5 Ideas + 1 to Get you Writing

Having a difficult time scheduling your daily writing time? Whether you have a full-time job outside the home, children hanging on your legs, or your day quite honestly seems to get away from you before you realize you haven't made time to write, we all need to schedule writing time.

Photo by: Earls37a, courtesy of Flickr

I find that if I don't schedule, my writing time doesn't happen. And if I do schedule, I don't often focus on the task at hand but find time to clean my desk, wipe a few layers of lint off my computer screen or eat. It isn't always easy to write.

But that's not because I believe in writer's block.

For me, it's not writer's block that keeps me from moving forward, it's plain and simple, laziness. Sometimes my brain is just lazy and it doesn't want to perform, either that or my heart's just not in it. Maybe that's writer's block, and if so, so be it.

What I know is that I can always move forward if I make the effort. Here are a few things I do:

1. I just start writing! I write for 15 minutes and whatever comes out, comes out. The words may be, "I hate this and I have no idea what to write," and then a few minutes later I'm talking about my day yesterday, or my grandchildren, or the pot pie I ate for dinner. It doesn't matter--not really--what I write, it's getting the juices flowing.
2. I look at my magazine pictures that I've cut out and placed in a three ring binder. I write about the picture using my five senses. I clear the way for a great story.
3. I read a great line from one of my favorite books, and go off that. No, I'm not going to use, "Just call me Ishmael," but I'm going to borrow the line, even change it a bit to get me going. "Just call me (insert your own name)" and go from there.
4. I look out my office window and write what I see. It's amazing the writing that comes depending on the season that I am writing in. Or I travel to another place to write, somewhere outdoors. Some writers even spend some time writing in a hotel room away from the doorbell, the phone and other daily distractions. 

Get away from home for awhile to write!
Photo by Koonisutra, courtesy of Flickr

5. I take out something unfinished, read over it, and make editing changes. Sometimes my best work

    comes from a piece that has been sitting inside my computer for awhile. 

The best news about being a writer I think is the process in writing that next best seller. It's the process, not the result that usually gives me the most satisfaction and growth. 

Get writing!