For me — and I would guess this goes for all sorts of life goals, whether it is completing a novel, finishing grad school, or cleaning the house — the key to success is HABITS. The moment when I felt like I was actually a “writer” instead of a guy hoping to be a writer was when I had really encoded the HABIT of writing into my daily schedule. Now, my goals are based on time spent, not production. The only way to push through those difficult sections is to do it, to spend the time. Every single day, if possible. It’s like something I heard about meditating — by getting into a pattern you create a sort of chain that is stronger than the individual sessions.

That said, there’s much to be said for taking a break when you need it, eating chocolate, toeing the water faucet, etc. And especially turning your writing attention to something else — but that’s writing too.

The thing that successful writers have in common is that they write frequently and regularly. Finishing a novel takes many hundreds, maybe thousands, of hours, and whether or not you’ll finish is largely a question of math: put the hours in and it will happen.

My concern is mainly with the kind of writer who likes to tell other writers whether they are in fact writers at all. For example, since handing my novel over to my agent in October, I haven’t written a word. It’s true.

Sure, I’ve put together a few blog posts, worked on a couple of redesigns for my sites and made a start on ideas and planning for my next novel. And of course, I’ve written every day at work as part of my job. But I have haven’t written a word of fiction.

Life, having been put completely on hold over the summer, has had to come back to the fore. And what I’m saying is, I don’t think that makes me any less of a writer. I think people are far too quick to judge the writing habits of others.

Many thanks for your contribution – really got me thinking about this again.

On the one hand, yes, it is silly to force yourself to slog through a dry spot to the point of self-flagellation. Similar to exercise, sometimes a break is better than pushing through.

But not always. Let’s keep my (in all likelihood faulty) comparison to exercise. Sometimes I just don’t want to exercise. It will hurt, it won’t be fun. Should I listen to this voice every single time? No, because then I would quickly transform into a lumpy piece of humanity. Sometimes, I do need to push myself through a workout — and I never regret. Writing can be the same. Sometimes, to get to the good stuff, you need to weather hte slog.

That said, I think there are ways you can work without writing. My favorite is taking a walk. It helps me clear my mind of distractions, and sooner or later the ideas start flowing.

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I agree with what you say but there’s a caveat. My background is journalism and my character (perfectionist, loves research and chatting to people) is such that I can procrastinate before starting the writing. So I used to spend a lot of time researching and making sure I’d got my facts right. But that meant I often did far more work than I needed to. Not good if you’re freelance.

So when writing articles, I do better if I start writing a rough draft early on – then I can see what gaps I have to fill – what extra details I need to get. It focuses me for the research. Being ponsy about it you could see this as the sketches an artist draws before they go back to their studio and do the full colour painting.

On the creative writing front – again as a perfectionist my temptation is just not to start writing because the pressure to be fab is too high. The inner critic can feel like driving with the handbrake on.

I love the Hemingway quote “the first draft is always crap” – well he was a miserable git! But I find that quote freeing. Because all I need to do is get something started. I can make it work later.

Obviously it’s not till you leave a draft overnight or even longer, that you can see all the holes in it.

So on the write-write-write front I think it’s generalised advice. And it depends on the character and the strengths of the writer. Perhaps what we need to do is learn our strengths as a writer. And find a way of working that gets the best out of us. This process of discovery is the most exciting part of writing for me.
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