December Writing Challenge: Check In #2

It’s the middle of the month, writers! How go your efforts to write every day? Are you managing to get in some time regardless of your schedule? Are the words continuing to accumulate between work and shopping and plotting festive dinners? Perhaps you find yourself sneaking the time. Jotting longhand in a notebook in the waiting room at the dentist, or waiting to pick up your kids from school.

No matter. The effort is what counts here. What I most want for you this month is to force your brain to show up at the party; make yourself write every day so that your mind understands what you expect of it. Ultimately, you may not be the type of writer who writes every single day once December is over, but you will see (and so will your subconscious or your muse or whatever you want to call that creative inner part of you) that writing is truly a habit, and your mind is a muscle, and training it all to work on command is a matter of repetition. If you only write when inspiration strikes, you’re not going to write on a regular basis, and while that can be a fun approach if you only write for your own enjoyment, it won’t get you far if you’re intent on writing for publication.

So keep at it! If you’ve missed a few days, don’t worry about it, just get right back in there and recommit to writing every day. Each morning, think of where your writing time will fit. Plan for it. Make it happen. If it’s important to you, it deserves a space in your schedule. And don’t feel you absolutely must work on the same project each day. I don’t recommend starting something new whenever you get a little stuck, but it can also be a good idea to have one or two back-burner projects that you can play with when your primary project gives you serious trouble. Just keep writing.

And for those of you working on secret projects, you keep writing, too! Play! Enjoy yourselves! Let your creative wings stretch a little wider, fly a little farther afield. Writing is hard work, but it should also be fun, so use your mystery project to remind yourself of all the things you love about your craft.

Get to it, writers! Wishing you a wonderful, productive week.