Over my extended winter hiatus, I’ve accomplished little to no writing at all. I want to be a writer, yet I don’t write on a regular basis. This has been a recurring theme in my life. One that I’m in the process of changing.
The truth is, I have been working on a story idea that first came to mind back in December but I haven’t starting writing it yet. I spend way too much time in the pre-writing/plotting/planning stage. I know deep down that this is nothing more than procrastination and a way for me to avoid writing the actual story, but I’ve convinced myself that it’s okay because it’s “just part of the process.”
But here’s the thing:
- Planning a story is not writing.
- Outlining a story is not writing.
- Thinking about a story is not writing.
Over the past twelve months, I’ve paid more attention to trying to build up my writing habit. One thing that I’ve noticed is that when I take a day or two off, those couple of days can easily lapse into weeks without writing. Getting back into the groove after such a long break isn’t easy and I often feel as though I’m starting from square one every time I do this.
It’s clear to me that I am a person who must write every day, especially while I’m doing the pre-writing stuff for my novel.
I’ve created a goal for myself and that is to set aside a minimum of fifteen minutes a day dedicated solely to writing something. It could be a blog post, the start of a short story, a flash fiction piece, or a writing exercise from one of the many craft books in my collection. What I write isn’t necessarily important, creating the habit is what matters here.
My dream is to be a writer, finish that novel, and become a published author. The one and only way to do that is to start writing and do it often.
