Many people set off to write their memoirs with considerable enthusiasm. Frequently however over the months and years it takes to complete the manuscript, their enthusiasm wanes and the memoir project that had seemed so interesting now begins to bore the writer is soon abandoned. I don’t think there was ever a writer whose interest […]

In this post, you will learn the many benefits of a regular writing practice.

Many people set off to write their memoirs with considerable enthusiasm. It’s a new project and it’s full of energy. This is going to be the greatest memoir the world has ever known!

How long can that last? Enthusiasm takes you only so far. Over the months and years it takes to complete a manuscript, the initial enthusiasm wanes and the memoir project that had seemed so interesting at its onset now begins to bore the writer. We begin to hear about the writer “trying to write a memoir.” Unless the writer changes attitude, the memoir will soon be abandoned.

Most writers who quit could have been successful but for the fact they did not develop the habit of writing. They needed to develop a regular writing practice. Some people can succeed with irregular writing but most cannot.

Waxing and waning of interest is normal.

I don’t think there was ever a writer whose interest in a project has not taken a nosedive. While waning interest is normal, nosedives are particularly troublesome if your writing depends on feeling rather than writing habit. You are not likely to continue writing if on a given day you do not feel like writing. But, as I tell all my coaching and editing clients (apologies to all the Buddhists out there for paraphrasing a Buddhist mindset): “You feel like writing, you write. You don’t feel like writing, you write.”

It’s as simple as developing a habit and as complicated!

There has been much research done on the utility—and necessity—of habits in achieving success. Habits, for instance, make it easy for us to know what the next step ought to be. Riding a bicycle is a habit. Once we learn to ride we do not think about what the next step might be. We say it comes naturally. Well, it doesn’t, of course, come naturally; it comes as a matter of habit.

What to do?

1. A successful and regular writing practice depends on an established writing habit.

All habits depend on repetitions. Writing is no exception. Even if you write a lot but do so haphazardly, that is not a writing practice. Even if you produce little but you do so regularly, you have a writing practice. A practice—as in a “meditation practice”—implies that you do something regularly and in some sort of rhythm.

So a foundation of a writing practice is to write out of habit. When you write regularly, you inevitably write a lot.

“Inch by inch, it’s a cinch; yard by yard, it’s hard.”

2. One big aid is to set up a regular writing time and mark it on your calendar.

A schedule is a bit of professionalism brought to the writing experience. It’s probably fair to say that most people want to believe writing is something that is inspired. A memoir, which is written over months and which adds up to hundreds of pages, cannot be written only in inspired moments. Writing anything lengthy will necessarily include many moments when the muse is lamentably absent and the only support the writer can fall back on is a writing schedule. Why deny yourself this support of a regular writing practice?

3. Commit to a schedule blindly (no revisiting it allowed)—for a short period of time.

Let me give you a non-writing example. Years ago, having never been in a weight gym but sensing that I needed to get regular exercise and the weight gym was a good place to get it, I went to a local gym (incredibly I had a free membership that I had never used). Before I even went in, I committed to attending three times per week for two months. I resolved not to revisit my decision until the two months were over. That was sixteen years ago and by the end of the two months I was hooked. I had developed an exercise practice.

Many writers tell me how they made themselves write for the period they had committed to and found by the end of the period that they were smitten—”had caught the bug”

I don’t feel good if I haven’t put in my writing time. It’s become a necessary part of my day.

Jan M, a coaching client.

4. How long you schedule your writing time is perhaps not as important as how frequently you do so.

Frequency allows for you to maintain some contact with your work so that there is continuity from one section of the story to another. In addition, when writers know that they are going to be writing at a given time, it seems that the unconscious—or call it the muse if that makes you feel better—then begins to open up more regularly at those moments—not always but frequently enough.

It is also true that, if you jot down ideas that occur to you—check out Memory Listing, it is easier to take this note keeping seriously if you know you will use it soon at your scheduled writing time. (This is another aid in keeping your regular writing practice interesting to you.)

If you were to write for a half hour a day—and do so for 5 days a week, you would have had about 125 hours of writing time. That is the equivalent of receiving 3 weeks off from a 40-hours-a-week job.

Almost everyone can honestly find 30 minutes a day to write.

4. Regular writing practice almost always leads to greater production.

How can this not be so when the writer spends overall longer time at the task. Ultimately, many people find it easier to rewrite than to face a blank page. More volume also leads to producing a manuscript more quickly and therefore possibly averts discouragement.

Showing up is so important to writing. We all know many people who would like to write a book, who want to write a book, but they will never write their book. If they really wanted to write a book, they would have set time aside.

Once you have committed to a writing time, honor it as you would a medical appointment. Don’t allow others to usurp your appointment with yourself! Your regular memoir-writing practice will reward you hugely.

After you have followed these suggestions for a while, you will appreciate the importance of a regular writing practice and will most likely incorporate it easily into your life.

In conclusion

A regular writing practice depends on a writing habit.

Remember: whatever you do today, write a bit on your memoir.

Action Steps to create a regular writing practice

1. Get your copy of Writer’s Time: Management That Works. It will help you to prioritize your use of writing time and produce more than you now think possible.
2.  Set a time when you will write five days a week. The time can vary from day to day even if it would be better to have it at the same time every day, but vary the schedule rather than abandon a thirty-minute session.
3. Here’s an eye-opener. Before you do anything ask if it is your best choice for your memoir writing.
   1. • Do you really need to watch another newscast?
      • Can that trip to the store for fruit and milk be put off to tomorrow when you will be going into town anyway?
      • Will posting on Facebook get your memoir written?
      • Is that meeting at the library really important to you?
4. Make a best decision about your writing schedule and do not revisit it for two months. Give yourself the opportunity to develop a regular writing practice. Your memoir will thank you for it.