HABITS

The daily habit of writing must be developed if I expect to succeed in my writing – regardless of what it is I am attempting to write: short stories, novels, poetry, essays, blog posts, etc. I am finding that it is very difficult to develop this desirable trait. I am currently – Tuesday, 22 DEC 09 2022 hrs – editing an essay I originally started on Wednesday, 10 OCT 07 @ 1445 hrs.

One of the reasons, I believe, that I find it so difficult to get into this daily habit of sitting down and writing is because I have so many various idea about which I want to write. Ritalin where are you when I need you??

I do try to give myself some encouragement by remembering my successes. I am currently working on a short-story entitled “The Ayes Have It.” This story came to me in a dream in FEB of this year. It is about 9,000 words long, and I submitted about the first 1/3 to my Northwest Christian Writers' critique group. I need to finalize part two and get it submitted this week. I’ve also been “working” on (more like hiding from) a rather complicated novel entitled “Blood of Patriots,” part one of my “Twilight’s Last Gleaming" series, I need to get back to it.

As I sit here at the computer I try to bring to focus some of the other thoughts I’ve had about things to write about. As I’m editing this I am reminded of having worked on something like five articles in one week at one point of my writing. (I wasn’t kidding about having thoughts racing through my head about myriad topics to write about). If only I could focus on just one of these articles and finish it and move on to the next. I’ll be happy if I can bounce between them all and eventually get them all completed with out adding any more to the list (but I don’t think that is possible – ideas fly at me from all directions, some may be usable in current WIPs, others must be noted for future use in other projects).

Developing the habit of writing daily is something I find to be very difficult. I must give up doing other things that I’ve done in the past – not because they needed doing, but just because I’m in the habit of wasting time doing these things. Watching too much TV is certainly a culprit, one thing I do is select a very limited number of shows to put on DVR, and then watch later – TV on the Internet is another problem that I must deal with.

I also have to be careful about getting on the Internet to look up some piece of info I want to use in my writing and then getting side-tracked reading other stuff (news, etc.), I need to find what I need and then get off the Internet instead of looking for something else to read, because I am trying to avoid writing.

Too much browsing of websites like Facebook – and even good sites for authors, sites like ChristianWriters.com, other writing sites, or other author’s blogs can take up time that would otherwise be spent on writing. However, authors do not exist in a vacuum and need some human interaction – even if over the ‘net, it just needs to be rationed, not rationalized. But it was, in fact, tonight’s blog browsing that got me started on re-working this article, that and the fact I have been futzing with my own blog, trying to figure out what else to write.

Listening to some soft music – Classical, or Christian instrumentals on the other hand does seem to increase my writing. In college this type of music helped me with my studies and so I need to change my music listening habits as well in order to induce more writing labors.

One thing I have a big problem with is the sitting alone in my room and just applying pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) – the soft music I listen to really helps with that. I do have a list of action points I need to get done by getting on the Internet to look up some information. Another thing I have issues with is staying up late, just for the sake of staying up. If I’m actually working on some writing, that’s fine, but if I’m just avoiding going to bed because – again – I’m in the habit of staying up watching TV, etc., I either need to use that time productively with my writing, or I need to get to bed and then get up early enough in the morning to get some writing done before doing my other daily activities.

I like writing – NO! I need to write, it is something I must do. I’m not exaggerating – I really must! Really, I’d rather be able to not spend time writing – but it drives me, as if I have no control over it. I must write – I need to write or I’ll explode from the creative pressures building up in me. And that wouldn’t be a pretty sight. So write I do in order to avoid that ugly ending. And so I sit down during the day and scribe my thoughts, or in the evening and try to organize my ideas and come up with action points I can actually move on and see some progress in the idea I have for a story. (Just one of the ideas – I actually have several works in progress. As I get stuck on one I can return to another. And so, even though bouncing back and forth between multiple ideas may cause each of them to take longer, I’m hoping that my writing will be better because I won’t feel like I’ve got to focus my characters into a situation, or force them to react in a certain way just to make the plot move forward and to “hurry up and get finished.”

I am noticing as I try to distract myself from my writing by pursuing old habits I’m not enjoying those old activities as much as I used to – or maybe it’s a matter of I never really enjoyed them, it was just a habit to participate in those activities, a habit to try to avoid writing. So it seems to come back to – HABITS – good ones are hard to form, bad ones are difficult to break.

I can choose to watch TV because I’m in the habit of doing so, or I can choose to spend the time writing. I can choose to avoid going to bed “just because” because I’m in the habit of doing so, or I can either work on writing to develop that habit, or go to bed early and get up in the morning to do my writing.

I am re-writing this article to post on my new blog because I am trying to develop that very desirable, but very difficult habit of writing daily, a habit I must develop if I expect to succeed in my writing