At the start of a fresh new year, it is appropriate to start with a post about setting yourself up for writing success for the year ahead.

Tips for being a productive writer

In this post, I give you tips from my Book Coaching Program ‘Get Your Book to the Finish Line’. Whatever your writing goals are right now – writing a book to support your business, writing a novel, writing for competitions, writing down ideas for a book in a journal, writing a poem, a short story, a play, a song – these tips will help you be productive and keep you accountable.

When to write

• Pick the same time to write each day if possible.

• Decide if you will write every day, weekdays only, weekends only, or three times a week. Be realistic to suit your lifestyle and circumstances. It’s better to say, “I’m going to write for one hour three times a week” and stick to that, rather than say, “I’m going to write every day for three hours” if your life is too busy to accomplish such a goal. Set yourself up for success, not failure.

Stick to a schedule

• Schedule your writing time in your diary or calendar. This is important. If you don’t schedule writing time into your day, it won’t get done.

• You may want to use Google Calendar or another electronic diary. Set it up as a recurring event, and set a reminder to receive a notification on your computer and phone a few minutes before your writing time.

• I use Google Calendar for all my weekday business and personal events.

• However, if you want your ‘creative mind time’ to be away from electronic sources, or you’re not keen on technology, use a diary or physical calendar. You can set a reminder in your phone for 10 minutes before it’s time to sit down to write.

Get the atmosphere right

• Choose the place you feel most comfortable for writing.

• It might be the same place every day, like your home office.

• If home is full of distractions despite your best efforts, go to the library, or a café, or the beach. Wherever the words flow, go!

• If music helps you get into the writing mood, play your favourites.

• It might take a bit of experimentation. Just as you need to let your creative mind fly, be creative about what place works best for your writing mind.

• The important thing is sticking to your schedule.

Follow the masters: just write!

• Each writing session, just write. Don’t wait for inspiration!

• Give your internal critic a holiday during your writing sessions. There’ll be plenty of time later for making corrections and refinements.

Avoid distractions

• Ask your wife/husband/children/colleagues/flatmates to pretty-please not disturb you during writing time.

Know when to stop: Set the ‘ding’

• Set an alarm for the time you’ve allocated to your writing session. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 30 minutes or two hours. What matters is continuing to show up for yourself.

Just not getting there?

• If you’re not making the necessary progress on your own, you don’t have to do it alone! Consider a writing coach. This is particularly valuable if you’re trying to write a book – one that you know will be an endorsement for your business, or your memoir that’s been itching to come out for years. A coach will support and mentor you, provide a safe space for you to write your book and – importantly – keep you accountable. You’ll achieve your goals faster.

One of my biggest thrills for me still is sitting down with a guitar or a piano and just out of nowhere trying to make a song happen.

Sir Paul McCartney

I hope you have found this post ‘Setting yourself up for writing success’ useful.

Acknowledgements

Image photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

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Find out more about the Coaching Program ‘Get Your Book to the Finish Line’

Have you been wanting to write a book forever? But you ‘can’t find the time’, or ‘don’t know where to start’, or ‘don’t know if you can write’?

Or maybe you have a work in progress but have lost momentum in your writing.

Coaching with ‘Get Your Book to the Finish Line’ will teach you how to find the time. It’ll teach you how to start writing. It’ll bring accountability to your writing – so that you reach the finish line.

To find out more, click on the following link to book a free 30-minute call with Gail and find out if you meet the criteria for the program: https://meetings.hubspot.com/editors4you