How to be a Productive Writer (and still meet your creative needs)
To be a productive writer, many people assume that means meeting word counts or writing a certain number of pages. While this is true, productivity is also about engaging in creativity in ways that welcome inspiration and ideas to flow to you on a regular basis. Writers are more successful with their productivity goals when they spend a portion of their time accessing their imagination in ways that suit them best.
In today’s blog post I discuss how you can increase your productivity without foregoing the fun parts of writing like daydreaming.
Let’s hop to it!
WHAT DOES ‘PRODUCTIVE WRITER’ MEAN TO YOU?
What does productivity mean in relation to your current circumstances? What would you like to see change? What would you like to maintain?
Think about who you are as a person, how you operate in the real world (versus your creative world). Examine your personal habits, personality traits, work ethic, triggers, moods, values, habits, strengths, and challenges.
Now ask yourself:
What about the real world lights me up?
What about the real world drives me to my writing sessions?
Do I thrive in chaotic conditions, or do I require my own controlled space and atmosphere?
Am I self-accountable or do I need gentle nudges from a supportive friend?
How much of my own determination is a driving force in my writing journey?
How do I react when I hit setbacks?
There are so many questions to ask yourself! Basically, what you’re getting to the root of is what about your real world has a direct impact on your writing productivity. My suggestion is to keep a journal of your creative journey for a couple of weeks so you can get a solid idea of how you respond to certain situations.
All of your habits, moods, triggers, values, strengths, goals, etc play a role in your creative life in one way or another. I refer to these aspects collectively as natural writing forces. Once you understand your natural writing forces, you will be able to shape and modify them in the manner that suits you best, for optimal creativity & productivity.
DAYDREAMING COUNTS AS PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity includes so much more than number of words written. Daydreaming is a HUGE part of the writing process. When we deny ourselves this necessity, treating it like a selfish indulgence instead of a critical part of the creative process, then our ultimate productivity will suffer.
If you find yourself lapsing into fictional worlds while you’re washing the dishes, or staring out the window while you’re writing—that is productivity! You have to keep those inspirational channels open for inspiration to flow freely. We don’t always have control when a great idea hits us. How many times have you been in the shower or driving your car and you came up with a great solution to a problem in your book?
Bring on the daydreams and free-flowing imagination and watch your productivity level up.
HOW PRODUCTIVE WRITERS RELY ON CREATIVITY TO MAKE PROGRESS
Deadlines, goals, mindset, accountability, and schedules can all play important roles toward helping you become a more productive writer—but how will you put them to work for you?
Every writer has a unique presence, and brings their own systems or approaches to the table. Your creative forces are always at work, whether you know what they’re up to or not, and they directly affect you in the productivity arena. They determine what time of day you prefer to write. If you finish your projects. Whether you turn to Facebook when the writing isn’t going well. If you let fear stand in your way.
Tap into your natural writing forces to begin learning which traits will help you on your journey and which traits might hinder you.
GO INWARD TO INFLUENCE OVERALL PRODUCTIVITY
We measure writing productivity by what we can see happening with our projects. How many words we write per day or if we meet our deadlines. This tempts us into focusing on the result of our approach. If all is running smoothly, then that’s fantastic. You’re consistently hitting the range of productivity.
But if things aren’t running smoothly, sometimes you might make the mistake to correct the external forces (changing the time of day you write, or skipping weekends because they’re too busy) before going inward to make sure that an internal energy/behavior isn’t the reason for poor output.
Internal energies and behaviors such as confidence or lack of focus influence the overall success of our productivity. So doesn’t it make sense to know under which conditions you work best in order to be the most productive?
HOW CAN YOU BECOME PRODUCTIVE OR INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY?
Start by assessing a single work day or single writing block. Pick an average, run-of-the-mill day where you plan to do some writing. The more true to life a day it is the better, because the data you collect won’t be skewed. In other words, don’t go to a café for this self-assessment if you don’t normally write in a café.
What you’re looking for is your baseline. What you normally produce on an average day.
Run this self-assessment over a period of seven-ten days and look for trends. Some questions to ask yourself (and add your own as they come up):
Which habits motivate you to write? Which ones hold you back?
When you are sitting and writing, what is your predominant feeling? Are you engaged in your story’s world or distracted? Are you feeling joyful and relaxed, or edgy?
How long is a typical writing session?
Is it easy for you to make time for writing, or do you find yourself doing “one more chore” first?
When you think about finishing your project, what is the feeling that comes to mind? Excitement? Nervousness? Self-doubt? Pride?
This information can be used to help you figure out where things are working, where things aren’t working, and where you can make some pivots. Everyone will have a different take-away from this exercise depending on their current lifestyle, project vision, and level of experience.
If the aim is to increase productivity, then you need to know where you’re missing opportunities to enhance your current situation. The windows of opportunity are there, but they can be difficult to nail down if we aren’t looking at our lives with an objective eye. You may find that running your findings by a trusted friend who is supportive of your writing pursuits will be helpful in figuring out how you can make some changes.
If the aim is to become productive (in cases where maybe you might not know how to get started or where to direct your focus), then you need to know how you show up currently as a writer as well as how you show up currently in your real-world life.
Then you need to ask yourself about the value of how you’re showing up. In other words:
What are you willing to sacrifice in order to become productive in your creative life?
What changes are you willing to make?
Who in your life will be affected, and how will they react?
How will you handle the relationship from there?
What is your long-term vision for your current project? What is your long-term vision for your overall creative journey? What are you doing today that honors these visions?
I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS AND TAKE-AWAYS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!
HAVE A WRITERLY DAY!