I don’t blog about writing much because A) I’m much better served spending the time writing about writing actually, well, writing B)I don’t think my process is that interesting, consistent, or results-producing as other writer’s, and #12) There are lot of writers who blog about writing better than I could. Examples, see here and here.

But in spite my insistence on living a life of travel and adventure (I’m no Hemingway, but I do my best);  teaching an average of 7 classes a week since the demise of my corporate job; and  planning and executing a wedding (and by executing, I am not referring to any “Red wedding” type scenarios), I am slowly but surely managing to get my writing done.

I’ve found a couple of tools to be helpful:

1. An amazing writers group that lets me sit in and contribute critiques even when I’m not being uber-productive. The act of participating and critiquing keeps me in the game and hungry to keep at it. I even have a friend who will challenge me to 15 minute write-offs when I’m feeling totally jammed.

2. Good software. (Hat tip to friend and writer Amy Eastment)  Ommwriter is great for streamlining computer distractions when I am having a hard time STAYING OFF PINTEREST during writer time. When I’m not able to use my handy kitchen timer, I have an app that gives me a deadline for each session: necessary due to my training as a journalist, or my natural tendency to procrastinate, you decide. And yes, Scrivener really is the best thing since sliced bread (I’m Paleo and I still haven’t managed to come up with a better analogy: “skin on a chicken” doesn’t have the same ring to it). The Scriv keeps me on track with bigger projects by making it easy to see an outline level view of my work and store notes in convenient locations (compared to scraps of paper, the margins of my water stained travel journals, or post-its). It also tracks my stats and progress, which can be a mixed blessing, see –

3. Patience and compassion. I don’t always hit my word count every day. Sometimes stats (their recording and accountability) can be helpful, other times crushing. One of the (many) gifts that yoga has given me is an increase in willpower to sit down and do the thing even if I don’t feel like it; patience to keep sitting there even when the thing doesn’t feel like it’s happening the way I want it to; and  compassion for the days I give up and fail to do the thing, don’t make the word count, or discover that everything I wrote yesterday is TOTAL CRAP.

and

C) Read, read, read. Something about finishing a good book makes me want to sit down and write the best one I can. Strangely, this also works for reading a bad book. When I’m word jammed, sometimes the cure is as simple as reading a short story, which is reason #999 I subscribe to Daily Science Fiction: so that I have plenty of things to go to when I need a word fix but don’t want to get sucked into a novel.

Simple, yes. Boring? Probably. (Hey I told you I wasn’t the one for writing about writing) Now go read Wendig’s blog – unless you’re at work, then you should save it for later.