Three Ways to Get Your Writing Moving

Are you stalled with your writing? I understand how it can happen. One of my Morgan James authors wants to write her book but is crazy busy with her occupation. She asked me for some ideas and strategies to get the book written. Many writers have this challenge of a full-time occupation but dreams of other things in their life. Yet without action, those dreams stay just ideas and do not turn into anything concrete for their writing—like magazine articles or books or information products or ebooks or anything. Their writing is in stall and not moving ahead.

Whatever you want to create or write—including for my book author who can't seem to get her book finished—is to figure out what you can do. Then make an action plan to do that action over and over until the writing is completed. I know these words sounds simple but it is how any goal is accomplished. You do it in bite-sized pieces. No one sets out to write a 50,000 word nonfiction book or a 100,000 word novel. The thought can overwhelm you and throw you into a stall so you don’t get it done.

How do you accomplish your goals? The first step is to break the task into a smaller size. Can you write a page a day?  A manuscript page contains about 200 to 250 words. Or can you write two pages a day? That would be 500 words. Create a plan to write consistently.  If you are consistent, you will be shocked how much material you can accomplish in a week or a month or two months.

The next part of the goal setting is to figure out when you can consistently write and set a time in your schedule. Maybe your best writing is early in the morning or you have a few minutes at lunch time or maybe it is late in the day. Block this writing time into your schedule and do it over and over. Eventually one session turns into more words and you finish the book manuscript from the beginning to the end.

What is something you want to accomplish in the next few months? Here’s some of the steps:

1. Write down your goal and put it on a post-it or note card where you can refer to it. This concrete action will show your intention.
2. Plan your action steps and break your goal into bite-size pieces.
3. Take regular action and move forward to accomplish your goal.

No one likes or enjoys the discipline of working on your book. Yes, some of the storytelling and work is fun but most of it involves simple obedience and doing the work. For example, The Writing Life contains over 1300 entries and I’m moving toward 1400 entries.This volume of material did not happen in a single day or week or month. It was done bit by bit and consistently over days, months and years. I began writing these articles in 2009 so it has taken some consistent time and energy to accomplish. 

I have more details about goal setting and how to accomplish your dreams in Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. It contains several dozen ideas about how to accomplish your publishing goals.

Be encouraged and you can do it too. Take action and write your book and accomplish your dreams. If I can help you in this process, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

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