Upon returning from the writing retreat at Rice Lake, I committed to writing every day. I had approximately sixty scenes to edit in my latest project. So I calculated that if I edited one scene every day, estimating to take about one hour each, I would need sixty days or two months.
Since the writing retreat was in late April, this meant that I should be finished by the end of June.
Easy, right?
To meet my goal, I needed to find about one hour each day to write. At first, I tried to do this in the evening which was a complete fail. I do not have enough brain power and energy to write after a long day of work. Besides, I am a morning writer. After one month of total failure, I decided to needed to add one hour in the morning to accomplish my goal.
I started getting up earlier. This was made easier by the longer days and I tend to get up earlier in the summer months. Still no writing was done. Instead I only managed to get to work earlier. Not exactly the result I was aiming for!
A week ago, I realized that it was almost half way through June and I had managed to do only one scene. A dismal failure.
Although I enjoy writing and wish constantly that I could find more time to write, I still can’t seem to get into a habit of writing every day. I began thinking about how to start a good habit.
For example, every morning before work I take my dogs for a walk. I do not allow myself any excuses. I started this discipline about eight years ago. It does not matter how cold it is outside, if it is raining, if I slept in, or if I feel too tired. When I do feel like skipping the walk, I tell myself, just fifteen minutes. No walk is not an option. So on those very cold winter mornings, it may only be fifteen minutes before the dogs and I run back to the warmth of the house. But on a beautiful spring morning, we take closer an hour, roaming through the field and woods. In the eight years of this discipline, the dogs and I complete our walk about 98 % of the time. I realized I needed to approach my writing practice in the same way.
Instead of trying to find an entire hour, I only needed to commit to fifteen minutes. So starting last week, I decided to try for one week. 15 minutes. Every morning. No excuses.
In preparation, I created a play list that was 15 minutes in length. I also decided to dedicate my 15 minutes to be after all my other morning routines – ie. Walking the dogs, breakfast, etc, since experience had taught me that I needed to get my regular morning routine done before I could write.
On Monday, I woke up early as per my new routine and walked the dogs. Then the distractions began. I had to take the recycling and compost out, and then the compost bin really needed a good rinse. The bird feeders needed to be filled. It’s amazing how many mundane chores can get done when I don’t want to focus my brain. By the time I did all of those things, I had twenty minutes until I had to leave for work. The excuses started:
- What’s the point of fifteen minutes? How much writing can I really get done in fifteen minutes? It’s probably not worth it.
- It’s Monday – maybe I should give myself a break and start on Tuesday.
- I could make it up tonight. Tonight I will do half an hour to make up for the morning.
I almost didn’t do it. But I started with turning on my laptop and ordered myself to sit down and write for the fifteen minutes. I sat. I wrote. Twenty-two minutes later, I raced to work so as not to be late. I had finished one scene. Yahoo!
The next day was a bit easier as I was prepared for my brain to make the usual excuses. Luckily, number one excuse (how practical is 15 minutes) was already proven wrong. I sailed through the next two days, writing every morning. Then Thursday hit and my brain thought that maybe we had done so well for three days, making each morning, that maybe we could skip this one? I remembered my dog walking routine. No excuses. So I squeezed in my fifteen minutes. And then on Friday, I woke up early and actually wrote for an entire hour before work.
After one week of this discipline, I had completed editing ten scenes – more than I had done in the last two months. I found myself turning on my computer in the evening to write for another fifteen minutes and that often turned into half hour to fifty minutes. I was excited about my novel again and was eager to keep working on it.
Writing takes creativity but it also takes discipline and commitment. But be realistic on goals. Maybe I won’t finish my scene edits by the end of June, but keeping with my new habit, it will be done by the end of the summer. What writing goal do you have to complete this summer?
