“What gets dated gets done” is an maxim that has proven true again and again. It will also prove true of your memoir if you create a writing schedule with precise days and hours.
While “I write when I feel like it” has its adherents, I am left wondering how many memoirs written on a timetable characterized by impulse actually get completed.
Instead, I suspect this sort of scheduling leads to “I’m quite busy and I intend to write when my schedule opens up.” Or, “This writing thing is not as interesting as I had thought at first. I’ll write when I’m inspired again.”
Seriously, is this a plausible schedule?
A sensible writing schedule
Below, you will learn techniques to create an effective and sustainable writing schedule—both daily and long-term—that gets your memoir completed and in the hands of its readers.
As I’ve written in one of the posts below, “When you feel like writing, write. When you don’t feel like writing, write.”
If this doesn’t ring true with you, substitute the following: “When you feel like parenting, parent, but when you don’t feel like parenting, don’t do it. Be free spirit. You’ll get to parenting later.”
In conclusion
Don’t underestimate the value of “inch by inch, it’s a cinch” over time. The way to assure that you write “inch by inch” is to schedule it on your calendar.
Next year at this time, your memoir could be written, edited, and published.
Of course, if having a memoir in hand is not that important, there is no need to read the following articles!
A Firm Writing Resolution: You Will Not Regret Formulating One for 2026
Resolutions can be tricky—just an exercise in fooling yourself! But they can also be a dynamic trigger. In this post, I will share a writing resolution that paid off big for me. If you have not decided on New Year’s resolutions for your writing, it is a good time to choose priorities for the […]
Your writing is your work–Schedule first your time for writing
To make time for writing, you have to be serious about the principle that your writing is your work. You must act on it and take it as seriously as your paying job. (more…)
Setting Writing Goals That Work For You: Better Time Management
I have a goal for this post. I want to help you to develop and articulate your writing goals for the next three months—that is, 90 days. You can start your three months today, at the beginning of the next week or at the first day of the next month, but don’t put off setting […]
Regular Writing for Great Results
Success is built on daily habits. Write regularly every day for a year or two and before you know it you have a book. (more…)
Schedule Your Writing: An Easy Time-Management Decision
Get a good start on your memoir during of November Is Memoir Writing Month with my November 2 Activity. (more…)
Don’t Wait To Write Your Story!
It is later than you think. In the years I have been helping people write memoirs, I have seen people die and people grow too old. The energy not only to write deeply but to write a memoir at all has been lost to them; their stories have been lost. We go through our days […]
Make a Memoir Writing Schedule That Works For You—It Will Free Your Imagination
A memoir writing schedule frees the imagination. When you set a time you’ll write your stories, you’ll not feel upset if you’re not writing all the time. (more…)
Be Committed to Writing and Spare Me of People Who Are “Interested” in Writing
“Committed” to writing is about the writing itself, while “Interested” in writing is about self-image. “Wanting to write” a book, “trying to write” one, “being interested in writing” doesn’t make it. It never does. (more…)
Memoir Writing Deadline: How To Set Yours
When you write as an open-ended task without setting a memoir writing deadline, you are likely to procrastinate and extend the project. What happens when you do not set an end date is, next year or the year after that, you are still writing, revising, and polishing your lifestory. You know how it is: you […]