Just general writing advice

Someone asked --"How do I make myself write?  How do I get writing again?"


First off -- congratulations.  You're way ahead of most folks who want to write.  You're doing it instead of talking about it.


Let me offer a few random pieces of advice.

-- Follow a writing routine.  Same time.  Same place. 

Put your butt in the chair.
Write every day.

Treat writing as a job.  You don't complain that you can't do the accounts today or you don't feel like teaching sixth grade this morning.
Write as if you were working for somebody else. 



-- The edges of sleep are strong writing times. 

Keep your computer set up and ready to go in a quiet place.  If you have ideas when you're falling asleep, get out of bed and go type them.

Write early.  Get up in the morning and head directly to the computer and work. 
Eat later.  Shower later.  Walk the dog later.  Don't talk to anyone.  Hold onto the dream state as long as you can.

If this works for you at all . . . give the first hour of the morning to your writing.

-- Write in little corners of time.  Keep a laptop with you, or a notebook and pen.   Write while you're eating lunch.  While you're waiting for the kid to finish dance class.  On the flight to L.A.

-- Write even when you're writing crap. 
Write bad stuff.  Just write something.
Nora Roberts said, "I can fix anything but a blank page."
Fill up the page and edit it later.  Just get something down.

-- Treat your writing as serious work.  It's not a hobby. 
It is more important to write than to have a clean kitchen floor.  You can send out for pizza.

-- Trust yourself.  There's endless creativity inside you.  If you lose an idea, it returns to the sea of your unconscious.  It will emerge again, that or something better.

And