I decided when I was planning out my 2020 goals that I was no longer going to let working a full-time job interfere with my writing. Yes, when I come home, I’m exhausted, both mentally and physically. When I get up in the afternoon, I’m still exhausted. LOL.
But I gave myself a timeline at the beginning of the year. Because this is the year I’m going to go completely freelance. Yes, it’s going to take some time, because I’m not making a full-time income from writing or the audiobooks I record or the stationery shop I really want to open but haven’t yet.
You might wonder… what does this have to do with writing and revisions? Very little, really, but it’s on my mind as I work on Reapers 3 revisions. The reason is… I’m trying to keep a habit going. I don’t write every day, but I do most every day. My goal is to write every day, without fail, but I’m not going to give up on that goal because I miss a day here and there.
And since I started this writing habit, I’ve gotten more done in the last 43 days than all of 2019. Not by tackling huge word counts every day, though there have been a few big days, and I think sticking to this write every day goal has contributed to that a lot.
It’s kind of like doing 10 situps every day. You do your 10, some days maybe you don’t have time. But eventually, you finish that 10 in like five seconds so you decide to do 20 or 30. Pretty soon, you’re knocking out 50 situps a day. That’s been my experience with this writing habit goal. When I started, it was 250-300 words a day. From there, it’s just grown.
Probably the biggest factor in creating this new writing habit was my Patreon. Because I committed to posting an installment of a novel every single week of 2019. Which meant, I had to write it, I had to edit it, and remember to post it. It was really hard for the first few months. I had to keep up with it and I didn’t have a finished draft. Eventually, I wrote ahead of where I was posting and managed to finish it weeks before the installments needed to post. A large part of that was because I built this great writing routine.
I think because I did that, I’ve managed to get light years ahead on Bloodlines 2 and get a huge chunk of Reapers 3 revisions done at the same time. Because I’d work on one project, hit my daily goal, and usually surpass said goal. But I still felt like writing, so I’d pull out the other story and work on that one. Because 10 situps isn’t enough for me anymore.
So all of you struggling to write with a full-time job that exhausts you, trust me I understand. Start with those 10 situps. Don’t give yourself the opportunity to make excuses as to why you can’t do them.
If I can do it, you can too.
If you’re interested in learning more about my revision process, this week’s video is about how I start revisions on my stories. Give it a thumb’s up if you like it and subscribe to the channel for more videos like this!
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