How Can Writers Maintain Focus While Writing
It's unbelievably easy to lose your focus when you are chasing after your aspirations as a Writer. Throughout the course of my own writing journey, I have met several people who have lost focus at various points of their writing career.
In the early days, I too struggled to maintain a laser focus because…
Well, let's face it…
Writing is extremely difficult. It's even more difficult when you have several other obligations and writing is not your full-time job.
I have learned severa l things on my writing journey and below are 3 things I have learned to do in order to maintain my focus on writing.
I hope that by practicing these 3 simple methods on a consistent basis, you are able to stay steadfast on your writing path.
#1 — Carve Out Time Each Day To Work On Your Writing
One of the most important things I have found to be true when it comes to maintaining my focus on writing is to carve out 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours each day to focus strictly on writing.
I use this time to write an outline for a piece, write up a rough draft, or finish a final draft. This time is also used to tweak my title, sub-headings, find relevant pictures, and make final adjustments. Then finally I can proofread my article and get it ready to publish. By carving out this much time each and every day, I have been able to publish 4–5 new articles every single week since the early part of April of this year.
Some of the Bloggers I follow on Medium publish a new article every single day and I have the utmost respect for these people. I respect them because it's obvious they are serious about writing. I'm sure the vast majority of these folks write because they thoroughly enjoy the practice of writing or else they would not spend so much of their time writing all the articles they do.
But you have to want to make writing a part of your life.
However…
There will be some days where life will happen to you. Things could go wrong at your job. Your family might demand your attention for various things that pop up. You could experience a decline in your health and there is a myriad of other things that could force you to put writing on the back burner.
Don't feel guilty about it, take care of yourself and your family. The pages will be waiting for you to fill them when you are ready. Just don't neglect writing for too long.
It has been my experience that when I go for more than a week without writing anything, I lose my edge. My habits start slipping and it's that much harder for me to pick up the momentum again. That has just been my personal experience though.
Your experience might end up being completely different.
I challenge you to do your very best at making writing a priority and carving out time to focus on developing your writing skills.
Do you accept?
#2 — Network With Other Writers
When I started to become extremely passionate about writing in early April of this year, I started to share my passion for writing with a couple of my co-workers.
I also started to tell a few of my close friends about my love for writing as well. From openly communicating with these people about my passion, it turned out that 2 of my co-workers were also passionate about writing. One of them loved to write poetry but had no idea how he could get his poetry published. I was able to turn him on to Medium. Now, he writes for several online publications and several of his poetry pieces are published on Medium.
It's funny how contagious passion is.
His poetry always seems to inspire me and he has told me several times that reading my articles has inspired him as well.
Iron sharpens iron, doesn't it?
My other co-worker told me about the Blog she has on Tumblr and ever since then we would often time talk about our writing. We would bounce ideas off of each other as well as talk about poetry and books we have read.
Writing became even more fun because I didn't feel so alone in my endeavor. I was sharing the adventure with others. We were on the same ride together.
And writing is an emotional roller coaster indeed. For those of you that have been writing for long enough know exactly what I am talking about.
A couple of my other friends even shared their personal Blog with me and allowed me to interview them and write pieces devoted to them. I realized that sharing my passion and knowledge with others was crucial to my development as a Writer. Yet, learning from other people's experiences and reading their writing was also fundamental in my growth as a Writer.
Finding your tribe is important as a Writer because the life of a Writer can often be a lonely one. We sit at our desks staring at our computer screens trying to make magic happen out of thin air. Often times, we deal with writer's block and there is no magic.
There is only silence and frustration.
Having people that support you and encourage you is a beautiful thing.
Especially, if those people actually understand the struggles you face as a Writer. If those people can understand the emotional highs and lows you experience on a daily basis, then you will feel like you are apart of a community.
A sense of belonging is one of the levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs after all.
So it must be pretty important!
#3 — Set Goals
If writing is something you want to make a career out of then I strongly recommend that you set goals for yourself.
How many articles are you wanting to publish each week?
If you are wanting to become a Blogger, how many different online publications do you want to write for?
What is the date you have in mind for achieving this goal?
If you are trying to publish a book, what is the date you would like to have your first book published by?
How many followers are you wanting to have 3 months from now? 6 months from now? A year from now?
What action steps are you going to take in order to achieve these goals?
Set yourself deadlines for all your goals and hold yourself accountable.
I believe setting goals and writing them down is extremely important in all aspects of one's life. Be it personal or professional. When you write down your goals, with action steps and deadlines attached to them, they become incredibly real in your mind. You will become extremely connected to the goal and you will want to build up momentum in order to achieve the goal you have written down.
So, set some goals and then work to shatter them! When you do achieve your goals, set loftier ones next time. Keep pushing yourself and challenging yourself.
Setting goals will also help you stay focused on your aspirations as a Writer. Goals will help prevent you from veering off of your path.
It's hard to stop a runaway freight train.
You must become that freight train.
Once you get some momentum going, don't let anyone stop you.
Stay focused on your writing by following these 3 simple steps my fellow aspiring writers:
- Carve out time each day to work on your writing (but take a break if you need it)
- Network with other writers
- Set goals
I can't wait to read all about where your writing journey ends up taking you. Enjoy it!
How Can Writers Maintain Focus While Writing
Source: https://writingcooperative.com/3-things-you-can-do-to-maintain-your-focus-on-writing-de4a13bbb48#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20important,or%20finish%20a%20final%20draft.
Posted by: tauntonbutial.blogspot.com
0 Response to "How Can Writers Maintain Focus While Writing"
Post a Comment