How do you keep writing, no matter what’s happening in your life?

You have to trick yourself into writing.

Last post I asked what you needed from this newsletter. I got a lot of requests for two things:

1. Strategies for writing even when life and the world is crumbling around you (I’m paraphrasing slightly!)

2. Strategies for marketing in a changing market.

All my workbooks, workshops and posts are about how to make your writing easier, better, and more saleable. But none of that means anything if you’re not MAKING yourself write, day by day by day, even when it’s the last thing you really want to be doing.

So let’s take #1 today.

How do you keep writing, no matter what’s happening in your life?

You have to trick yourself into writing.

I know - that kind of sounds like cheating. After all, aren’t we always saying that the only thing we really want to do in life is write, that we would do anything if we could just make a living writing, that it’s our passion, that it’s our compulsion, that even if we were never going to get paid of it, we would do it anyway?

Sure. But that doesn’t mean that we like it.

There are many terms I can use to describe the feeling and process of writing (urgent, calming, love, fulfillment, obsession, meditation, mission, magic, impossible, dreaming, hell…). But actually liking it is rarely part of my own picture. And it is so, so much easier to do something—just about anything—else.

So I trick myself.

Your tricks may be very different from mine. But if you write with any consistency, I bet you have them. And when those tricks suddenly aren’t working, if you haven’t been writing because of, oh, say, the grotesque situation that the former democracy of the U.S. has sunk into….

Maybe it’s time for a new trick or two.

Here are some of mine, to get you thinking about your own.

1. I have a routine.

I’m a morning writer. Though a deadline knows no time of day, my best writing hours are before I’m really awake, and definitely before the husband is awake (luckily for our careers and marriage, he’s a night owl). I have my morning rituals: open my eyes; write down my dreams; two cups of coffee and oatmeal; a yoga set to stretch out; 15-20 minutes of meditation—and then I’m right into writing. No scrolling, no social media, no email. The routine is so ingrained in me from the many, many years I’ve practiced it, that it cuts right through all the I don’t want to do this today objections I can come up with.

2. I write in bed.

Some people do cafes or pubs. Some have elaborate offices. I write in bed (in one of the spare bedrooms, not the sleeping bed!), or lying on a couch—but I haven’t sat behind a desk to write in years. Yes, the cat can be an issue, but I wrestle him off me periodically. And here’s an interesting thing: unlike many, many of my pro writer friends, I have never had back problems, never a hint of sciatica. I’m pretty sure my bed writing is why. But also, it just doesn’t feel like work when I’m propped up on pillows in my nest, with the cat in purring distance. And it’s never diminished my output one bit.

3. I tell myself I only have to write for 15 minutes today.

This is probably my most important trick. It always works. I always write for far more than 15 minutes, and almost always 15 minutes turns into a full writing day. Because I learned this a long, long time ago: Writing isn’t hard. STARTING is hard.

I’m a lifelong dancer, and I work out pretty much every day. It keeps me human. But again, that doesn’t mean I like it! What it means is that trick myself into doing it by telling myself, Just do 5 minutes. and then you can stop. But five minutes is all I need to get the endorphins flowing, and I almost always end up doing the full workout.

Writing takes a little longer to get to flow, but 15 minutes does the trick for me. Once I start, the process of writing pulls me in. It’s a kind of self-hypnosis. Just like exercise, writing actually feels good - once you’re into it.

I really urge you to try it. Because as I’ve posted at length before— 15 minutes of writing a day equals a book in a year.

4. One day at a time.

This tenet of 12-step programs works just as well for writing. For heaven’s sake, and for your own, don’t worry about the whole book! You only have to do today’s writing today.

Writing a book is a long, long, haul. You can make yourself seriously crazy if you let yourself think about how much more you have left to do. So don’t think about it!

Whether you have a day’s goal of a number of pages, or a set time, remind yourself that that’s ALL you have to do today. And then stop when you’re done. Yes, of course, your creative brain will be on all the rest of the time, but it’s really important to let yourself be done when you’re done.

5. Reward yourself every hour.

I’ve had a rough, rough couple of years, with multiple family illnesses and deaths. The grief and stress has often been overwhelming, and my old tricks weren’t being enough. But lately a new trick has been working incredibly well for me.

I do an hour of writing—and then I get to do fifteen minutes of pleasure reading on a book I find really hard to put down. I’m working my way through the brilliant Curtis Sittenfeld, and a stack of New Zealand books, fiction and non, to prep for our trip.

6. Understand that you can write in layers.

This is more a technique than a trick, but it’s shocking to me how many writers actually don’t know that you don’t have to get it right the first time! Very few writers (my husband is annoyingly one of them) write a book from start to finish and are actually done when they type THE END. My first drafts are more like extended outlines than anything resembling a book. I do draft after draft, finding more of the book each time I go along, and it rarely starts to resemble a book until the fourth or fifth draft. But I don’t take any longer to finish a book than an average writer.

So if you’re struggling with a chapter - it’s totally fine to just write a few notes about what should be happening and go on to a chapter that’s easier to write today. You can go back and write the other one tomorrow - or in your next draft. You don’t get extra points for torturing yourself!

I hope this very partial list has given you some ideas of how to be easier on yourself and still get the work done.

And I’d love to hear about the tricks that work for you!

Alex

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Trick yourself into writing