How I Went From Writing 0 Words a Day to 10,000+ Words a Day and You Can Too
It wasn’t too long ago that finding me sat at my desk was a rare sight. My desk was more of a dumping ground than a workspace.
Fast forward to now and it’s a rare sight to see me not sat at my desk, even rarer still to not finding me writing.
So what changed?
First of all, I made the active decision that I didn’t want to waste my life. I’d spent my life wanting to write books but always let the fear stop me. After a series of unfortunate events in 2015, I decided there was never going to be a ‘right time’ to get the book finished, so why wait?
You never know what’s around the corner, so why put off working towards your dreams?
Here are just some of the ways I changed my mindset and went from writing nothing on your average day to being able to write over 10,000 words in a day.
Make lots of notes
Whenever you have an idea, jot it down. It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you, but it’s important that you write down something when that idea strikes.
I mostly use Notes on my phone as I can sync them with my laptop, but I’ve been migrating over to Evernote as I can organise notes with labels.
If you prefer something more visual, you could try Trello.
Alternatively, there’s the old-fashioned method of pen and paper.
Plan ahead
What do you want the plot of your story to be? What do you want the angle of your blog post to be? Use your notes to formulate a plan.
The further ahead you plan, the more you’ll get done when you sit down to write.
Take breaks
Breaks are important. Keep hydrated, eat properly, and don’t forget toilet trips.
Beware of distractions
The more things you do at once, the harder it is to concentrate.
If you’re a glutton for distractions, put some headphones in.
If noise distracts you, wear noise-cancelling ones but don’t play anything through them.
If music helps, listen to music (this is what I do).
There are even websites on the internet where you can listen to white noise to cut everything out around you.
Get a change of scenery
You’d be surprised the difference a change of scenery can make. It could be as small as a different room in the house or office, or going to a new cafe or park to write in.
Try different locations and see which you like the best.
My favourites are coffee shops inside bookstores. There’s nothing better than the smell of coffee and books!
Break it down
I don’t want to go into the topic of marginal gains too much here (that’s a whole different topic), but the more you break down your end goal, the easier it is to achieve.
So instead of saying, ‘I want to publish a book’, start by writing that first chapter.
Then the next.
And the next.
And so on, until it’s time to edit.
Breaking your end goal down into smaller goals makes them less intimidating and these small wins all add up to you reaching your end goal.
Don’t edit as you go along
If you are one of the many, many writers who edits as they go along, I guarantee you this is why you don’t write as much as you could during your writing sessions.
Each time you sit down to edit, not only are you taking time away from writing, but you’re switching mindsets.
Writing and editing are two very different disciplines.
Some people are good at both, most of us are good at one or the other.
Either way, you can’t be in an editor’s and writer’s mindset at the same time.
If you happen to like editing as you go along, ask yourself why?
There shouldn’t be any pressure to show your first draft to anyone until the piece is ready.
(Please note I said ‘the piece’, not you. You’ll most likely never be ready. I’ve published two books and I’m still never ready, even if, deep down, I know that the books themselves are.)
I learnt not to edit as I go along unintentionally — each night when I got home from work, I only had a few hours to write.
The more time I spent editing what I’d already done, the longer it would take me to get the idea out of my system.
First drafts should be about getting the idea down. Everything else can be done afterwards.
That way, you can possess the writerly mindset for months if you wish, then switch to an editor’s mindset when the first draft is complete.
I had the first draft of my second book, What Happens in London, finished before the first one was even published.
However, it wasn’t published until almost a year later because I spent so long editing it.
And that’s what you should do, too.
Writing a book is far more about editing than it is about writing.
Now that I’ve learnt to separate the two, I look forward to editing more than I used to.
I still don’t enjoy it as much as writing, but I don’t dread it like I did when I first started to edit What Happens in New York.
Over to you
Training your brain to think about writing differently isn’t easy. It requires hard work, tenacity, and determination.
But I can promise you that it is possible. If you put the work in.
Want more tips on writing and productivity?
Productivity for Writers is out on 29 September!
A version of this post was originally published at www.writerscookbook.com on October 17, 2016.
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