Making your bad habits work for your writing
Writing-related bad habits are sure to be something familiar to many of us. We know that what we’re doing might not be quite the best thing for making good, quality progress with our writing, but somehow, we just can’t stop. We just keep on procrastinating despite a looming deadline, we stare out of the window daydreaming instead of getting on with writing, and get so scared of failing that we don’t even try in the first place.
But what if these bad habits could actually work for you? Here are some tips and ideas on how to make your bad habits work for your writing.
Making procrastination productive
Avoiding writing by doing almost anything else is something plenty of writers are guilty of. We usually see it as a bad thing as it prevents us from making progress, but if you do feel the need to procrastinate, one way of turning into a more positive activity is to think about how your alternative activities could help your writing.
For instance, if you procrastinate by faffing on the internet, it might not add to your word count, but it will be adding in some way to your knowledge of the internet and whatever it is you’re using it to read about/do. Equally, if you’re someone who procrastinates by daydreaming, at least you’re giving yourself a chance to be creative and think of new ideas. And you never know when that knowledge or those ideas could come in handy in the future…
Turning fear of failure into an asset
Fear of failing – of not being any good at writing, or of being rejected by agents/publishers/competition judges/readers – is common. I think all writers suffer from it to one degree or another and, while it can hold us back, it does also have its uses.
Primarily, it shows us just how much we care. We want to be good at writing. We want other people to think we’re good at it and we want to do well and achieve through it. If you can harness that worry and use it to focus yourself on just how much you want to do well with your writing, it could end up doing some good.
Making irregular writing patterns work for you
We’ve all read the advice on how writing regularly – if possible, every day – is the best way to make progress, but in practice this doesn’t always happen. If you are someone who has an irregular, inconsistent writing pattern, either through necessity or accident, you could make it work well for you. For instance, if you only write once or twice a fortnight, you might well end up getting more done in a session because you have to write then or not at all. Also, if you keep a log of ideas and thoughts in between writing sessions, you can easily be more productive when you do write as you’ll already have a good idea of what you need to do.
Making the most of your inner editor
Your inner editor can sometimes be a pain, particularly when you’re on the first draft of a piece of writing – you can end up editing the same section over and over trying to get it right, without making any progress in terms of getting to the end. However, if you can train yourself to use that inner editor properly, it could do you some great favours.
Being a good editor can help you in the writing process because you’ll be thinking carefully about what you write in the first place and, if you can switch off your urge to edit as you go but then turn it back on when you come to the end of the draft, you’ll hopefully be really productive when it comes to editing and proofreading later on.
What bad habits do you think could actually be an asset to your writing?
