During lockdown one and two and their aftermath, I was happily hurtling along, writing my
blogs, working on my novels, pitching for copywriting - and all of a sudden lockdown 3 happened. Instead of having more time to spend on my writing like in the first lockdown, I suddenly had less! This was in part due to teaching a full timetable of live lessons from home, whereas before we were setting independent work for students and due to more intensive home learning to do with my own kids. My day off was no longer my day off because I would have to take over home schooling on that day. The result was, the day that had been set aside for me to write was no longer available.
It’s so hard to keep up the momentum and motivation when life is so busy and also so changeable. It’s no secret that writing while working full time is tough and that teaching workloads are heavy. But here are some tips about how I got myself going again and in the last few weeks have brought my novel very much to completion.
1. Set realistic, regular goals – I write every Friday, but I have had copywriting work to complete on the last few Fridays, so the novel writing took a back seat. If I am feeling well-rested, I will try to fit a few slots in in the week in the mornings (hardly ever the evenings because I am shattered after work and usually have marking or planning to do then anyway). I aim for 1000 words a session but I usually write until I come to the end of a chapter or section.
2. Treat it like exercise – if you start questioning whether you will do it, you won’t do it. Saturday is my day for running. Whatever happens, I will run on Saturday. It’s just my Saturday thing. So, it’s there in my head as something that will happen, like having breakfast or going to work on a Monday morning. Try to see writing like this. It will happen on a Friday and Saturday. And then it happens.
3. Just do it – I spend a long time agonising over the next steps of the story, how to make it move on, who is going to do or day what. Then I sit down to write, and it takes a different path anyway! Over the last few weeks, I’ve just got my laptop out, started writing and I’ve allowed the plot and characters take me where they want to go. Sometimes, they take some surprising twists and turns! In fact, a major new twist came to me recently for what had been a previously minor character, and this gave the story the impetus it needed to move on in a more interesting way. Sometime just writing unleashes the writer in you.
4. Don’t be too precious about it – your writing doesn’t need to Charles Dickens level from the first time it’s put onto the page (or ever, let’s face it!). Sometimes I just write the plot – this happens, then this, then that – to move it on. You can go back and craft your writing later on. Just getting out of that swamp of inaction is the most important thing to get your writing back on track again.
Do you have any tips for getting back up on the horse once you’ve fallen off? I’d love to know! Comment below and share the wisdom!