There’s nothing worse than sitting down at your laptop after a long day at work expecting to write down all the great ideas that swirled in your head all day, and it happens. You just sit there staring at the screen. Your fingertips are on your keyboard, but there’s no movement. Your hands turn to stone as your eyes glaze over at the white digital paper illuminated on your screen. Trust me, I’ve been there. However, over my short author career (4 years as of this post), I’ve developed a system that keeps me on track and pushes my narrative forward.
It’s nothing too crazy, and is designed to accommodate my EXTREMELY busy life. With all the craziness and chaos that comes with it, there’s very little room in my day to get my writing done. But I’ve done it. I’ve published a book a year for the past 4 years, and I’ve maintained the same system throughout. It may seem small and simple, but I promise you if you stick to it, you will have your dream novel finished in no time at all. You just have to stay to it and maintain discipline. You ready?
500 words a day.
That’s it. That’s all it takes to be an author. You can get that story on paper with just 500 words a day. Now, I know what you’re thinking: John, that isn’t very much. This is the way I see it. 500 words a day – 3,500 a week – 14,000 a month – 56,000 in four months. That’s a manuscript. Every young author that reaches out to me on Instagram asking what their word target should be, I always tell them 50,000. By most standards, that is considered a novel. Now, I’m not saying that your final draft should be that amount, but having a short first draft manuscripts gives you time to build on your story during further drafts. Trust me, your 50k first draft with turn into an 80k-90k in no time. After that first draft is finished, it is far easier to sit down and expand on what you’ve already written instead of trying to craft something from thoughts alone.
Now, here’s the real key. As you’re going about your day at work or school, I want you to think about EXACTLY what you’re going to write before you write it. Imagine the scene over and over again like a never ending loop until the only way to make it stop is to put it on paper when you get home. This exercise allows you to do the hard part of writing before you even have an opportunity to develop the dreaded writer’s block. While I’m at work I will obsess over the minor details I want to include in the current scene I’m writing. This allows me to mentally get myself ready to fire away on that keyboard before I even walk into my house. More times than not, that 500 words turns into 1,000 easy. When you know what you’re writing before you do it, it’s like copying from one paper to the other. Just one is in your mind.
The hardest part of this process is maintaining strict discipline. No matter what, you have got to find a way to get your 500 words done. Laziness is infectious, and if you fall under its spell, it’s so damn hard to break out of it. You have to be strong and imagine the feeling of pressing that publish button on KDP and releasing that story into the wild like a caged animal returning to its home. Dedication, discipline, and self motivation are foundational principles for being a hobbyist indie author. We write because we love it, not for a tiny paycheck.
Discipline = Results.
If you would like to chat about this topic, send me a message! I would love to go over it with you!
–John McCool
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How To Avoid Writer’s Block
John McCool 