The Tucson Writers Workshop

Ideas about how much or how little time will be spent on writing vary greatly from writer to writer. But in the end, the most important idea to grasp is that you can write every day. I would even go so far as to say that you must write every day.

Although it’s clear that not every writer can free up enough time to get a lot accomplished, the trick is to work with whatever time that you have, and use a different perspective to reach your goals.

If you only have a few minutes a day available, you’ll be hard pressed to compare your output to other writers who write on a full-time basis. But you'll do yourself a huge favor by spending less time and getting more accomplished. It’s another case of working smarter, not harder.

Don’t set unrealistic goals, like a chapter a day, with revisions. Instead, set your goal for the amount of words written, or set goals by the page. Even if you have to do it by the word, your goals should be possible to accomplish if you stop obsessing about the time going by.

No matter what else is going on, you can still set a realistic goal, and reach your daily quota just by staying focused.

What do I mean by staying focused?

You should give yourself specific tasks (even above and beyond your quota), and really work on scheduling these tasks. Conducting research or making phone calls can really side-track you, if you let yourself lose your focus.

So don’t set yourself up for failure by overlooking the need to tackle anything and everything that comes along.

Just keep the tasks that need your attention, at the top of your to-do list, and at the end of the day, take a few extra steps to check back on your task list for the items that can be crossed off.

Then use this information to quantify the amount of progress that you’ve made.

As a daily affirmation, you can focus on the following:
First, write well.
Second, write often.
If you can realize these twin goals, the rest will be easy!

Now, please write a comment about this…