Prioritize Writing

Writing advice: If one wants to be a writer, one must write.

Lesson, distilled: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” - Stephen King, On Writing

Within the pages of his memoir, Stephen King details his two-step writing process:

1. Start writing.

2. 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