Take a Break From Writing

Writing every day is important.

Writing every hour of the day is not.

Unlike other jobs, working as a writer can’t be done for hour after hour without a break.

Not in my world.

There are times when I’m writing in one huge creative window and I just keep going and going, and when I look up 2 or 3 hours have gone by and I’m dying to pee.

But usually I need to take breaks.

If I don’t, I start to get distracted by email that doesn’t need checking or social media feeds that don’t need my attention.

On these days I need to time my writing and take 5 minutes break when the timer sounds. It’s the only way I can sit and write if I’m not in the mood or what I’m writing about is boring.

There are also other days when I really struggle to stay focused and on these days I have to give up because it’s a waste of time.

But when I’m writing I have to take breaks to relieve eye strain, give my spine a rest and clear my head.

So I move away from my desk, stand, stretch, walk away and do something physical for 5 minutes, even if it’s pat the dog or hang out the washing.

It really helps me to sit down again with a fresh mind.

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How I Get More Writing Ideas

It’s OK to say that to be a successful writer you need to write.

But what when you have no ideas?

For me this isn’t a problem for two reasons:

• I’m extremely creative (always have been)
•  I have 2 notebooks full of ideas

Being creative and blessed with a good imagination helps. But many people ask me how I find the time to come up with ideas.

And the answer surprises them.

They seem to imagine that I sit and wait for the muse to strike me.

On the contrary.

Usually I’m not even sitting when ideas strike me. When I get an idea it normally strikes when I’m busy doing un-related things that have nothing at all to do with writing.

They come often when I’m dog walking, from what I see, what I think, or what I hear if I’m listening to an audio as I walk.

Many ideas come to me when I’m doing mundane things like housework, car cleaning and even mowing the lawn.

But most importantly – and this is really, REALLY important – I write all my ideas down IMMEDIATELY.

And that’s how I collect so many.

Try it for yourself and see.

Get a notebook just for ideas. Mine are spiral-bound shorthand notebooks.

Then every time you get an idea, write it down, or, if you’re out, voice record it till you get home.

But never EVER think that you’ll remember an idea – you won’t.

That’s a lesson I had to learn many times over.

So don’t make the same mistake.

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The Importance of Writing Every Day and How To Do It

If you read a lot about being a writer you’ll know that it’s important to write every day.

But why?

There are a variety of reasons and each one is just as important as the rest.

And here are three of them.

• Laziness. It’s all too easy to get out of the habit of writing. First you miss a day, then another, and before you know it you haven’t written anything for over a week and you’ve lost the urge to write.
• Habit. Bad habits are far easier to cultivate than good habits. That’s because it’s easy to NOT do something. So write every day to keep up the good habit.
• Easy. Once you start writing every day, it becomes the norm and so it makes it easy to sit down and do it every day.

But sitting down and writing every day can be difficult if you don’t know what to write.

So make it easy on yourself.

Don’t think that you have to sit and do a writing marathon.

Begin with journaling. Just sit and write for 5 minutes about whatever’s in your head. 

Journaling is fun so you’ll want to sit and do it every day.

Or copy out someone else’s writing by hand. Just get out a book or article you wish you’d written and copy it out with a pad and pen. This will not only help you to learn that style of writing, but it gets you started writing.

Being a writer isn’t easy. Its having a job just like anyone else and it takes a lot of self-discipline to do it.

But every day I’d rather be a writer than anything else.

And THAT'S why I do it.