This essay was written by Gugu Nyoni.
Almost every nascent writer would frown at the thought of sitting on their desk and getting creative and productive with their writing potential daily. This is largely because many budding writers are saddled with a hectic daily schedule prior to shifting to full time writing, making the thought of writing daily a remote possibility.
Before we get to the core principles that can place you on the track of productivity by ensuring you can churn out valuable content daily, we need to explore reasons why writers need to keep writing daily.
1. Your previous work gets malodorous (fetid).
Just the like in the economy of physiology wherein lack of exercise results in significant loss of energy and diminished optimality in body function, slacking off on your writing thrust will kill your momentum. On the other end, putting your head on the writing craft every single day will galvanize your writing acumen.
Writing acumen, skill and craft are not attributes that can be simply acquired theoretically in a library. Writing is born of a coterie of traits acquired naturally and gradually as you keep writing and reading. Prolific writers know that if you get into the rhythm of writing daily your mind will be writing in the background, in the forefront and even in your slumber.
2. You may lose track of your plot.
Fiction writers will concur that if you get distracted from your writing course it will not be easy picking up the loose ends and carrying the story forward. Anything that prevents you from getting quality time to cogitate and develop your writ in line with your outlined plot and story line is a distraction. A lot of time, thought and intellectual investment goes into quality writing.
If it is a novel, the characters need to toe the line of your plot, what they say and do should articulate your engendered meanings. The scenes, scenarios and chapters of your writ should cohere and flow. This cannot be easily achieved without working hard to keep your head in the craft every single day. How many times have you looked back at some of your unfinished work and thought to yourself, “only if I had completed this piece right then”?
3. Your sales will drop.
If you are making a living off writing, then you need to keep writing to promote your work. Distractions can steal important time and efforts required to get your work to the hands of your target readers. Those plying the cyber space with their written work know that competition in this terrain is just a click away. Once you cease to keep posting to promote your work and up your sales, you will soon slide from your position in the market. Keep writing and posting to create and sustain a profitable buzz about your work and never slack off.
4. You will lose traction with your fan base and followers.
Once you step into the limelight of the writing space, you inevitably garner followers and fans that find your work valuable and subsequently keep tabs on you. This becomes your platform that you should never abandon – more so if you have sponsors and peers succoring your writing career.
In the modern web age, you need to continually make yourself visible to your followers by participating actively in social networks, forums, chats as well as in person. If you neglect these seemingly trivial tasks to just that time of the year or month when you have ample time to do it you will inevitably kill your drive and the value and impact of your platform will diminish.
5. Your followers and your market will forget you.
The writing industry is volatile and as rapid as any other thriving industry. As the cliché goes, out of sight, out of mind. You need to know that new books, blogs and various materials are published daily; meaning that without active daily participation in this industry, you simple do not exist.
But how possible is it to get into the habit and rhythm of writing daily? Writers normally have cluttered schedules, hence this question is not without a valid provenance.
One of the most important principles of ensuring you write daily is to start off with dedicating about 20 minutes to writing each day.
Find meaningful writing tasks that you can handle within this time slot without shacking up your daily schedule heavily yet. While on this; explore your normal daily schedules and identify activities you could eliminate or cut down on to ensure that your writing endeavor gets a good slot every day. Many successful writers had to give up something in place of writing. You will ultimately give up your 9-to-5 day job anywhere if your attempts pen out positively and you need more time for your writing career.
Let everyone around your living sphere know that you are taking your writing endeavor seriously so that they can leave you to it. This will also get you accountable to yourself for the time you have set aside to achieve something with your writing passion and potential.
If you have explored all these insights and principles and still find yourself stuck with your normal routine it could be that you have finalized your choices at the back of your head and writing has not yet taken top priority in your life. That is fine, but if you are keen to shift into a meaningful writing career, there is nowhere things can change and remain the same. Something has to go and gradually you will grow a promising writing career.
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Gugu Nyoni is a writer, web programmer, pianist and dREAMAXESS blogaholic!
Photo: Some rights reserved by Charlie Barker