5 Tips That Help Me Stay Motivated and Productive While I Write

Everyone has their own writing process, and for me, the writing process is constantly evolving as I learn new strategies to keep myself productive and motivated. Today, I’ll be sharing 5 tips that have made a world of difference in my writing process, and I hope they’ll do the same for you. 


1. Write Every Day
I’m not telling you that you have to write every single day until you die. What I have found, though, is that writing is easier and much more enjoyable if it’s a habit, something that you do at some capacity every day. A lot of writers have told me that the idea of writing every day is overwhelming, and I totally get that. At the start, it can be extremely overwhelming to try and write every day, just as it is overwhelming to start any new good habit. It’s daunting to create good habits, like exercising, dieting, and so on. Writing every day is no different. 

What I have found is that if I set a goal to sit down and write at some point every day, even if it’s just for a few minutes, even if it’s not going toward my main project, but it is in the same mode as I write my books, it helps, and every day that passes makes it a little bit easier to get on my device and write again the next day.


2. Write With A Stopwatch Counting Up
This is another tip that usually gets me some precarious looks. People don’t often like working with a timer, let alone when there’s already so much pressure around writing. But I will tell you that for me, just clicking the “start” button on my stop watch app on my phone before I start writing has kept me motivated and excited to keep writing. Timing myself counting up gives me a less pressured way to keep track of how long I spend writing every day, and gives me a good idea of my average word count per minute on any given day. Setting the timer counting up has also allowed me greater flexibility and motivation in how long I write. When I sit down lately, I tell myself, “I’ll just write for ten minutes. I can do ten minutes.” 

What happens is that at the ten minute mark, I’ve often found the flow of the scene I’m working on, and the words have started to come more quickly. When I look down at my still-running stopwatch to see that I’ve passed my ten minutes, then it’s easy to keep going for fifteen minutes, then twenty minutes, and most days, I’m still able to hit that 45 minute sweet spot, and get tons of content down without the pressure of having to sit down and write for 45 minutes every day.


3. Word Dump
The number 1 issue that everyone I talk to has is that when they sit down to write, even if they’ve built the habit of consistently writing every day, is that they don’t know what to write. That initial freeze up is so normal, and if you don’t know how to work around it, getting words on the page becomes quite a bit more difficult. There are two things that you can do to help get past that initial freeze. First, start by writing garbage. 

What I mean by “start by writing garbage” is sit down and get your fingers moving. Write down your thoughts, your worries, what you feel like is making you freeze up. The next thing you’ll want to do while you’re in this initial word dump is guide your word dumping to be connected somehow to your story. Here is an example of what I do almost every day when I sit down to write.

OKAY BREY - YOU HAVE TO WRITE NOW. YOU HAVE TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE YOU HAVE TO GO DO SOMETHING ELSE, SO IT’S TIME TO GET WORDS ON THE PAGE. I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START. I HAVE AN IDEA OF WHERE I WANT TO GET TO, BUT NO IDEA FOR HOW I’LL GET THERE. LET’S SEE… I KNOW THIS CHARACTER IS GOING TO DO X, Y, Z. WHAT WILL DRIVE THEM TO GET THAT WAY? OH! WHAT IF THEY RUN INTO SO AND SO… YEAH, THAT COULD WORK. IF IT SUCKS, YOU CAN ALWAYS FIX IT WHEN YOU EDIT. 

And then I get started on whatever little transition piece was holding me up. This word dump is EXTREMELY helpful, but you’ll want to be sure you eventually guide your focus to your story specifics. I try to spend less than three minutes doing this word dumping, so the majority of my writing time can be spent on my story.


4. Leave Yourself Notes
Like I do with my word dumping when I begin my writing sessions, I make notes to myself throughout so that I can keep my writing flowing. There are two kinds of notes I leave myself.

The first kind, which I leave while I’m drafting, is an editorial reminder. It may be a quick note like, “OKAY BREY - THIS SENTENCE SUCKS. REWORD IT.” These notes are brief and are intended to remind me that there’s an issue in the manuscript that needs to be addressed, but it doesn’t have to happen right now. One major time eater for writers facing “writer’s block” is the perfectionism mindset that tells them they need to find the perfect word here or get the perfect syntax there. If I feel off about one of my sentences, or if I want to find a better word, I just make a quick note for myself in all caps and move on. 

The second kind of note I leave for myself happens at the end of any given writing sessions. The purpose for these notes is to help me remember where I left off today, and what I hope to write tomorrow, so that when I do come back to write tomorrow, there is minimal re-reading or thinking that needs to happen, and I can, again, spend most of my writing time actually writing the story.


5. Set and Celebrate Small Goals
​The fifth and final tip I’ll share with you all today is to set and celebrate small goals throughout your writing process. These goals can be anything, but setting small goals can be immensely helpful in keeping you motivated to finish that draft. Here are some examples of small goals I set often:

• Write for at least 10 minutes 
• Write at least 5/7 days this week
• Write at least 750 words a day this week, OR Write at least 5,000 words (this changes. My usual weekly word count goal is 10,000 when I’m deep in a draft)

It’s important to really acknowledge and celebrate these goals, because you’re achieving something small that adds up to a much larger achievement. If you reach these goals and celebrate them, you’re much more likely to stay motivated to finish your draft.  Bonus tip: I would highly recommend that you partner with somebody who you can share these goals and achievements with. Having someone who will celebrate with you makes all the difference. 

I hope today’s blog post was helpful! If you’d like to receive weekly blog posts, be sure to sign up for my email list on the home page so you don’t miss any writing-related content!