Inspiration is a fickle thing. A spark of an idea flares up obscuring my sight from any other work. When I sit down at first, I have trouble keeping up with the idea and then it starts to sputter. Now to add words on the page is, well, work. Teeth grinding, I force myself to keep my butt in the chair and the words crawling along the screen. What I come up with sure isn’t Hemingway but at least I will actually finish the first draft instead of trying to catch that mythical muse fairy dust.
A few tips to help keep the words flowing:
Time Chasing
Even if it’s only twenty minutes at lunch, use it to write.
Make it routine, that’s way it is easier for you to write because otherwise it’s you and a blinking curser. Make the curser dance across the page.
Unplug
No internet, Skype, twitter, facebook, or blog reading.
Writing time is not research time. Make a note to research later then move one with the story.
Proper Support
Surround yourself with people who respect your writing time.
Respect your own creativity and dedicate yourself to it.
Eye on the Prize
Keep goals in sight and read them often.
When spirits sink review the goals and know that you can achieve them.
Though time may feel scare you’d be surprised how over time you can actually little by little complete your word count goal. At the end of every week review your previous progress and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate. If you have no one to celebrate with contact me I always have an emergency bottle of bubbly for just such occasions.
Phew, needed to read this. Thanks for reassuring me that I'm not alone and possibly some day one of my beloved ideas may come to fruition...good luck!
Anytime, it is sometime difficult get through the task of finishing the first draft since totally boring unimportant things seem way more interesting than putting words on the page. Good luck to you too.