligations and routines. But we must be attentive when creativity strikes. When our mind begins to play and requires our focus.
It takes a long time to get used to one’s creative thinking. For me it’s less finding the “writing time” and more forcing myself to act on random ideas.
Even better than finding the time, make it
There’s a recurring dream amongst new writers, young or old, that makes me chuckle every time I think of it. In this dream almost every single aspiring writer who sits in a cafe (especially a hipster outlet) with their laptop open and a mug of steaming flat white by their side, will have knocked up their literary masterpiece by twelve midday. The rest of the day will be taken up by their search for an agent. Who, of course, unbeknownst to them, will be sitting across them gulping down a macchiato, iPad open on their lap.
There’s a whole lot of chores and tasks that we engage in and which bring no joy or satisfaction in our lives. Would it be possible to devote less time to them? Or cut them out altogether? Now you’ll have an extra twenty or thirty minutes in which to work on your manuscript. Scrolling through your socials, for instance, is a mindless activity. Would your time not be put to a better use if you attempted to pen between five hundred and a thousand words in that time?
Let your internal light shine
I think it’s safe to say that most of us come to writing because we like to tell stories. In fact, we have a passion for telling stories. Let that passion be the light that leads you through the tunnel.
As a reader I can devour pretty much any genre out there (perhaps sci-fi, thrillers, and romance novels less so), but as a writer I favour non-fiction. I have written fiction before. My short-story Dawn was published in the The Voice newspaper many years ago. Still, it’s personal essays and first-person accounts that I keep churning out.
It’s important to choose topics that make writing fun. Remember also to take time off when the going gets tough. There’s nothing worse than feeling we have a duty to produce x amount of words. Step away and recharge your batteries. Your internal light will beam brighter.
Create a timeline
Even if you’re like me, not dependent on a time of the day when the magic happens, you’ll agree that having a certain structure for your writing is beneficial. Parcel out those precious minutes or hours across your week when you feel your creativity is at its peak.
Writing is not just… well… writing. Let’s not forget that there’s always research to be done (as in, asking Google), editing, networking, the list goes on. Before putting a post out I make sure that I’ve got all bases covered, or at least, most of them.
When we build a writing schedule we should focus more on the practice and less on the end result. In fact, the end result, be it an article in a mainstream newspaper, or a best-selling novel, will come from the discipline of having a structure to stick to.
We all want to be successful writers. One of the ways to achieve this goal is by assessing our lives, our creative power, and our energy.
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