How to Focus on Your Writing in the New Year

Welcome to 2024, Writers! We thought this would be an appropriate time to talk about how to focus on your writing. We all want to up our writing game and conquer our quest for author greatness! That starts with making writing your focus in 2024! Let’s see if we can help you out with this.

Figure Out Your Priorities

One thing I learned from reading the advice of Jerry B. Jenkins is that you have to figure out what you are willing to sacrifice for your writing, and what you are not. Jerry B. Jenkins set a rule that he would never write when his children were home and awake. Instead, he stayed up late and sacrificed TV.

Start by making a list of your priorities at this stage in your life, and be honest with yourself. If you have a day job that you need to keep, you will have to prioritize those work hours. Talk with your significant other about your writing schedule and find a way to prioritize him/her AND your writing. For example, if your spouse would like you to have dinner with them everyday and watch your favorite TV show, then write later in the evening or before dinner, if you have time. Asking them to respect your writing time will be much easier if they know you also value your time together.

You can get out a sheet of paper or a find a block planner, then fill in your non-negotiable times (day job, dinner, kid’s extracurriculars). See what’s left over for your writing. You may have to cut down the number of TV shows you watch, or record them to watch later. You may need to stay up late or wake up early. You may have to write on your lunch break. You will likely have to make sacrifices somewhere, so be open to that and be reasonable.

You may groan at the thought of giving up your TV (I love my TV shows, you guys), but I will tell you from experience that if you limit the number of TV shows you watch, you will get so much more writing done. I set a rule for myself that I wouldn’t turn on the TV until I had done some writing for the day, and you bet I got my writing done before 8pm on Thursdays (where are my Grey’s Anatomy fans?!). This was probably the biggest factor in me going from writing once or twice a week, to nearly daily.

To Set Goals, or Not to Set Goals?

I’m going to be real with you. You know those specific, measurable goals everyone is always talking about? They freaking terrify and overwhelm me. I’ve tried to set goals to finish a giant scary novel by a specific date, and you know what happened? I did exactly nothing. I kept thinking about how I was possibly going to do it and decided that I couldn’t. So, what did I do?

I made my goals super easy and with no deadline or monster of a project to slay. I just decided to take it day by day and chip away at it. You need to build up your writing muscles slowly. My goal was simple: just write SOMETHING today. Just put your butt in the chair and write ANYTHING. It’s much easier to say I’m just gonna go write a sentence before dinner, than to say I’m gonna write an 80,000 word novel in 6 months. And we all know that getting your butt in the chair is the hardest part. Once you sit down to write that sentence, you will almost always keep going. Day-by-day this will add up!

Don’t get me wrong, these big specific goals work for some people. If you are one of those people, keep at it! But if you’re not, don’t feel bad. How do you think those amazing people finished their 80,000 word novel? One sentence at a time, my friend. So whether it helps you to think of your beautiful novel and plan out how many words to write per week to finish it this year, or to just put one foot in front of the other and focus on not tripping today; you do you! There is no right or wrong way. If one of these ways hasn’t been working for you, just try the other way and see what happens!

Spend Time Daydreaming

If your problem is that you sit down at the keyboard to write and words don’t come to you, this strategy might help. I got this advice from the book Get It Done: From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 Minutes a Day by Sam Bennett. After suggesting that you devote a simple 15 minutes a day to your dream project, she offers up a second tip: dedicate 15 minutes a day to deliberate daydreaming.

The trick is to do a simple repetitive motion for 15 minutes while you allow your brain to daydream about your writing project. This could be a form of exercise, or even folding laundry or driving. The great thing is this doesn’t have to take extra time out of your day. If you already exercise, do chores, or drive to work, then you just daydream then. Or if you’ve been wanting to start a new exercise habit, you now have an excuse.

Personally, I love daydreaming on my way home from work. I just turn off the radio and start thinking about a character or a plot point I’m stuck on. Usually, by the time I get home I’m running to my keyboard to type up my ideas. I also like to make a list, as I’m writing or editing, of the things I need to figure out. If you get stuck on something, just jot it down. This will leave you a lot less frustrated too. Before I start my daydreaming, I pull out the list and pick something to ponder the whole way home. This will lead to more productive writing sessions, which will leave you more likely to come back to the keyboard the next day.

Identify as a Writer

I know you might want to skip this step, but don’t. I get it; this was an extremely hard thing for me to do too. But I want to help you, so I’m going to tell you that you need to identify yourself as a writer if you want to seriously progress in your writing. You won’t be confident enough to submit your work, if you can’t say that you’re a writer. Doing this was a turning point for me.

Now, I’m not saying you have to go and make a website and get business cards. It can be as simple as telling a couple family members or friends that you are a writer. Start with people you can trust. Fair warning, some of these people might decide to tell other people you are a writer, thus prompting you to say things like “I’m not really a writer” or “I just write sometimes”. I say this because that happened to me and that’s exactly what I said, at first.

But you know what? YOU ARE A WRITER! I mean, you write don’t you? That’s all there is to it. You don’t have to be published or have finished your novel to call yourself a writer. Just try it out. Tell it to yourself first. Go ahead, say it now. Now say it to yourself everyday, before you write. My affirmation is “I am a writer. I am an author. I can do amazing things.” Sounds cheesy doesn’t it? But the more you say it the less cheesy it sounds. Come up with your own affirmation to use. Pretty soon, you will believe it too.

Accountability

Another game changer for my writing was accountability. I found this in two ways: a Facebook group to make writer friends that kept me on track, and a blog to find readers that were expecting my writing. I think writer friends and readers are both important. The easiest one to start with is the writer friends. They know what you are going through and are more likely to be kind and supportive.

The group that really helped me is called Creative Central. It is a great group for writers of any genre and at any stage in their writing career. I made some wonderful writer friends in this group. If you happen to be a fantasy writer (or reader), like us, Clever and WTF have started a group for you! You can find out all the details here, but these are the basics:

Clever & WTF’s Fantasy Nerds is a place for fantasy writers and readers to connect. We love to chat about all things fantasy and nerdy, but especially books! Feel free to jump in and post about anything you want to discuss, but keep it friendly and positive. This is a group for all lover’s of fantasy; whether you are a reader, writer, or dragon!

We have many posts specifically for writers, and feel free to put writing questions out to the group. We want Fantasy Nerds to be a haven where writers can find someone to give us a friendly push towards our writing goals. We want a place for accountability, advice, and encouragement on our quest towards author greatness!

We also have a daily accountability check-in. We try to make this simple and encouraging. Each day that you have written ANYTHING towards your creative writing projects, you just comment with an emoji that makes you happy (smiley, heart, book, puppy, etc.)! Even if you just sat down and forced out one sentence, put a happy emoji. You tried, and that is amazing! If this group sounds like it will be helpful to you, feel free to join us.

Put Your Writing Out There

The main reason to put your writing out there is because most of us write to have people read our writing one day. Putting your writing out into the world will give purpose to your hard work. Sharing your writing will also help with identifying as a writer and with accountability. You can start with small literary journals or e-zines. You can also publish on Vocal or Medium if you don’t already.

Another great way to get your writing out there is through a blog. You can start your own blog, or guest post for another blog. We have had a few guest writers on our blog, and welcome submissions. To submit your short story, go to our contact page and paste your story in the body of the email. We can’t wait to read your stories!

What Do You Think?

Did you find our tips helpful? Do you have any advice for focusing on your writing? Do you have any other questions or topics you would like us to cover? If you are looking for more posts on writing, you can check out our profile.

Thanks so much for reading!

-Clever & WTF