any tips for staying consistent with writing?
i love doing it but at the same time i find it soooo hard to maintain my motivation despite the fact that i'm generally pretty happy with my work😭
i admire the way you're so active honestly--even if you sometimes get attacked to post faster, it still seems very quick to me :)) (& i love your blog in general hehe)
Hellloooooo!!!! How are you?! Hope you are doing very well this beautiful Tuesday~
Ah yess… consistency, an elusive thing even to me, especially if it’s staying consistent with one type of writing
I am active on tumblr in everything but writing hehehe, but yes, my life has been threatened to get me to write more… and it was only mildly effective, but I have some other advice rather than getting random people to threaten you with knives don’t worry!!!
I have also watched a billion videos on youtube and tiktok about consistency because I put the Pro in Procrastinating B) so this is a mix of that advice and my own!!!
Stephen King (king of consistency) — sets a word count everyday and meets that word count every. Single. Day. Hell or highwater, word count, birth of his child? Word count. Getting hit by a bus? Word count. I think he does like 1,200–1,666 something like that
He basically broke down the average length of a book (70,000-90,000), broke that down to how many words it would take to write it in 60 days and does that like a fucking god~
For me, CONSISTENCY is easier when I have different things to work on— so I love whump, mainly whump, and whump is most of what I write, whump and angst(my babies), but I also love hero x villain, and fantasy, and so I have a lot of areas to go when I get bored of one genre of writing which happens so much it’s annoying!!
But CONSISTENCY doesn’t have to be big, or giant, or a pain in the arse, it can be as small as —
I will write 500 words everyday, 100 words everyday
I will write for ten minutes everyday
I will write five hours each week
I will write a chapter a week
I will write every morning for fifteen minutes first thing, half an hour at night
and if you can stick to the goal you set out; CONGRATULATIONS!!! You are consistent!!! And that builds momentum because you’re like “oh wait i can do this everyday” and then it becomes habit and then you get the writing disease and never want to stop and then it becomes a problem but my point is, you can shape CONSISTENCY to be whatever you want, and whatever works for you — some people like goals, I like lofty ideas of time
There is this idea of all great writers have writing routines — so like some writers wrote in the morning everyday, some at night consistently, they made a writing space, I think Roald Dahl wrote in the shed and that was his writing space for writing and only writing to get him in the headspace— all very pretentious stuff, but it has its merits— think about what a writing routine would look like for you… or if you’re like me and routine actively works against you and makes you feel bad when you miss the deadline, work around the writing routine and write in sporadic bursts instead— it’s all about what works for you!!!
So I think keep it exciting and entertaining for you!!! Because if you don’t enjoy it, you will not do it at all— switch it up, make a list of tropes that you like or want to try out, write an AU on your favourite whump series, whatever you want— and I mean there’s so many prompts on tumblr
Motivation is a fickle friend… in fact it is more like an absent father where you only have the idea of the thing consistently — what I mean is that if you wait for motivation you’ll never write.
So some tips to write more without motivation, that can silence that little evil kermit in your head telling you to write more, idiot:
Some people find it better to make a routine,
some people set a timer and write in that amount of time (I find this helpful af) — for reading and writing!!! It’s so deliberate and if you only have fifteen minutes, that’s all you set the timer for :)
^^ also if you’re lazy and need something to kick you up the arse I recommend the alarm one because it is just so efficient and idiot-proof, I can do it, that’s proof enough!! You even end up getting into a groove sometimes and want to continue after the timer goes off, in which case, set it again!!! It’s so good.
Some people plan/outline their writing projects — pfffttt, what- what nerds… I definitely don’t wish I was one of them nerds *wipes tears*
Some people need music/tv shows/youtube videos/podcasts, other form of distraction to work — recently re-watched all of queen’s gambit and wrote, bout to start it again after this hehehe, but it helps distract your dumb monkey brain, so your dumb writing brain can flourish
Some people write a lot in focused bursts— so they choose a day or two during the week, sit down and bang out 6 hours of writing (like freaks of nature) [i’m only insulting them cause I’m jealous] and then do that every week consistently!!!
Basically… think of how you studied in school/college, and use that to work— that’s what helped me, I need noise and constant distractions, but if someone tries to talk to me it’s over, or if somebody distracts me with something more fun I’m not doing any work
So to summarise because that is a lot of chunks of writing;
Set some type of goal; define what consistency looks like to you and stick to it (you can start small and you can stay small, you’d be more consistent than people who say they want to write a novel in a week and don’t get anything done)
Pick what works for you — don’t say you’ll write everyday at 6pm for 20 minutes when you know you usually have dinner at that time. If you want to write, make time, you can always make time if it’s something you want to do
Figure out what works for you and do that!!! — the study example again, however you focus, use that and do it!!
And finally keep it entertaining and fun for you, if it feels like work when it’s a hobby, you’re doing it wrong😇
HOLY FUCK THAT’S LONG!! Sorry for the rambles, hope this helps somewhat Bedtime-scenarios (also your PFP is BALLER!!!! Love it, so ethereal and romantic mmmmm)
