Developing a Smart Writing Habit

I’ve read that smart goals are relevant, written, specific, measurable, time-keyed, and exciting. I like this list and I’m going to build a habit around it.

I experienced some serious soul searching this month when I officially reached old age. Yes, I’ve heard that “old” is relative, but I’m pretty sure it’s true in my case. With this landmark behind me, I’ve reexamined what it will take for me to reach my writing production goals. My current list of partially completed writing projects include a paranormal collection of short stories, a collection of off-the-wall flash stories, two inspirational “how-to” books, a YA novella, and a pair of Greek mythology novellas. To complete these works and achieve my publication goals, I must develop and stick to a writing schedule. Since I haven’t had a creative writing schedule for many decades, I’ll need to turn my creative writing sessions into a habit.

The only time I’ve had an actual creative writing habit was when I was a young mother with both a baby and a toddler. I’d get up very early, write two hours, fix my husband’s lunch, watch him head out the door, and then begin my day of raising sons and housekeeping.

But when the sons went to school, I went to college, and then I went to work. I haven’t had an actual schedule for creative writing since. (As a tech writer, I wrote all the time – but that’s different.) To complete some or all of my personal works-in-progress, I need to develop a solid plan for turning my sporadic writing sessions into a habit, one that’s specific, measurable, timed, and exciting.  

The Oxford Dictionary defines a habit as “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” Yes, I need a writing habit like that, one that’s hard to give up. Sometime in the last twenty years I’ve developed the wretched habit of Procrastination. Oh boy, another challenge.

I intend to develop a writing habit by taking these baby steps:

1. In the first week, I’ll practice my new writing habit for a full ten minutes. At 9:00 a.m. every morning for seven days I’ll work on project X. No editing, no researching…just writing, new writing.  
2. For the second week, I’ll extend the practice to twenty minutes. Same time, same seat at the desk, same project X—just writing for a full twenty minutes.
3. During the third week, I’ll extend the writing time to thirty minutes, sitting in the same place doing the same thing on the same project: writing.
4. Eventually, I’ll extend this time to a full hour. Might happen the fourth week or the fifth, but it’ll happen. Once I actually start writing, an hour goes by quickly.

I’ve heard that it commonly takes three weeks (21 days) to create a new habit, although various sources predict it’ll take from one to seven months. However long it takes to turn the desire to write more into an actual writing structure that’s habitual is fine with me. 

On the ‘Full Focus’ website, Michael Hyatt wrote: “Great results don’t just happen. You have to be intentional.”  Perhaps it took this birthday to set my intention, but I can already feel it working and I haven’t even started yet!

Write on! Ann

Photo Credit: Artist: Vitaliy from: Fotolia / DollarPhotoClub

Ann Gordon