Within the pages of his memoir, Stephen King details his two-step writing process:
Start writing.
Don’t stop writing until reaching the wordcount goal (2k words for King).
Sounds like a dream.
But I’m not a professional novelist, am without the luxury of shirking my day job (which I love, by the way) to concoct stories and write all morning, and this sounds like pure fantasy.
Is it?
Each day, I get out of bed early to tend to my young kiddo, have a bit of time to sip coffee and fully wake before hygiene activities, breakfast, and starting my workday. After work, there are chores and mom duties.
By the time I have a chance to sit down, I’m on hour 14 of my day and am losing steam. Two hours of television with my partner usually follows and then it’s off to bed.
I told myself I had no time to write for a long time, but I’m seeing now that I was grossly incorrect.
I mean, I’m a writing coach. I spend part of my workday ensuring writers make constant progress on their work. Because writing is work (even if it doesn’t bring in any of that proverbial bacon right away).
I recognized that for my clients, but I failed to see my own writing in the same way.
I’m a writing coach, a story development editor, and—yes—a writer. So, I’ve reprioritized writing in my life.
Two days ago, I sat down to write because I got the itch. You know the one.
Banged out about 1,500 words in an hour, the most I’ve written in a single sit-down in a long time. Felt good about what I had written, closed my laptop.
Then yesterday, I scheduled an hour of writing time in my workday. Yes, you read that right. I didn’t want to lose that momentum, so I took an hour of what I formerly identified as “me time,” and worked it into my schedule. Wrote another 1,000 words during that hour.
Which got me thinking…
If I can write for one hour a day, I can reasonably write a novel in 90-120 days, which means that by the summer, I could be massaging my second draft instead of wrestling with the first draft.
Now that is the dream.
I have a novel in progress and a couple of flash fiction pieces, all of which need to be written. Getting that writing hour into my workday is how I prioritize writing and hold myself accountable.
Will you prioritize your writing?
Happy writing!
❤ Fallon