I like to boast that I never have writer’s block – and it’s true, to a point. I never run out of things to write about and always have a project or ten clamouring for my attention. So, no, I’m never stuck for things to write about. But, following on from yesterday’s post about self doubt, I’ve been thinking about the days where I sit at my desk during my work time without getting anything done.

Some days I can sit at my desk from 10 till 3 (my designated writing time) and produce three thousand words. Other days I can sit at the same desk, with the same project on the go and get to three o’clock with absolutely zip to show for my efforts. Well, zip unless you count the three games of Scrabble I’ve been playing on Facebook, or the pieces of paper I’ve moved from pile A to pile B on my desk, or the research I’ve done on Google for the other project I’m thinking about starting on. But as for my work in process (wip) – nothing.

Why do I allow myself to become unproductive? One reason is the self doubt (again, see yesterday’s post). When I stop and think about the wip and second guess whether it’s any good, then I start looking for other things to work on. There must be something better I can write, I can tell myself. Or, perhaps I should be doing some market research, see if there’s even a publisher for what it is I’m writing. I’ll Google ‘publisher’ and see if there’s anything I missed.

Another reason is sometimes having so many things on the go. As well as my wip, I generally have a pile of books waiting to be reviewed, blog posts to write, promotional opportunities to follow up, emails to reply to, submissions to send out and so on. When I sit at my desk to write, these other tasks are there staring me in the face and clamouring for my attention.

And perhaps a third reason is lack of motivation (although this is often a result of good old self-doubt – again, see below). When I’m working on an unsolicited manuscript there is no deadline, no eager editor sitting at her desk waiting to read my masterpiece. Give me a deadline, or a willing editor and you’ll probably find me beavering away at the task.

So, what do I do to try to keep myself moving forward on my wip? Firstly, I try to give it a specific time allocation each day. I’ve already said that my writing time is 10 till 3 (on schooldays). I find I can’t write for five hours straight, so in reality, I am unlikely to use all that time for my wip. Instead, I aim for an hour of uninterrupted writing, (yes, just one of the five), with the rest of the time being used for rereading, editing, and addressing some of those other tasks like research and submissions.

Secondly, I count words. Actually, I don’t – I just use the word count function, which the latest version of Word so nicely displays in the left hand bottom corner. The number of words I aim for depends on the wip – at present I’m looking for about 1000 words a day. So, I watch that little counter and make sure I’m heading in the right direction. I compare with how many I’ve got yesterday, and know whether or not I’m doing well.

Thirdly, I give attention to those other things on my list, by making time for them. Emails prove a big distraction for me, so I make time for reading and responding – before I start writing for the day. If I don’t, I find I flit between my wip and my mail and neither gets done well. Reviewing I try to leave until evenings, because it’s something I can do when the family is around. Promotion, again evenings and weekends are the best times for me because if I’m interrupted I can generally come back to it. Scrabble? Well, I use that as a bribe to myself. Write those thousand words, you can check your game and see if it’s your turn. Write that review, you can check it again. Finish your wip? You can start five new games. I confess, my Scrabble fetish is something I’m still working on, though.

Lastly, I find that setting deadlines for myself does work. First draft of wip needs to be finished by 1st of Octember, so I can start on the brilliant nf I’m planning. I give myself both a target date and a reason. I also make lists of what I want to achieve this week and this month and cross them off as I’ve done them, so I can see that I’m on task (or not).

Above all, I constantly remind myself that I am a writer – and writers, by definition, write. All the reading, all the promotion, all the submitting, they’re important (the Scrabble, I’m not so sure) – but above all, if I want to be a writer I need to write. If I can remember that, then I can get the wip written.

If you are a writer, and you’ve read this far, that’s great – now go write something.