Being consistent is what makes pro writers. When you can be consistent, you start being prolific, which can lead to all sorts of wonders in your life. The question becomes, how can you be consistent.
Studies have shown that you can write consistently by building habits that focus on making short term goals consistent with long term goals.
This sounds a lot easier than it actually is, but when done properly, it actually does become that much easier.
Why Is It So Hard To Write Consistently?
“PICTURE 1”
It is hard to write consistently because writing tends to be a long term goal, and we usually sacrifice long term goals to short term goals that may even contradict the long term goals.
Firstly, it is important to note that there are 2 types of writing consistently.
The first version is to create a writing habit and practicing this habit daily. Thus, being consistent with it. The second version is when you write your book, and you keep a consistent prose, connotations, and characterization.
In this article, we are focusing specifically on creating a writing habit that you practice consistently on a daily basis.
So, as to why it is so hard to write habits because of long term goals vs short term goals.
A study was conducted at Leiden University in Utrecht, Netherlands was published on frontiers. The study mentions that “when striving for long-term goals (healthy eating, maintaining interpersonal relationships) people often get in conflict with their short-term goals (enjoying tempting snacks, or watching YouTube videos)”.
This is true for writing habitually too.
Writing a book takes months. As you write for months, and see no improvements, you will eventually get lots of opportunity to do more short term goals. These are goals like sleeping, watching YouTube, etc.
Luckily, the same study hinted on how we can fix this.
“Previous research suggest that people who are successful in controlling their behavior in line with their long-term goals rely on effortless strategies, such as good habits.”
With that being said, how else can we acquire great habits then by using the one and only, Atomic Habits. Except this time, we will adapt it for writing novels.
How To Write Consistently?
1. Make It Satisfying To Make It Consistent
The first step to creating your habit is to make it satisfying as you do the habit.
The best way to establish a good habit is to try and associate positive emotions to the habit. I’ve already stressed the danger of associating negative emotions to your habit, but now we will look at what happens when you associate positive feelings.
The first thing is that you will find you actually look forward to completing the goal.
This is because whatever satisfying thing that you do must happen after you have completed the task. This puts a feeling in your stomach to complete the task, and when you will do the work better.
On a meta level, I’m also craving finishing this blog so I can mark it out. I have a system for the articles where I mark out when I am done with the blog. This makes me crave finishing the blogs, and also crave doing them.
It’s why I have managed to release so many blog posts over the course of 2 days intervals.
2. Record Progress
The second point is to try and record your progress.
This is a Brandon Sanderson technique. I will be honest it has not worked for me. At least not without some modifications. But I will teach it to you, in case it would work for you.
So Brandon Sanderson is famous for his speed of completing the books he does. According to him, he uses progress as a motivator. He basically makes an estimate of how long the book will be. After that, he makes sure to record daily how much progress he has made. He converts this into percentages, and when he sees how much closer he is to 100%, he gets a spur to work harder.
So, for you to be a to do this technique here are the practical step by steps. First, you need to outline your story. When you have an outline of the story, I suggest you go to excel. Write each section of the story (I often outline my stories into acts, chapters and scenes. So, I would write the scenes out here) into an excel column.
After that, select the column, and create a function that converts the selected column into percentages. You could use an If function so that when you complete a section, you can then tinker with that block, and it will change the percentage displayed.
I can sort of see the appeal for this technique.
It seems rather exciting and satisfying to see the number go up. The problem though is that it takes too long for me. I have no self control. I need to see immediate outcomes for me to feel good.
So, what I do instead is I focus on the individual sections. I draw each one of when I am done with it, which is satisfying enough for me. I completely ignore the overall work.
3. Take Regular Breaks
The third step is to try and take regular breaks.
Again, you do not want to associate any negative emotions with your work.
If you continue working even when you feel fatigued or tired, you are not being strong. Instead, you are increasing the bar of entry. After that, your anxiety will increase when you think about having to work again, making it that much harder.
So instead, make taking breaks a part of the schedule.
Select breaks with the day. If you really want to make the most out of your breaks, decide what you will do during the breaks. Otherwise, you may end up just doing your distractions, leading to your efforts collapsing.
Also, select breaks within the week. There should be days when you simply do not work. For me, it used to be the weekend. Now, I changed it. Every 2 days, I work on blogs, then on the other day, I will work on things like my Instagram art account. This gives me natural breaks from the blog, and allows me to have strength to write.
Do this with your writing too.
Work on your novel specific days, then do something else on other days.
Finally, you should have breaks within the months. When I finish writing a book, I rest for almost 4 weeks before going back to editing it. Or before going to another work. This is a Stephen King trick, but I really like it. It makes me want to work that much harder.
4. Reward Yourself To Make it Consistent
The fourth step is to reward yourself for your hard work.
Once more, build those pleasurable associations with the work.
Now that you have satisfaction as you work, making you want to finish your work, we should find a way to give you pleasure as you do the work. When the work is more pleasurable, you won’t be in a rush to complete it, creating second hand crappy work.
Instead, you will happily stay still, working on the piece for as long as you have to until it is complete.
This is the power of making your work pleasurable. So the question becomes, how do you make your work pleasurable?
Do something that you enjoy as you are doing the work.
There are a number of ways of doing something that you enjoy while doing the work. The point is that you need to choose something that will not split your attention to much. There is an article I wrote which details how music can distract you from work due to taking your attention, however, it can also be used to help you concentrate.
The point is that music does not require your full attention and it can play in the background while you are working.
Another thing you could do is eating snacks. This is probably the best because food is not too distracting. When I first started, I bought myself jelly beans, and chocolates. Later, I started doing different things.
Also, you can have a nice smelling spray, which I also have. My favorite is Lavender, because it has been shown to improve sleep because it allows you to relax better. For 5 dollars, You can grab yourself one right here and test it out for yourself. And you will also support me.
Finally, I started wrapping myself in blankets, and listening to asmr, while listening to music, and sitting on the chair. It’s so cozy, that I have to tie myself to the chair or I will fall asleep. The point is, it feels so good, I could die here. Thus, I do not mind sitting here, and writing anything you want me too. Just let me stay here.
5. Make It Sustainable
The fifth step is to make it more sustainable.
This is the mistake that I committed with my book. I set such a high bare of chapters to do per day, since I am panicking because of the encroaching deadline, and this only made me not want to write at all.
So the lesson here is quite clear. Give yourself realistic goals so you can continue doing the work for as long as you have too.
6. Spend More Time Doing Things You Love
The sixth thing that you can do is focusing on doing the things that you enjoy instead of trying to opening new routes that are unfamiliar to you.
This advise is fairly simple but it is something peopel often forget. Try to do the things that you enjoy, and build habits on those, instead of building habits on things that you do not actually enjoy doing.
If you hate being cold, and wet, then do not try to build a morning swimming habit, or morning cycling habit.
Instead, look at you main goal for doing the habit. Then, find an alternative way of getting there.
Say you wanted to get fit so you decided to swim, and to go cycling. Instead of that, try to do something else. Try calisthenics. You can do them at day time out in the sun, that way you won’t have to worry about being cold.
Easy no?
The same goes with writing.
If you do not like being cold, or being to hot, then choose a writing time that accommodates you.
Try to analyze what exactly you do not like about something, then try to find an alternative of doing the thing that will get you your desired results. But without exposing yourself to that which you do not like.
7. Have People Who Know What You are Doing So That You Can Be Accountable
The seventh thing that you could do is to tell people about your new habit, and get them to keep you accountable for the new habit that you are trying to build.
The best part about this one is that it can be anyone that you tell. You could tell your lunch lady that you are having a great day because you managed to write 3 chapters this week. Also, you can tell your mother that you are going to plan your next scene. You can tell your friends that you want to start a the final act of your book.
All of these can be peppered in casual conversation, so that you can share a side of yourself, and get them to know you better. Without bragging about it of course.
When you do finally get the people to understand what you are doing, you will see that they will be more accommodating you.
All this will result in the same situation: How is the book going? How far are you with that book?
These are questions that will hound you everywhere you go. Eventually, you will feel so embarrassed that you will make it a point to write something down when you get home. Just so you can make that improvement.
8. Make Sure That It Is Easy To Do To Make It Consistent
The final trick to consistent is to try and make sure that it is as easy as possible to do the work that you are doing.
This one is the easiest one there is. Being consistent will be easier to achieve when the consistency achieves itself. Meaning, just prepare your environment to be more conducive to being consistent.
In my room, my laptop, speakers, blankets, planning books, and everything that I work on are left right on the table.
This makes it all super easy for me. So much so, that at times it feels like the work is doing itself.
So being consistent is a lot more than just hard work. You could focus on being consistent when it comes to setting up the environment daily.
Of course, some of these pieces of advice are just plain bad, while others are genius. it depends on the person. It could be that you know a better way of doing things. Maybe I am doing the Brandon Sanderson technique wrong. Please let me know.
Can you imagine where we will get as soon as we master writing consistently? We will could even beat Brandon Sanderson! When that day comes, we will know for sure that we were mastering mastery!
