We’ve reached the end of the Morning Writing Challenge! This week has not been an easy one to do this in, what with everything going on with the election and all, but we did it anyway. You have all my respect and admiration for sticking with your writing through thick and thin.
And, if you’ve been following along with the writing tips but haven’t participated in the challenge, two things: 1) well done for learning more about how to have a successful morning writing practice, and 2) I’m going to tell you today about a chance for a do-over if you’d like one.
First, let’s review what we’ve accomplished and what we learned + one more bonus tip. Then I’ll tell you about how to keep this all going.
Celebrate Your Accomplishments
With writing, it’s SUPER important to celebrate any and all accomplishments or successes. It’s waaaaaaay too easy to focus on what we didn’t do, and discount what did do.
Here are some accomplishments to consider celebrating this week:
- Committing to the Morning Writing Challenge and saying “Yes” to your writing (whether you wrote or not)
- Reading and learning from the writing tips I’ve been sharing.
- Showing up for any number of attempts at morning writing.
- Showing up to write at ANY time of day to write.
- Writing successfully for any length of time.
- Writing more regularly than you’ve been writing.
- Writing in the face of incredibly intense distractions.
- Cataloging the writing you DID do and tallying it up.
What We Learned This Week ✓
In order to help us more fully integrate what we learned this week, let’s briefly review the writing tips we’ve studied together.
I’ve shared them here in a clickable list so you can click through and read more about each one. (Note that there are two tips in each blog post so the links for #1 and #2 will take you to the same place, for example.)
Tip #1: Set your “lights out” time.
We set a “lights out” time to guarantee we get enough sleep AND are able to get up more easily for our appointed morning writing time.
Tip #2: Have a single project to focus on.
When we focus on a single project at a time, it reduces decision making paralysis and makes it easier to jump in and get to work each day.
Tip #3: Be ready for the “day after perfect.”
When we have a “perfect” writing day, we may be more likely to self-sabotage the next day. Similarly, when we far exceed our day’s writing goals or push ourselves to keep writing, we may experience a resistance backlash the next day, making it harder to write.
Tip #4: If you didn’t write today, start over tomorrow.
There’s always a new day, and we don’t have to wait around for a far off perfect time to restart. If we didn’t write today, we can start over at the earliest next available opportunity.
Tip #5: Boost your focus with timed writing sprints.
We can use timed writing sprints to help us keep our focus on our writing — and track our writing time too, which helps us better appreciate all the hard work we’re doing and progress we’re making.
Tip #6: Supercharge your writing with group writing sprints.
We can write with other writers in group writing sprints to heighten our determination, commitment, energy, and passion for writing. Writing with people who understand what we’re doing helps end writer’s isolation and helps us feel like part of a team.
Tip #7: On tougher days, try focusing on “ebb writing.”
Even when the going gets tough, we can keep moving our writing forward by focusing on easier writing tasks like making minor revisions or checking for continuity, to keep our hands in our drafts and keep our momentum going. We can also write for super small chunks of time to jumpstart ourselves.
Tip #8: Block out the distractions.
We can use distraction blockers and tools to help ourselves stay focused on our writing and protect our writing time.
Tip #9: Create “sacred writing time.”
We adjust our mindset and our logistics and boundaries to create dedicated appointments with ourselves for writing, knowing and trusting in the value and importance of writing in our lives.
Tip #10: Set yourself up for success.
We design our writing lives for success by setting up our physical and digital environments to make it easier to write instead of doing other things.
And here’s a last bonus tip for you:
Tip #11. Writing begets more writing.
A long time ago I was taught about a study of academic writers by Robert Boice, where he found that writers who write regularly (5 to 7 days per week) are TWICE AS LIKELY to have frequent creative thoughts as writers who write intermittently.
Have you noticed this over the course of our 5 days together? It might be a little early to tell, but what I’m noticing myself is that words and writing and writing actions are coming even more quickly and easily to me this week than usual. It’s exciting to see and remember how when I up my own writing game, I really see and feel the rewards. How about you?
How to Keep This All Going
If you’ve benefitted from this experience this week, first, I’m truly thrilled. I could not have hoped for a more lovely group of writers to participate!
If you’re interested in keeping your momentum going (and I hope you are!), here’s my recommended plan:
- Set a regular writing schedule for yourself and put it on your calendar.
- Find a way to create supportive group energy around your daily writing practice. (Pro tip: Join our Called to Write community and be part of our daily writing sprints!)
- Fine tune your writing practice as you go along. Any “failure” is not an actual failure, it’s information about what’s working and what’s NOT working, and gives you insight into what you need to adjust to make it easier to keep going, e.g. writing for shorter lengths of time, adjusting your start time, tweaking your distraction blockers, etc.
- Reach out to me for help if you need it. I offer short 15-minute laser coaching sessions at an affordable rate and we can do A LOT in that time span, especially because you’ll already have a shorthand understanding of the kinds of recommendations I make, so we can easily fine tune them for you together. My booking link is here. Note: If you haven’t had a free writing plan session with me yet this year, you’re welcome to start there.
A Chance for a Do-Over… or a Do-Again!
If you didn’t write this week or participate in the challenge as thoroughly as you wanted to or just plain want to do it again, there WILL be a chance for a do-over or a do-again. We’re setting up a course based version of the writing challenge inside my Called to Write community, which means that if you join us, you’ll have a chance to do it all again, alongside other daily writers.
Please note we do have financial aid available.
Look what we shared, writers! 👇
Thanks so much for following along with me!
Speak Your Mind