I don’t know about you, but I often find it hard to
develop good writing habits, especially because I work contract work, so my
schedule varies greatly from week to week.
It is impossible for me to set-up a consistent writing routine.
Recently, I have been trying what I’m calling the “2 Word
Rule”. Less a rule and more a commitment
(yay, semantics!!!). I have decided that
each day, I just need to add two words to any piece of writing I’m working on. If I do that, then I have been successful and
can celebrate my accomplishment for the day.
I’m sure there are some writers out there reading this,
scoffing at the idea that a “true writer” would settle for only two words per
day. How amateur… Well, to those people
I say, “shove it!” Writing is hard and
the easiest thing for a writer to do is to crap all over themselves for not
achieving as much as they thought they would or thinking that what they’ve done
is garbage. Writers are notoriously hard
on themselves (more so than any critic could ever be). Often writers tank themselves before they
even get started. I know, I’ve been
there, I’m still there. I look at the
number of things I’ve written and still think I’m a hack who doesn’t know any
better. Then, I read a bunch of
published garbage and get down that I can write better than that and still I’m
not published. I don’t need any more
help to tell me that I’m not a writer.
What I do need is the encouragement to keep writing – and not
necessarily from other people, but from myself.
This is when I made the two word bargain with myself.
