How do you push yourself to write routinely?

[Guest]

How do you push yourself to write routinely. It's been 5 days i could not write a word.

[Debra]

I have to be honest about why I am not writing. It's sometimes related to just needing to rest first.... I just need a day off because other things have kept me super busy and I'm just tired. And sometimes it's mechanical...like I know my printer is going to stop working soon, I need to call the computer person to help with a computer problem, I need a new desk, or lamp.... I need to move to neutral and then get things fixed and then gear up. It's probably not you...it's probably an outside issue that needs attention.

[Jacki]

I only write on a Monday it’s the only day I have free. I’m interested how everyone else who also works, has a family, animals to care for, a home to run and a parent with dementia manages to write every day? I’m pretty sure most of us have a combination of the above to contend with but honestly, I’m 54 and (some other females will relate) menopausal and by the time I’m home from work and cooked, I’m exhausted!

I’m always planning though snd scribbling notes, making voice notes when I’m walking my dogs, it’s just getting that into some order and onto paper that I struggle with

[Melvin]

I have a daily scheduled time which I try to adhere to.If I have nothing to say I reread the day before.I also try to keep notes for periods like this!

[Alannah]

Sometimes if I'm not in the zone, I'll go back over my previously written scenes and add to them/edit them. It seems to help kick start my writing for the days where I'm stuck.

[Aja]

I don't. Look, a routine works for some writers, it doesn't work for others. I tell my students part of what your learning process is should be discovering how your head works. Example: Story I heard from an author many years ago, back when people still wrote on typewriters. He said early on, before he began getting published, he thought he was losing momentum every time he had to load a fresh sheet of paper into his machine. So, he bought a reem of paper on a roll, just unspooling it as he went, and then later cutting it up into 8-1/2 x 11 pages. When he reviewed what he wrote, he found out he'd been spitting out crap. What he discovered was those pauses in loading in new sheets were helping him organize and refine his thoughts. That's how HIS head worked. I have a former student who has been banging away on a sci fi epic for a few months and then went dry. I'm telling him not to worry: he burned through what his head had conjured and now he needs to give it time to percolate on what comes next. We are not all the same.

[Christine]

It needs to become a habit. So at first you just do it whether you feel like it or not, whether you write rubbish or not, until it's just part of your day.

[Brenda]

I don't push! I write when I can, but I like afternoons. I rush like mad in the morning to get everything done so that I can have 2 or 3 hours of FREE time. I can't tell you how many times I am lost in an adventure, and my hubby comes in looking for dinner. I said lost, it is because I see the story in living color and participate!

[Jack]

Push rarely works in the long run. Joy and longing are preferable. Even anger.

When I’m for whatever reason unable to write, I write letters. Most of them I never send, and this concept frees me from unnecessary analyzing and judgment. I’m completely free to love as much as I want and hate as much as I want, because no one will ever know. This can open certain doors that are less likely to be opened when writing a novel, because of our prejudice regarding it or attachments to it.

Also, I don’t have to create a story when writing letters, but often end up creating one, or a sense of one anyway.

It helps me find a clearer purpose and a more solid voice, and a lot of what ends up in the letters eventually also ends up in my novels.

If I have written letters for six days and only one day on the novel, I have still written for an entire week.