Make Writing a First Priority

 

 One of the reasons why I encourage writers to write first thing in the morning is because you never really know what’s going to happen in the rest of the day. You might start to feel sick, disaster might strike, or terrible news may come along making it too hard for you to be up to the task of writing.

 

In that case, writing first thing in your day will make sure your writing gets done for that day. You’ll be able to head out the door satisfied that you got some writing time. Now you can handle everything else!

 

If you find it difficult to write after waking up, then try relaxing with your favorite beverage first. Sit alone with your thoughts and see what ideas come along. It never helps to fill your head up with a bunch of other things such as the news or social media feeds first thing in the day; instead, fill your head up with words to write.

 

Additionally, keep in mind that there is no rule on what you can write. It doesn’t have to be something for the work-in-progress or a new article. It can be anything. Just write. After you get that done, you just might feel bold enough to tackle that WIP.

 

When you make it a point to write right after you wake up, you are teaching yourself the habit of writing right after you wake up. If you keep doing this every day, you’ll automatically start writing first thing every day. You won’t have to put any effort into it. In fact, you just might start to come up with ideas for things to write right after you wake up.

 

Another point to remember is that writing first thing in the day is you telling yourself that this is the most important thing to do first right after waking up. (Some people may believe that making coffee is the most important thing to do first right after waking up, but I drink water first thing in the mornings!) You are making writing your priority. You are sending the message that it is #1 on your list of things to do today. You are basically showing that writing is so important to you that you will do it right away.

 

And that’s a good thing!

 

Personally, I try to write every day. This writing challenge has certainly gotten me writing every day! That is for sure. But other than doing a daily writing challenge, I try to write every day – whether it’s in one of my WIPs, an article, book review, poetry or some other thing. And the one way I can guarantee that I write every day is writing first thing in the morning, before tackling everything else. This habit can also help you to write every day too.

 

Making writing your priority right after you wake up will help you get your day off to a strong start. You got in the needed writing time, now it’s time to do the next thing! You’ll feel a lot better if you write first thing in your day and at least anything residing in your mind in the morning will now be cleared out and written, making room for more ideas and thoughts on things to write.

Scheduling Writing Time

 

For some writers, scheduling their writing time is something that works out pretty well for them. They are able to get that writing done from exactly 9AM to 4PM every weekday.

 

For others, however, they are just not able to schedule their writing time. I am one of those writers. I have tried multiple times to have a schedule for when I would write. However, my life is a little crazy busy (and I laugh at the word “little”!), so scheduling that writing time doesn’t always work out very well.

 

What HAS worked out is making it a point to wake up early in the morning and get that writing done first thing. (I’m a morning person, so this works best for me. Your mileage may vary if you are a night owl.) By doing this, I have been able to write every day on the regular. (However, since I write MANY things every day – book reviews, articles, blog posts, short fiction and work on the books – I do try to squeeze in time to write the OTHER THINGS later in the day! It’s because I write a variety of things that I was busy with the writing work until after 5:20PM yesterday, and I got started at 7AM.)

 

My advice to a writer who wants to know if they should schedule their writing time? Don’t. If you are the master of your own time and can call the shots on EVERYTHING you get to do at certain times of the day, go for it. But if not, I strongly suggest just focusing on a method of having time to write (like I do by writing first thing in the morning) or just squeezing in that time to write whenever possible. Or you can do both, which is what I do since I have a variety of writing projects going on.

 

Life can be pretty unpredictable. You never know what the day is going to throw at you. Plus, sometimes a sickness will turn up or a natural disaster, family emergency, etc. Write when you have the time to write. Don’t wait until the kids are at school, your day is practically over, after you get home from work or after everybody else’s needs are taken care of first. If you have the time to write, grab it and use it.