The Right Path to Jumpstart Your Writing Career & Achieve Writing Success
Think your writing career is down the drain so far you can't get a drain snake long enough to pull it back out?
Thankfully, you don't need a long drain snake to retrieve it.
All you need is motivation, determination, a commitment to putting in a lot of hard work, a sharp sword to slash through all forms of resistance (okay, not a sharp sword; just a thick skin, positivity, and self-discipline), the energy to move your hands, and words on the page.
You see, if you were designed to be a writer, it's your job to make that happen. Unfortunately, you're not a writer if you just think about writing. You're a writer when you have words on the page and when you have developed a habit of writing.
The good news is, there is still time to jumpstart your writing career and start achieving your writing dreams.
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now." ~ Chinese Proverb
The next best time to write is now. Not tomorrow because tomorrow is more convenient, or the start of a new month. If you are really serious about writing, you need to start NOW–without delay. Jot some ideas down on paper. Next, spend the next 10 minutes writing–can you write for just 10 minutes?! While 10 minutes is a great place to start, if you have more time, make good use of it.
Just grab a piece of paper (or a few) or open a new document (it doesn't really even matter what program you use–MS Word, Evernote, your email client, Notepad. Just pick one.). Then, once you sit down to write, focus on getting words on the page for 10 minutes.
Once you've done that, figure out a schedule that you can stick to. At this point, don't try to be too ambitious. Right now you're just splashing in the water puddles (or the kiddy pool). Set a small time or word count goal and write for 10 minutes every day. Then when you've done that for a few days, bump it up to 20 minutes.
I want to help you keep writing because I know how hard it can be sometimes, so make a slow and steady transition to writing more and more. Take this scenario, for instance: if you were to jump off a boat into the ocean, with limited prior experience, you would eventually wear yourself out treading water.
If you're lucky, someone would rescue you and pull you out of the water before you lost strength completely. If that happened, would you be likely to jump off the boat a second time? Probably not. For the inexperienced, it would most likely be a bad experience and taking the risk again would be a bad idea because you can actually drown in the ocean.
So, start at a slow and steady pace. Instead of setting super-high goals and having super-high expectations, at this point, focus on small steps because that will help you increase your chances of success. Just focus on getting words on the page on a regular basis. Once you've developed your writing routine, set some bigger goals, such as "write one new short story or article every week."
Are you ready to write? It's not too late to jumpstart your writing career!
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