As writers, sometimes it’s difficult to get past distraction, procrastination and a feeling of ‘stuckness’ to find our creative flow.

When we face the blank page, or when we feel stuck writing a scene or chapter and we can’t find the words, that’s when we long for flow.

We long for the words to flow quickly. We dream of losing ourselves in that favourite scene or chapter. We want that feeling of when we’re just itching to write even more.

So how can writers find creative flow? Read on for 3 ways that might just help you…

 

What is Creative Flow?

You might be asking, what is creative flow?

In simple terms: it’s a state your mind you reach when you are absorbed in a project or when you are totally immersed in your creative project.  You’ll know you’re in flow when…

1.You lose track of time.

2.You forget about others and basically the world around you.

3.You feel happier and have more clarity and focussed direction.

4.You have increased imagination and productivity.

Creative Flow is one of the most important keys to achieving your goals.

This type of focussed,  Deep Work (a phrase coined by Cal Newport) is what helps you get books written and published. It’s by losing ourselves in important and challenging tasks, that helps writers to get our most memorable and profitable projects written and out into the world.

How can writers get to this kind of happy state of flow?

I wanted to share with you 3 simple ways that have helped me get out of my own ‘stuckness’ and into creative flow.

1.Talk out your scene or chapter. This was an amazing discovery for me. I found that when I talk my story to my hubby or my daughter, many times ideas would come at me, just from speaking ideas out loud. And don’t forget that the other person listening to your story or book idea, might offer some helpful insights of their own. That’s what happened to me a few weeks ago, when I shared my story idea with my daughter. She gave me a ton of great ideas and surprisingly we came up with the whole story for my pen name romance, within an hour of us sitting down to chat.

Another idea that works here is to use a voice recorder to explain your story or book idea. Just start talking out your ideas, and you’ll be surprised by what emerges. Thoughts and ideas you never realized you had, will suddenly bubble to the surface. Then later on, you can play back the recording and jot down your ideas.

2.Write down a paragraph description of what you will write that day.  I got this idea from Rachel Aaron’s super helpful book, 2K to 10K. In this most recent romance I’ve been writing, I’ve discovered that when I end a writing a session and quickly sketch out what I want to write in the next scene coming up, it helps me get into creative flow quickly. Bestselling Indie Author Stacy Claflin, shares how she writes a brief description of the next scene in this author interview.

When you know ahead of time what you’ll be writing and you focus on what you’re writing in that moment, you’ll soon find all the extra ‘noise’ around you will fade away. You’ll get to writing your scene/chapter much quicker by writing that short description.

3.Train yourself to focus on your writing project for as long as you can. I’m still learning how to do this better. Sometimes I get distracted too easily. I’ve seriously been training myself to say ‘no, you can do that later… right now you need to focus on the story.’  This has been a learning curve for me, but I’m getting there 😉

Focussing for a long period of time, takes practice. I liken it to practicing piano – something I used to do for hours daily. But I didn’t start there. I first started practicing 15 minutes a day and slowly practiced for longer periods of time. Or if it helps, you can think of it like walking or running daily. At first you have a tough time just going for that 1/2 mile or so, then soon, you find that your muscles have developed more and more until going for a few miles at time comes a lot easier than it ever did before.

The most important thing is to keep trying. Keep practicing. Keep training yourself to focus for longer time periods.

Be encouraged… you will get better. And if you can learn to keep bringing your focus back to your writing project – and you’re writing what you love, it’s important to your goals and it’s a rewarding – then you’ll soon find yourself in that beautiful state of creative flow.

You know what the best part is? When you have reached creative flow and your story is coming to you easier, it seems like the worry of failure and self-consciousness begins to disappear because you have such a single-minded focus on writing your story. This is what I’ve experienced, and I’ve been amazed at the satisfaction and joy I’ve felt when I’m in that flow state.

I hope you find that these tips are helpful to you as you write your book and that you find yourself loving your work and that getting into creative flow gets easier for you.

What are some tips you have that help you get into creative flow?  Please do share your thoughts in the comments… we can learn from each other 😉

Do you struggle to write every day?

Resistance is something I battle with every single day. I used to let it beat me most of the time, but in the past few weeks I’ve been winning the battle more than I’ve been losing. To me that’s super encouraging.

Do you come up against resistance or procrastination? Do you want to write consistently everyday, but see road blocks of distraction and fear standing in your way?

In today’s post I share about how to begin getting those words onto the blank page and how to overcome obstacles that can get in the way of being the productive writer you want to be.

What Gets in Your Way and Stops You from Creating a Writing Habit?

As I’ve talked with writers just getting started and have also interviewed many bestselling writers, I’ve come to realize that writers everywhere have one major focus: to create a writing habit that takes them in a straight a line as possible towards their goals.

So the question becomes: How do you make writing a habit? How do you overcome what STOPS you from writing and put in place what STARTS and propels you toward you writing goals?

I’ve listed below 7 of the biggest road blocks that stop us from creating a writing habit:

1.Negative Self-Talk. This gloomy way of talking to ourselves is something many of us writers don’t even notice until we take the time to listen to ourselves. This shows up in many forms with comments like: “I suck at writing,” or “I just can’t seem to do this,” or “I’ll do this later.” I’ve become more aware of how I talk to myself in the past few weeks and all I can say is I really need to talk more positively to myself and encourage the child-artist inside. The negative self-talk can put a ton of doubts in our head that really defeats us… and stops us from writing. So how do we overcome this? Just listen to yourself. Become aware of the negative words you’re telling yourself and then for every negative word say something positive that counters it. And when you start writing, put a timer on and don’t stop writing (even when you really want to say “I’ll do this later”), until the timer goes off. You can start small – like set the timer for 5 minutes to start. You’ll start to be amazed by how much you can write in 5 minutes.

2.Feeling the urge to switch. As you are writing anything, more than likely you’ll want to switch and do something else. Wash the dishes, check social media, check your email. Again try this: set a timer for 10 minutes and tell yourself that you won’t switch to anything else until the timer is up. Write a paragraph or maybe two and you’ll be surprised how you get in the flow. But just stay in focus. When you feel the urge to click to check your email, don’t. Remind yourself, you have to stay and write or stare at the blank page until the timer goes. When the timer goes, then begin again.

3.The problem of distractions. Every writer has to learn how to handle distractions. At some point we’ve all given in to some form of distraction. The only way to really get rid of this road block, is to clear them away. If you have browser tabs open, close it. If you have your phone dinging notifications, turn it off. If  your desk is messy, clean up the clutter so you can focus. The only thing you need open in front of you is the program you are using to write your story. Start with focusing for only 5 minutes at the start and work your way up to 15 minutes. I’ve been using this count down timer I found online, and I set it for 10 or 12 minutes, and it really helps me stay focussed in that amount of time.

4.Dreaming of how easy writing will be. Writing is not easy. It’s takes a lot of time, it takes focus and sometimes can be quite messy. That’s not to say writing isn’t rewarding… because it is. But, if you are dreaming that writing your book is super easy, that illusion will get in your way when you actually sit down to write. Why? Because in most cases your dream of writing your book quickly and easily, won’t measure up to what your reality is. It is difficult and sometimes tough to get your thoughts onto the blank page, but writing is still meaningful and rewarding and something to be grateful for.

5.Distress or confusion on how to write your book. I really get this one. I was so completely stressed out when I started writing my first novel. I didn’t know anything about story structure, I was never that great at language arts classes in school and I felt like I would fail as soon as I started. These reasons all scared me to bits. Besides that, all I had going for me, was an idea for a story. But, I decided I would begin anyway. So, I just started reading books and blogposts on the craft of writing. Then I discovered writing and self-publishing podcasts, which were so inspiring and helpful. Then I started taking a few online courses so I could get better at writing, blogging and learning how to market my books. It’s difficult, when you are doing something for the first time and you don’t know how. You do feel like quitting. You feel sorry for yourself, and wonder why you’re even trying. That’s normal. Go ahead, give yourself a few minutes to feel that way, then get back up and start looking on google for the answers to questions you have. There is so much information out there, that in all likelihood you’ll find the solution to what you’re having trouble understanding.

6.Not enough time to write. Each of us are juggling many different things during the day. We’re all busy which makes it difficult to make the time to write each day. You might not have 1 hour to focus on writing, but I’m pretty sure you could find 10 minutes in your day to write a few words in your book or on your blog. Learn to be aware of what you use your time for in your day. If after your day job you spend an hour on social media, cut out some of that time. Or if you spend an hour watching T.V. at night, could you spend that time writing? If writing and getting your book published really matters to you, you’ll find that extra 10 – 30 minutes a day to write. When you finally finish your book and put it out into the world, you’ll be so happy you chose to dedicate that time to write every day!

7.Dealing with Perfectionism. Each of us wants our writing to be wonderful right from the get go. What often happens is we put so much pressure on ourselves that we nitpick our writing… and ourselves like crazy. What happens is that all these high expectations we place on our writing, actually stops us from being creative. It’s important to choose to just write messy first drafts. It’s important to just be okay with putting the words on the page, even though they seem terrible at first. Make it a habit not to go back and edit any of the words you’ve written, until you have finished your first draft. That’s something that has really helped me to get more words onto the page in a shorter amount of time.

As you have read through the above list of road blocks to writing, you probably found at least one obstacle that resonates with you.

Read through the list again, and as you find one or more obstacles you personally face to getting your writing done everyday, ask yourself why are you writing? Go ahead, write down the reasons why you are writing your novel, your nonfiction book or your blog. Once you gain more clarity on your reasons why feel compelled to write, you’ll see that your passion and motivation to move past resistance gets stronger too.

Recommendation: A awesome book that will help give you clarity as a writer and creative is a new release by bestselling author Jeff Goins, titled The Writer’s Roadmap: 12 Steps to Make a Living Writing. You’ll find useful tips and inspiration on how to focus your creative energy to get more stuff done as well as learning how to make money from your art. Get your FREE ebook here.

Make it a habit everyday to find the time to write so you can put more of your books into the world. Allow yourself to write a messy first draft, use a timer to help you focus and watch as little by little you finish writing your book!

What are some obstacles you face as you write? Are they different then the list above?  Please share your thoughts in the comments below, we can learn from each other 😉

There are amazing benefits and reasons for writers to be part of an accountability group.

One of my biggest lessons learned this past week, was that it’s amazing how much you can get done, just by being part of a support group that encourages you but also keeps you accountable to your goals.

Somewhere in my head I knew I needed accountability, but it took days and weeks of finally being frustrated enough – of not reaching my writing goals – to force me to take the next step… which was to reach out to other writers and ask for help 😉

It sounds simple, but it’s not easy. Asking for help is hard for many of us to do, I think.

I was inspired to start an accountability group from the last coaching call I had with Nina Amir in her High Performance Writers Group Coaching. So at the end of last week, I posted in Facebook in one of the writing courses I’m taking, telling other romance writers that I was struggling with getting my word count in each day.

When I reached out to other writers, I was hoping for maybe 2 or 3 other writers to join me and was surprised when that number more than tripled.

We had our first 60 minute meetup – via Facebook group and messenger – on Friday. Each of us let each other know where we were at with our writing, talked about what was working and what wasn’t and then toward the end of our chat we wrote down what our goals were for the coming week.

Scary? Definitely yes.

But I knew this was exactly what I needed and I wasn’t going to let my own fears and limiting beliefs in my abilities or whatever else, to hold me back. I had finally had enough and was ready to run.

This week there have been many lessons learned in writing and in being a part of an accountability group, which I share below…

3 Benefits of Accountability Groups for Writers

I realized this past week, that it’s so incredible and helpful to have writers surround you who are listening to you, offering advice and most of all cheering you on.

Since I started last Friday(the 1st time we met as a group), I have so far written a little over 6000 words in 5 days. I’ve really surprised myself, but most of all I feel encouraged and inspired to keep writing.

Here are 3 Benefits for writers when they are part of an accountability group:

1.You know you aren’t struggling alone. When you’re really struggling with writing that blogpost, novel or nonfiction book, it helps to know that you’re not alone. When another writer lets you know that they’ve struggled too with reaching their goals, you feel like you’re not alone and it makes reaching your goal seem much more doable. When you are trying to finish your book, knowing you aren’t alone, somehow makes getting that first draft done, less daunting.

2.You learn from others in the group. In the writer’s group chat last week, I was busy soaking in all the tips from indie romance writers who had written and sold many books. They shared what worked and what didn’t as far as marketing and productivity. It’s so great to learn from other writer’s success and also be challenged to keep going when you feel like you aren’t reaching your goals.

3.You can encourage others and you are encouraged in return. Maybe they’ve tried a new way of writing or are writing in a new genre that they are excited about and it is selling well. You can encourage them and add value to their lives.  At the same time, you can also be challenged with your own writing. Or maybe someone will say how they had all these crazy things happen in their lives this past week and they still continued to write. I feel inspired to keep going when I hear stories like that.

There are also other benefits of being in an accountability group, like reaching your deadlines and having people to celebrate with you. I’m shooting for hitting my writing goal by Friday!

I hope you find this post useful to you. Maybe you’ve been inspired to start an accountability group of your own… that would be amazing! You might just be surprised, like I was, at how many other writers are in need of the support of other writers so they can accomplish their goals.

Are there other benefits that you would add for writers to be part of an accountability group?  Please share your ideas in the comments below, we can learn from each other 🙂