5 Ways to Smash Through and Finally Start Writing

If you’re like I was at the beginning of my career, you have huge dreams.

But sadly, the bigger the dream, the greater the frustration when day after day passes without success.

The cause—not starting—looks simple. But the fix—starting (which also looks simple)—has you stymied.

You know you would succeed if you could just get going. Yet all the willpower, resolve, and turning over of new leaves only exasperates you that much more as days pass with nothing done.

Something about simply beginning stops you dead.

So let’s get you to the keyboard.

Procrastination is no excuse—it’s a prerequisite!

People who know my credits (nearly 190 books, 21 New York Times bestsellers, and more than 70 million copies sold) find it hard to believe I’m a procrastinator. But it’s true.

Procrastination must be a prerequisite to professional writing, because it seems more of us suffer from it than not. So don’t use that as an excuse.

Daily Rituals, a fascinating book by Mason Currey, tells how more than 160 novelists, poets, playwrights, painters, and the like do their work. I was stunned to find how many are 1—morning people and 2—procrastinators.

Being a morning person is irrelevant. The key is learning your own body clock and writing when you’re freshest and your mind sharpest. If you’re a night person, write then if you can. Do whatever works best for you.

But the real takeaway value from Daily Rituals is that if you’re a procrastinator, don’t despair. I’m living proof, as are many in Currey’s book, that it’s not a deal breaker. What’s critical is to schedule your procrastination, recognizing that your subconscious is working while you’re stalling, playing, or dawdling—so you can quit losing sleep over it.

Needless to say, at some point the procrastination must end or you remain stuck, reading blog posts like this and wondering if you’ll ever get your slice of the publishing pie.

To actually start doing the work and achieve more than you ever dreamt possible, you need to get cracking.

Here’s How

1—Remind yourself that writer’s block is a myth. No one in any other profession dares claim worker’s block, and if they did, they’d be ridiculed and fired.

2—Carve out your writing time. You won’t find it; you have to create it. What are you willing to give up to achieve your dream?  

3—Turn off social media so you’re not tempted to check email, Facebook, Twitter, or The 20 Ugliest Celebrities Ever. No self-control? Try Anti-Social. Download it, install it, use it.

4—Turn off your internal editor while you’re writing. Your first draft is just a hunk of meat to get onto the cutting table so you can start the slicing and dicing tomorrow.

Ignore that irritating voice—your own, of course—telling you you’re no good, you’ve chosen the wrong word, resorted to clichés, and so-and-so is better than you…Today you’re creating. Tomorrow you’ll carve.

5—Stay at it. Regardless the demands on your life, if all you can carve out of your calendar is the time to produce one finished page per day, even if you allow yourself 65 days off for breaks or emergencies, you’ll still write 300 pages by this time next year.

Can you manage that? I know you can.

In the Comments section below, tell me how you’ll make sure you finally get started this week.

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