How To Drown Even Though You Know How To Swim.

“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” —Ray Bradbury

I was going to use this post to write about something really cool, the Magic Spreadsheet. It's a great tool that writers can use to help them keep up consistency in their writing routine. If you have a Google+ account, check out this Community. Otherwise, there are other sources all over the Internet that covers it, so click here.

What I'd like to talk about instead is how important it is to get that consistency in your writing routine. I mentioned it before in an earlier post, but lack of consistency kept me from writing for quite a while. I think back on it now and if I had kept writing during that time, it is quite likely my book would be complete! I mean, seriously, think about that. Writing just 250 words a day is all it would take. When I'm in writing mode, 250 words is nothing... it's a paragraph, a descriptive text. It's much more likely that I'd write 1,000 words or more in any given day. The average book is between 40,000-100,000 words. 100,000 / 1,000 = 100... 100 days.

Now that's rough draft to be sure and the end result would take much more time. Even so, that's much closer to finishing a book than I've ever been! It's with this realization that I regained my drive, my focus. This is what I'd like to suggest to you, fellow writers. Write, and continue to write. If you get stuck in a story, fine. Start another story. Write a short story, write a paragraph or three describing your surroundings. Keep writing to keep getting better. As you get better, you'll enjoy your writing even more.

When you get to a point where you can't write, read. Not reading when you're trying to become a published author is like trying to learn how to swim without taking a dip in a pool. Sure, you can learn the techniques but when you finally do end up in the water you'll find yourself flailing your arms and gulping water, wondering why you're drowning when you've studied technique for so long. Pro Tip: Don't just read stuff that interests you. Make an attempt at reading other genre fiction. It's likely you'll find authors using writing techniques that you've not seen in your particular fave genre. I love Speculative Fiction, but learned more how to write romantic scenes after reading a romance novel or two.

Side note: NaNoWriMo is coming up - are you ready? What better time to get into that habit than writing a 40,000 novel in a month? I think this is the year I'm going to actually finish it. Yeah Yeah, I say that every year. But with the help of Mur Lafferty and the Magic Spreadsheet, I'm more confident than ever!