Wednesday, February 8, 2023

One Hour Early or One Hour....

Wake up early for your writing time 1, 2, 3...hints

1. Set your clock early by 15 minute increments until you have an hour that is for your writing. If you choose to shower, make coffee, workout then plan that time prior to the one hour that will be your writing time. 

2. Plan things the night before. What can you do to make tomorrow morning have an hour for you and your story? Chores, shower, got to bed early and avoid napping as you work on this. Hey, set up the coffee maker so it is an easy push for the next day. Set the clock. Set up your writing space and keep it ready. Think about what part of your story you will work on and plan that out too. 

3. Morning of....DO NOT HIT SNOOZE....get out of bed after one yawn and a stretch. Head to the day you planned but Set a timer. One hour on that story is not optional. 

And once you have done this for a week reward yourself somehow...dessert, a walk, a book or movie...it's up to you. 

Habits are formed by doing something over 20 times...make this a habit if it works for you!!

Finish the book. Finish the book. Finish the book. YOU GOT THIS!

My thoughts on this...I have hypothyroid issues and mornings are tough due to chronic fatigue. So saying I will manage an hour early and I have tried I am not usually successful at it. 

So if morning isn't for you follow my ideas on this. I work Monday through Friday full time. I have a 35 minute ride to and again from work. That is when I listen to books. So when I get home it's supper, chores, kids, pets....and so I jump on what I can and when 8pm comes that hour is mine. Pajamas on. At my desk or where I write in bed. (By then I need my feet up and Jammies are comfortable for writing...but no sleeping.) 

8pm I begin. I work on the scene I had in mind but I do not go back and correct any scenes from the previous writing. We want to finish the book so you cannot edit an unfinished book. Think about that. 

So my routine of this has at times made it where this seems to be my best creative time when my brain now thinks story time. And a timer helps, music or TV on low....mostly I have found I need noise but I rarely pay attention to the TV. 

And as I write I really do not even correct typos or errors. I just work on story. Sometimes I don't even worry about quotation marks for speech. I just roll as fast as I can but I also work by writing scenes- out of order. I never pay attention to the number of pages I write or the word count I have reached. I have scenes that whirl in my head out of order and I write those and later work them in order. I then add scenes in between to bring a story together. 

It's an hour a day and you have to find your hour and what works for you. Now get to it!