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How To Increase Your Writing Productivity

By on July 3, 2016
How To Increase Your Writing Productivity - Writer's Life.org www.writerslife.org/

You often hear of writers who are able to produce book after book, they seem to constantly be able to write, release great work, and see it published, while you continuously struggle to get one manuscript into a decent format.

As any writer knows, getting down to writing, and being able to write consistently is only half the battle.

Even if you are able to get the content done, there is still researching, re-drafting, editing and finding a suitable publisher before a book can be considered ‘finished.’

If you choose to go down the self-publishing route then of course there is all the marketing to think of as well. Nowadays keeping up with social media, communicating with your readers, organising book tours, writing blog posts and so on is all part of the job.

So how do you become a more prolific writer and increase your writing productivity in order to get more work out there, and hopefully make a better living out of it too?

Here are some tips to help you.

1.Be disciplined

One of the greatest struggles any writer can have is finding self-discipline. You don’t have anyone expecting you in an office at a certain time, you don’t have a particular amount of work to get done in any given day. You don’t have anyone expecting your book to be finished by a certain date.

It can be easy with this lack of structure to find that the days pass you by, and you can get so distracted by everything else going on in your life that you don’t do as much work as you should. In order to succeed however, you must have iron-clad self-discipline, and put your writing first.

If you are feeling tired, stressed, or under the weather you must keep writing.

If all your friends are going for a mini-break and want you to take the day off, or you want to give the house a spring clean, or you are desperate to watch another episode of that series you love, you must keep writing.

Thats’s not to say you can’t have breaks, and holidays like in any other role. But only when you have achieved what you need to. Being a writer gives you flexibility like no other job, but if you take advantage of that you’ll never get anything done!

2. Set goals, and stick to them

Without any structure to your days and weeks it can be easy to drift half-heartedly from one task to another without ever really focusing.

Start with your end goal, when do you want to finish your book, for example? Once you know that then write down everything you need to do to achieve that, create a timeline and then structure your weeks and days so that you can get there.

Giving yourself a word count each day is a good place to start too.

3. Understand how you work

Only you know when you are at your most creative and productive. If you are not a morning person then you are simply setting yourself up for failure if your target is to write 2000 words before 8am.

Be realistic about the time you have and what you can hope to achieve during that time. While setting goals and being disciplined is essential, you need to make these goals realistic otherwise you’ll end up missing your deadlines and beating yourself up about it - which is not productive at all.

Be positive

Everyone has an off day from time to time, and undoubtedly there will be times where you don’t manage to get everything done that you wanted to.

The important thing is to not let it get to you. Start each day with new resolve otherwise you’ll find it is all to easy to give up. Constantly remind yourself how proud you’ll be if you finish your book. Keep that in mind and use it as inspiration to carry on.

Increasing your writing productivity is easy providing you get yourself into the right frame of mind and remain determined to get it done. Stay organised, stick to your goals, and we know you’ll feel fantastic when you achieve them!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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