10 Ways to Write More Each Day

10 Ways to Write More Each Day One of the things most writers would like to be able to do is to write more on a daily basis. While the obvious answer to this problem is to spend more time writing, thats not always an option. If you like to write or you have a book project brewing in the back of your mind, there are some steps you can take other than to spend more time which has the potential of helping you to get more words down on paper each day. Set goals and stick to them If youre writing a book, you should have an outline of your plot and your chapters in advance. How far do you want to get this week? What should your daily progress be? Set a realistic goal and stick to it even when the going gets tough. Set milestones, and decide how youll celebrate them. Turn it into a game or a challenge. If you know how much youre progressing every day and want to up the ante, ask a little more of yourself. Are you writing 1,000 words a day? Push it to 1,250, it only takes a few minutes longer, but in four days youll have gained an extra days worth of progress. Researchers say that we can boost our productivity by as much as 25% just by setting goals. Use your most productive working time Many of us find that we progress fastest with our writing in the mornings. Your brains still half asleep, but somehow its still fresher and you get more writing done. Other people like to write after everyone has gone to sleep. Try writing at different times of the day to determine your most productive time of day and plan your writing time around that. Use down-time to think things through Use times when youre not writing to think about what youre going to do next. Stirring a pot in the kitchen doesnt occupy your brain, so use the time to think about where youre going with your writing. Generate ideas as you sip your morning coffee or while youre driving around town on errands. Even if you dont record your thoughts, youll have a greater sense of purpose when next you sit down to write. Dont try to perfect your writing when youre in an inspired space Nobody can be inspired all the time, but when inspiration hits, the faster you can get your ideas down, the more youre going to get out of the moment. You can always go back and correct things later on, but your inspiration wont last forever. So write. Be fast. Be furious. Be glaringly inaccurate. You can fix all of that when your brain reverts to plodding along. Use writing prompts If youre blogging, journaling or just writing for fun, getting ideas for something to write can take nearly as much time as the writing itself. There are tons of weird, wonderful, interesting or inspiring writing prompts available online. Pick one at random and go crazy. The creative challenges will sharpen up your thinking, and all that writing practice is sure to improve your skill. Take breaks Spending hours at a time hammering away at your writing might not be the best way to boost your productivity. Take breaks every 25 minutes or so, even if its just getting a glass of water or looking up from your work and doing a few stretching exercises. Its a scientifically proven fact that people who cut themselves some slack in the form of short breaks are way more productive than the constant plodders. Dont dump your workout Forget the stereotypes of lumbering (and slightly dim) muscle men and ditzy gym bunnies. Getting exercise improves your circulation and gets extra oxygen into your bloodstream. And that goes to your brain, helping you to think more creatively and effectively. A study on creative thinking showed that people who did exercise, even light exercise, fared better at a task set to measure creative thinking. Figure out how you waste time Relaxing is important, but a lot of the unproductive things we do in our free time arent really relaxing. We get annoyed with our TV shows, we aimlessly search the net or we engage in less-than-meaningful interactions on social media. Remember, if it relaxes and refreshes you, its productive. If it doesnt, it might be that cutting out that activity will give you more time to boost your writing productivity. Shut out distractions Do people ping you on Skype while youre writing? Do you have your Facebook tab open and peep to see whats going down every time you hear a notifier? You could be losing hours of productive time just attending to these little distractions. When you return to your work, you have to compose your thoughts all over again, and that wastes time too. Drink lots of water This might sound like just another of those ho-hum health tips, but it really works. Think about it. Your body consists mainly of water, and your brain has an even higher percentage of water than the rest of your body. If youre dehydrated, which many of us are as a matter of course, how can you expect your brain to function at its best? Keep a glass of water handy, and keep on sipping! (Photo courtesy of inthepottershands)