It ain't easy

It's not easy to do a lot of things but writing is its own brand of hard. It's not difficult to do it in terms of the logistics. In fact, the world has conspired against you to make it easier and easier to do your work. But there's always, it seems, something better to do than write.

My excuse roster is usually pretty simple: I have to clean all the dishes, pay all the bills, do a meal plan for the week, go to the market, cry in the car for a second, put the groceries away, clean the counter, check FB, Instagram, Email, Texts and my newsfeed (every ten minutes) and then I'll be ready. But by then the babysitter is going home and I'm exhausted and my husband just found out there's a Great British Baking Show season we missed. 

Oh well!

Yeah, everything you could be doing instead of writing will be there when you get back from your daily writing appointment. But so what do I mean by that?

Create a schedule. You can do it daily or weekly. But you put that appointment on the calendar and then you'll know exactly when you're going to show up for your writing, where you're going to be doing your writing, and how long you plan to write for. 

So just like a business date with another person, you're making a business date to write. You know, Monday night at 8:30pm, you are writing for one hour. And how do you know that? Sunday night at 9:30pm you decided and entered that info into your phone. That's how. Bonus points for people who do weekly schedules and stand by them.

Then set up your phone to beep or gong or whatever it does to give you a one hour warning and a ten minute warning before your session begins. That's a warning for the world regarding when you're going to unleash that creative voice that is dying to get out and kick the universe's ass with your originality and productivity. That's a warning to you you have ten more minutes and then YOU MUST PUT DOWN THAT SPONGE AND WORK ON YOUR SCREENPLAY!

Yep. You're going to be show up FOR YOURSELF HELLO! And do your writing. And that writing is not just a gift to you, it's a gift to the world. So for heaven's sake, get with the calendar and let's get this mofo done.

Just make it a simple practice. After two weeks, a habit will be formed and voila, I believe you'll be on your way to finishing your award winning whatever. 

Now that I've written all that, I have to do it myself. Ciao for now!

​-CGD