Sit Down and Write – 5 Tips to Help You Keep Writing

Writers have a love/hate relationship with the blank page. Whether it’s a white screen with a blinking cursor or the empty page in a notebook, we see it as the stuff of nightmares. The fears vary widely, ranging from thoughts of not being good enough, to not living up to the success of a previous manuscript. To combat this, we often resort to any and everything to avoid it. doing it. So today it’s time to quit with the excuses, sit down, and write.

I know. It’s easy to say and hard to do.

As people who make up things for a living, we tend to be really creative. We can come up with dozens of reasons not to sit down and write. Here are some tips to move past the fear and jumpstart your writing.

1. Set a timer. I don’t know about you, but I can push through almost anything for fifteen minutes. So I promise to write for a quarter of an hour, no matter how difficult. What happens is that after a few minutes the fear diminishes and the words begin to flow. After fifteen minutes, I no longer want to quit writing.

2. Promise a reward. I have discovered that I can be bought. So I dangle that reward in front of myself and write through the agony to get what I want. Figure out what motivates you—chocolate, time with friends, shopping—and offer it as a self-reward for spending time pounding out words.

3. Walk away. I know, it sounds like the opposite of what we’re trying to accomplish. But truthfully, being a writer is incredibly tough. If you can walk away, you should. If you are meant to be a writer, you won’t be able to stay away long. The words will draw you back. And when you return, you’ll be stronger and more confident that this is what you’re supposed to be doing.

4. Set a date. Not an end date, a writing date. Round up a writing friend or two and meet to write. It doesn’t have to be an in-person date, you can meet online just as well. But having someone else who is counting on you makes a difference. It’s just harder to disappoint someone other than ourselves.

5. Do it anyway. At times, the fear is bigger than any promised reward or other mind game. That is the point, for me, that the rubber meets the road. This is when I metaphorically square my shoulders and face down my fear. I push through whatever has stopped me in my tracks and force myself to write. It’s not fun, and there’s no promised reward at the end. But every single time I’ve done this, the act becomes victory. It’s made me stronger as a writer, and as a person.

These are things that have helped me. What would you add to the list? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!