Friday, November 9, 2012

How to Write Every Day--The Benefits of Even Fifteen Minutes a Day on Your Writing and Why Nanowrimo Is So Popular

A writing colleague once said:  "If I'm away from my book more than three days, it's like starting over again." 

Have you experienced this?  I have.  It's no fun.

Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writers Month, is happening throughout November.  I've published one novel written during Nanowrimo and am currently working on its sequel.  
Writers who sign up for Nanowrimo enjoy the community but even more the discipline and accountability of hundreds of thousands of people writing every day. 

We get to experience the unique lift of this discipline, the creativity it brings. 

One of my biggest challenges as a writing teacher is to get writers to try this.  To write a little on their books every single day, even if it's fifteen minutes.  Every day writing creates momentum, turns on the inner faucet to more ideas.  You can use Nanowrimo or an accountability calendar like Jerry Seinfeld used to--he liked to put a big red X on every day he wrote.  After a while, the accumulation of big red X's makes it hard to skip a day,

What keeps you going on your writing?  We all know it's much more work not to write.