I wish that I wrote every day. I’m working toward being organized and scheduled enough that I work – writing, editing, publishing – 30 hours a week. I admit, the last few months, there have been weeks when I didn’t work at all, or only a few hours. Things are better but I still have plenty of days where I spend an hour getting things done and that’s it. That’s not acceptable to me.

The one thing that I have going for me is that I don’t give up on wanting to be a writer, wanting to publish books. I have ideas and projects and people that I want to work with. I also have had a lot of personal drama, financial problems, raising a special needs child alone problems. Problems. Nothing that all of you haven’t had to deal with too. Life is just like that. It’s hard so that we grow and learn and, for writers, it’s hard so we actually have stories to tell. The Universe is such that we were allowed to be born, for which we should be grateful, and after which the Universe owes us nothing else. It’s up to us to keep moving forward.

But how? How do you pick yourself up when you’ve had a hard day? How do you keep writing, putting huge chunks of yourself down on paper, and do it well, while struggling not to spend the day in bed under the covers? I’ve had enough of those days lately, so here’s what I’ve been doing:

• If you have to quit, do it in small doses – Sometimes the struggle to keep it all together is so much harder than the things you’re trying to get done. If you’ve been working 60 hour weeks or dealing with family drama or been sick, the best thing to do might be to take a day off. Don’t try to write anything. Relax, decompress, take a nap, whatever makes you feel better. You deserve it. The important thing is to keep an eye on these “breaks”. Don’t do it two days in a row. Once you start saying, “I didn’t write yesterday but I don’t feel like it today so maybe tomorrow,” you’re slipping into the abyss of giving up completely.
• Get happy – put on some dancing music, go for a walk in the sunshine, eat a brownie. Do something that you know will make you feel better, and which has a short time investment. You don’t want to spend the day at the beach because then you’re not writing all day. But taking your dog for a run only eats up an hour of your time and still got you out of the house.
• Get organized – Jumping back into writing or editing, when you have a lot on your mind, can seem daunting. It might be better to “prime the pump” by getting yourself ready to write. Lead your brain down the path toward writing by cleaning your desk, writing a story to-do list, organizing your notes or your project white board. It helps you focus on writing-related activities and off your personal problems.
• Look at what’s nearly done – I tend to write several stories at once, jumping back and forth between them as the mood strikes me. One thing that I do when I haven’t written in a while is to figure out which story is the closest to being done. It’s often easier to sit down and bang out the last four hundred words on a story than it is to start something completely new. Plus you get the bonus of having finished something.
• Write something else – I feel strongly that part of what keeps my readers interested even when I don’t have new fiction out is the content I produce for my blog, and other websites like SF Signal and Functional Nerds. A big part of my push to get my life back together has been to commit to getting my non-fiction blog writing back on track. When I don’t want to work on anything else, I can still usually think of a blog post. Talking here, about writing, movies, or anything else, is easier because it’s really just me talking to you. I do want to sound literate and I do edit a little, but for the most part I turn on my computer and let the words come out. When I’m done, I’ve accomplished something, I’ve connected with the world, I’ve got another 1000 words out in public. Writing doesn’t always have to be hard. Make sure that you’re writing about something related to your work though, because that will help train you to be thinking about writing, and putting words on the page in relation to your writing. You can talk about your favorite story, do a book review, or rant about how much you hate the ampersand.* Do a guest post somewhere (you probably know other writers who’d be happy to have you create some content for their site, just ask).
• Do your research – It’s ok to not write if you’re doing the work that will prep you for writing. And let’s face it – we all have days where we want to lie back and let someone else talk to us. Don’t feel like doing anything but watching TV? Fine, you can do that today. As long as you’re watching documentaries about the evolution of tigers for that big felines in space story you’ve wanted to write. Spend it online, reading about the Ottoman empire for that historical you’ve been outlining. Or you can listen to a podcast about how story structure. As long as you’re learning something you need to know in order to write well, you’re not wasting your time.
• Read the greats – I was stuck for a voice on a recent short story until I read Ray Vukcevich’s collection, BOARDING INSTRUCTIONS. Even though my story doesn’t read like any of his, “listening” (in my head) to someone else’s voice helped me find my own. Read a new hit, or an old classic, and you may find a story idea that you hadn’t thought of, or see someone else’s answer to a plot problem you’ve struggled with. Reading, for me, always feels like recharging, and I like being able to say, “Well I didn’t write today, but I read the book that won the Hugo last year.” That’s accomplishing something. Plus you can write a book review of it when you’re done.
• This, Then That – make a deal with yourself. First you’re going to make the bed, then you’re going to open a new Word document, write your name at the top, and save it to your desktop. Next, you’re going to wash the dishes, and then you’re going to write two paragraphs on whatever comes out your brain. Keep doing that throughout the day and as long as you follow each non-writing task with a burst of writing, your list of things you have to do before you can write (we all have them) will diminish and your word count will go up.
• Track your hours – Tape a piece of paper to your wall and write down what you spent your writing time on, and how much of it there was. You may find you’re working more than you thought! Or you may see that you’re writing less than you imagined, which could help motivate you to work harder. At least you’ll know for sure.
• Don’t stop yourself – The first few things that you write when you’ve been away from your desk may feel clunky and wrong and bad. You may want to give up again. That’s more about getting used to using that part of your brain again than it is about your actual skill as a writer. Don’t give up! Remember the power of editing. You can fix almost anything, but you can’t edit a blank page.

I’m not where I want to be yet but doing these things is moving me in the direction.

* Note: I love the ampersand.