My Writing Routines: A Guest Blog by Laura Drake

I’m not sure I’m a good example to follow when it comes to writing habits.  I can be a little…obsessive.

I ride motorcycles – 100,000 miles, since I learned how.  I ride a bicycle – 100 miles a week.  You see where I’m going with this.  I sit down and write from 4 am to 6 am in the morning.  Every morning, weekends included.

Ok, before you swear at me and move on to the next blog, read on just a bit – you may find something helpful here.

Randy Ingermanson (he has a wonderful website and ezine if you’re not familiar with him) has put forward the theory that you only have time and focus enough in your life for three big things.  Not that you can’t do more than three things, but if writing isn’t in the top three things you focus on, your odds of getting published diminish drastically.  And if you’re as old as I am, the only shot you’ll have is posthumously.   So number one, reassess your life and your priorities.  Can you put writing in the top three?  If not now, when?

I’m not suggesting you get up at 4 am to write.  I am a serious morning person, and I’ve just fallen into the habit of writing before I get ready for work every day.  But I do recommend you to have a routine.  Maybe you’re a night owl, and can write when the family is sleeping.  Maybe you can squeeze in two hours when the baby’s down for a nap.

I know, I’ve read articles about people who write on the back of register receipts in the parking lot of the grocery store.  Doesn’t work for me.  If I’m thinking about canned mushrooms, I can’t concentrate on how to get my protag out of the corner I’ve painted her into.  But if it works for you – do it!

Someone I know said it best when she compared writing a book with kneading dough.  If you don’t work with it, the yeast stops working, and you never get bread.  I find that working on my WIP every day keeps my subconscious working on the sticky parts.

Do I have days when I may only write a paragraph?  You bet.  Do I have days when I should use a pooper scooper on the result?  More than I like to admit.  But I’d have those days whether I was writing every day or not.

By sheer accumulation of hours, days, and sweat equity, I will be published.

You can too.

Laura Drake is a Southern California writer, CFO, grandma, knitter, and motorcycling fly-fisherwoman.  (Not necessarily in that order.)  She’s polishing her current Contemporary Western for submission before the Holidays.