Now that you've spent some time
attempting to implement a writing practice,
let's check in about your experience.
I want to say first that this isn't about succeeding or failing.
We are information gathering,
so whether you met your goal or not, you learn something about your needs
as a writer.
Let's go over a couple of common responses
to beginning to implement a writing practice.
Some people have a tendency to overpromise.
You know the kind of person I'm talking about,
the kind who decides they're going to revamp their body
and they go on a low carb diet.
But at the same time, somehow they're also intermittent fasting
and only eating gluten.
And now, they're in a bootcamp class that meets every morning at 4 a.m.,
and they've set the goal of running six miles a day.
You know that person is going to burn out within a couple of weeks or minutes.
The writing practice survey emphasizes getting to know your needs as a writer,
but you also need to take into consideration
the constraints of your life.
Maybe you need to write early in the morning,
but you got to take your kid to school, so you can't.
Be reasonable and practical in your expectations for yourself.
Start slow,
making a commitment to yourself that you can keep.
Another common response can be beating yourself up
when you fail to meet your goals.
You want to make yourself accountable,
however,
the emotional energy you spend being angry at yourself
is exhausting and will not feed your writing process.
I had a client who started out as a screenwriter
and he really wanted to write a novel
based on a script that he'd failed to sell.
That novel sat in his mind for a decade.
And I remember him saying to me once
when we were working together on that novel, finally,
that his biggest achievement over that decade
was not hating himself for not writing.
That really stuck with me.
Now let's discuss "shoulds."
Years ago, I had a student say,
"I just feel like I should write at night because all good writers write at night."
And I was like, "Kirk, when do you write best?"
And he said, "I write best in the morning."
And I was like, "Okay, so that's when you need to write."
It sounds silly,
but it's really easy to get wrapped up in external notions of achievement.
You always want to bring the focus back to yourself in your own needs,
not what a YouTuber or even Stephen King
says about the creative process.
In this module, you'll find tips for cultivating a writing practice.
But I'll just take one final moment to emphasize one.
Turn off your phone.
Just a visual reminder that there is an outside world
that can be enough to stop a writer dead.
If I see my phone sitting on the table,
my brain is instantly out of my project.
When I'm writing, I either turn off my phone
or at least put it in the other room.
There are so many distractions,
the least you can do is give yourself a fighting shot.