Know Your Traits

You, too, can be a productive writer. One of the tricks is to work with—rather than against—your personal traits. In other words, use your traits to develop a writing habit that works for you.

Are you …

A morning glory or a night owl?

If you’re at your creative best in the morning, dedicate the start of your day to writing. If you’re at your best in the evening, plan to spend the end of your day writing. Choosing the start or end of your day means other things are less likely to get in the way. Even if you can only spend 30-minutes on a given day, you’ll plant a seed to come back to the next day.

A sprinter or a long-distance runner?

Do you have a short attention span? If so, set daily word counts. By setting word counts, you aren’t requiring yourself to sit for a set period of time. On days when your creative energy flows, you’ll reach your goal before you begin to feel the need to stretch. When it isn’t flowing, you’re free to get up and return after a break or later in the day to reach your daily count in spurts.

If you have staying power and/or need to stick with something for a while before your creative juices start to flow, the best way to get a discipline going is to set time goals. The amount of time you set for each day can vary, so be realistic. You’ll need to schedule days when you devote a good chunk to writing to make progress. On days when you don’t have enough time to warm up, do a small task such as reworking a paragraph.

An idea factory or a blank slate?

If you have more ideas than you need, then it’s time to get organized. For each possible writing project, establish how long it would take to write. Form a hierarchy by placing the project that will take the least amount of time on top, and so on. Get started with number one.

If, however, one project on the list keeps calling you, then that’s the one to start with, even if it will take the longest to write and you’re not sure it will see the light of day (read: publication). You have to do what you have to do, so don’t fight it. Fighting just eats up precious time.

If you suffer from the recurring problem of sitting down to write and drawing a blank, then start with some writing exercises. Chances are one of the exercises will click and become a longer project. You can also turn a newspaper article into a fiction or investigate a topic you’re burning to know more about. Whether you’re writing fiction, poetry, or nonfiction, come up with a question that baffles you and write to find the answer.

Deadline-driven or a self-starter?

If you’re deadline driven, then set deadlines. Find contests to enter. Take classes. Agree to exchange work with a friend by a set date and stick to it. Pitch a monthly column to a wesite or magazine. A series of columns can morph into chapters that eventually form a book.

If deadlines put you in panic mode, don’t set them. Draw up a plan instead. For example, if you’re writing a novel and you write 300 new words a day, you’ll have a 356-page draft in a year. Focus on day-to-day goals rather than a due date.

Now take what you’ve learned from above and develop your own writing habit.