Writing a book takes lots of effort and dedication. 99% of aspiring authors never get a chance to become authors. Only because they never muster up this level of dedication. If you are reading this piece. You must be fearing that you are going to end up like these 99% authors – unappreciated and unknown. Yet, you are different from them simply because you are trying to learn how to create this dedication or compensate for it with discipline and mental hacks.
Some practical tips to follow your passion until it sees the light of the day.
Decide a Timeline
At times, you must have wondered how your favorite authors have managed to author your favorite blockbusters. You must have questioned the stamina and patience these people must have exercised to reach this pinnacle of beauty and wisdom. After all, the dedication and smooth flow that appears in their writing is amazing, isn’t it?
The energy and tone with which they started their project seem to remain constant across the whole writing process. The ideas connected flawlessly as if they were written on the same day. How did these authors manage to complete these long manuscripts without losing interest, losing trust in their abilities, or getting burned out?
These are valid questions that you ask from time to time. The echoes of these questions grow when you face setbacks in your writing journey or when you analyze your progress. These authors are not super-humans. They only do one thing correctly, they consider their book as a short-term project and stick to this view. Then, they assign a deadline to this project.
While many established authors have a sea of followers urging them to write and complete their books, first-time writers rely on their short-term deadline to get through this journey. 90 days is a standard deadline for the first draft of a book for most authors. Some authors and writing coaches elongate it by ten days making it 100 days. A 100-day deadline for the first draft is reasonable as a longer deadline will make room for losing interest and letting the project go in the eternal pipeline.
Make Room for Writing a Book
Your schedule is filled with your daily routine, day job, and family time. While all of this is necessary, writing a book is crucial for your growth. You need to schedule it in your routine and stick to it. The first few days of this routine change will be difficult. I wouldn’t recommend starting your book-writing process until you have established this routine or until you have comfortably followed it for at least a week.
Also, don’t get too caught up in the adjective ‘comfortable’, you don’t want to wait until you can comfortably and without hurdles sit down to write on the decided time. This is never going to happen. By comfortable, I mean when you spare time for writing in the wake of family chaos and raiding children for a week.
Other than making room for writing in your schedule, you also need to make room for it at your home or office. Create a space with all the writing accessories and make it welcoming. For most writers, it’s a desk. Even if your ideal writing space is a couch or a sofa, I would suggest allocating a desk and a chair to it and getting used to this arrangement. It’s far easier to lose interest when you are on a couch than on a desk.
Hold Yourself Accountable
Your motivation will stay with you for only a few weeks after that, you will have to depend on your discipline and grit to stay steady. Dedicating time and space to your writing is the proper way to build discipline for writing. To build grit, you must create a short-term reason to stick to the process.
Boost this quality of grit by defining weekly goals and attaching them to consequences. Make these consequences tangible. For example, you can let go of a favorite and routinely snack if the target isn’t met. Many people go with monetary consequences. One famous example of this consequence is writing down a check for your most despised charity and handing it to your trusted friend who will post it on your behalf on the deadline if you fail to achieve the target.
Embrace Imperfection
What is the biggest killer of creativity? Ask any author and he will tell you that the biggest murderer of your creative self is your undying quest for perfectionism. You see, how do you feel when you read your work? You don’t feel anything but compare it with finished and polished pieces from renowned authors, don’t you?
This comparison prompts you to question the quality of your work. Ultimately, you believe what you think which says you aren’t a good writer or your recent piece isn’t good enough for publishing. You get discouraged and want to stop writing because of a lack of confidence.
If you want to continue writing, stop assessing the quality of your work. It may seem impossible for most creatives because they want to earn validation from their efforts paying off. However, you can do this by writing down a reminder that first drafts are meant to be ugly and imperfect and displaying it in your workspace.
This reminder will stop you from going back and reading your draft before it’s complete. At the same time, it will prevent you from correcting every typo or grammatical mistake that you make while typing in your draft. Your focus will remain on getting your thoughts out of your mind and creating a rough first draft.
Take Planned Breaks
Your writing takes its energy from you, your thoughts, and your emotions. You will want to maintain the energy level in your draft from start to end. The best way to do that is to not burn out during the process.
Leading a healthy life with proper work-life balance is a necessity if you want to succeed at anything much less writing. But because you have dedicated three months of your life to your first draft, you will want to spend every free minute of your waking day writing your heart out. Don’t do this. This will burn down your energy reservoir leaving you devoid of your inspirations and creativity.
If you want to keep your creativity alive, give it some time to blossom. Change your activities from time to time. Get outdoors, engage in physical activities, and do something that disengages your mind from the plot you are writing.
Network
Networking is a crucial element that helps with the promotion of your book. However, it also helps you in bringing efficiency to your writing process. To enhance your commitment to book writing, you must connect with fellow writers for inspiration and ideas. They may also help you with feedback.
You can find many book-writing communities online. Become a part of these communities and get writing, time management, book publishing, and marketing advice. Also, you can build close relationships with one or two writers or enter into a writing challenge with a small group of fellow writers. Accountability is the biggest takeaway from these communities. So, build relations and benefit from it.
Wrapping Up
A day job seldom leaves room for more activities less alone a dedicated activity like writing a book. However, all is not lost. If you can still spare some time to write even if it’s in minutes, you can become a published author. Note that you must compensate for this lack of time with discipline and commitment.
We have highlights some tips you can use to ensure that you remain committed to converting your book idea into reality. These tips will help you build momentum as well as give you reasons to stay on track while you are writing the book.
