Note: This is Day 11 in the “Recharge Your Creative Batteries in 31 Days” Challenge. For the rest of July, we’ll be posting different ways for you to get yourself on the path to living in a creative flow and reaching your writing goals. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any.
You want to be a successful writer. You dream of seeing your name in print. You imagine what it will be like to attend your first book signing, not as a reader, but as an author.
Problem is, you’re just not there yet. In fact, you’re not even close.
Sure, you’ve written a bunch of stuff: a blog post here, a short story there. But that’s about it.
Your writer-friends on the other hand? They’re making shit happen. One of them recently got something published while another just quit her crappy day job and is now freelancing full-time.
So what’s your problem? Do they know a secret that you don’t?
I don’t know your writer-friends personally, but I’d be willing to bet money on the fact that they’re doing something consistently that you’re not: writing!
The Secret To Writing Success
If you want to be a successful writer, if you want to make your writing dreams a reality, there’s a big, important secret you need to know.
No, it’s not story structure (although you absolutely need to know that to ever get published). It’s not creativity exercises (but those do help). It’s not even being a better writer than everyone else.
It’s having a writing routine. Sounds simple, because it is.
A writing routine is the difference between a casual writer who dabbles now and then, and a successful writer who makes her dreams come true.
It’s not about someone being a better writer than you are or having more ideas than you do. It’s the fact that successful writers consistently show up to the page, every single day without exception or excuses.
When was the last time you did that?
Making Success Real
There are no shades of grey when it comes to being successful. Success is black and white—either you do the work every day and make the commitment to yourself/your writing or you don’t.
Plain and simple.
You can make excuses all you want and complain that you just can’t fit writing in every single day. That’s all fine and good.
While you’re making excuses, successful writers will be sitting down and putting words on the page.
If you want to be a successful writer too, you need to do these 3 things at the very least:
- Give Up Any and All Excuses—hard to do, yes, but worth it. Excuses hold you back from achieving things in your life. They keep you from fulfilling all the dreams you have for your writing. You only have so much time on this Earth, why waste it making excuses? I know you’re scared, we all are. But successful writers push through the fear because that’s what it takes. Nothing worthwhile is ever going to be easy.
- Get Into A Writing Routine and Never Stop—Stephen King writes every single day of his life (don’t believe me? Read On Writing). He shows up to the page. He does the work. Everything he writes may not be best-seller quality at first, but he knows that’s what revisions are for. He doesn’t let the possibility of writing something awful stop him from writing. First drafts are shit, that’s just how it is. But you can’t get to the good stuff without writing some shitty stuff first. Routine will help you get to the good stuff, dabble-writing here or there won’t.
- Push Through—stuff is gonna come up. Life will get in the way. You will feel the fear. The fear will almost paralyze you at times. But you gotta push through. You gotta keep working toward what you want. Feel the fear and do it anyways, that’s the mantra of successful writers. Adopt it for yourself.
Being a successful writer isn’t for everyone. It isn’t even for most of the writers out there who call themselves writers.
Yes, if you write anything at all you’re a writer, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be a successful writer. Success takes work. It takes perseverance. It takes believing in yourself and believing that every small step you take is moving you closer to your goal.
I’ll leave you with words from the brilliant Stephen King:
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented
individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work,”–Stephen King
Share With Us
What’s your writing routine like?
If you liked this post, please share it with your friends:
This is great stuff! And it stabbed me right in the heart of my problem: making myself sit down and actually write. Today sounds like a great day to tackle this problem!
Definitely a great day to tackle it! And once you get into a routine, you’ll feel sooooo much better: more creative, more flowy with your writing sessions and your best stuff will start coming out onto the page. I’d love to hear how it’s going in a couple weeks.
Yep, this post got to me, too! I know I need a routine, and what works for one person might not work for another. But Jen, do you mind sharing what your daily writing routine is like? Do you have set hours (like 10am – noon), or do you just tell yourself you’ll write for a certain amount of time each day, and you fit in the hours/minutes where you can?
My daily routine is to write first thing after I get up. So I get up, brush my teeth, take the dog out, come back inside, do my morning meditations, pour some water and make breakfast, then I sit down to check email and social sites while I eat. When I’m finished eating I do my start up exercises and then I’m off and writing. I don’t really set a time or amount of words. I’m more project-focused. So for example this morning I had to write a blog post for a client and also for InkyBites. Once those were done I took a break.
Thanks Jen! I’m thinking that a “first thing in the morning” schedule would make the most sense for me, too. This way, even if I don’t get to everything I want/need to do that day, at least it isn’t the writing that’s getting shoved to the side for “later” (which in my case, often means “never”). : / And I think that getting some writing done every morning will allow me to enjoy my afternoons/evenings much more (sans the enormous helping of guilt for being underproductive for yet another day).
Oh, and I’m about 1/4 of the way through your “Butt-In-Chair” book…LOVE it! I’m trying to actually do all of the exercises as I go through it, rather than my usual speed read (complete with empty promises that I’ll “do the exercises later”). It’s given me lots to think about, and some much-needed tough love. So, thank you for a great read, and I’ll keep you posted as I continue on with it!
I’m so glad the book is helping you! Definitely keep me updated on your progress. I can’t wait to see the results
After breakfast, I head to my office six mornings a week. On Wednesday morning I grocery shop. It gives me a break and gets me in the store before the crowds.
At 11:30 I get on the treadmill for 45 minutes, except Wednesday. i come back to my office about 2:30, after lunch and any kitchen chores. And time with my husband. He’s retired. I can’t ignore him all day long. After a break to fix dinner, eat, watch some TV news with my husband, I come back to the computer. Sometimes I write more. I’m editing a book, so it’s bits and pieces of writing. I also read some in the evenings. My husband watches his noisy movies and I stay in my office and do what I want. Works for us.
Barb
I’m glad to see you’re on a good schedule. Makes a huge difference in writing and in life!
My routine is basically getting most of my writing done early in the morning before heading to work. Throughout the day I will brainstorm or write down ideas which come to me, but my majority is done before going to work. I even have a routine for this time: novel and then business. If I start with business, I won’t ever get to my novel. It is a great way to start the day because then I am in great spirits for my day job. The weekends I will use to get extra business things done & work on short stories.
Sounds like you’re on the right track! And I like that you do your pleasure writing before your business writing. What a way to show the Universe which writing is most important to you.
[...] The Secret All Successful Creative People Know by Jennifer Blanchard at InkyBites [...]
[...] know, you’re a writer, you should be writing, [...]
[...] The Secret All Successful Creative People Know [...]