#AmWriting ~ Jumping back into the saddle
Writers write. Right?
Ask just about anyone what the number one rule of writing is, and you’ll hear this.
From Ray Bradbury, to my inspiration Stephen King, authors who get many books written tell you the same thing.
The key to writing, as Red Dwarf recently mentioned, is BICHOK (Butt In Chair, Hands On Keyboard).
Writers write.
But sometimes, life can become so complicated, stressful, engrossing and time consuming that writing falls by the wayside.
Even for those who have been writing for years, publishing books. Even for those who’s writing is their stress relief and they’d never imagine not writing because it’s not only just so important to them, writing is part of that person.
Then what happens?
A writer isn’t writing 😦
The all-knowing “They” say it takes about a month for a habit, good or bad, to form in your life.
Writing, starting or getting back to it, is at the core a habit. BICHOK doesn’t happen all on it’s own.
So, after too much time away, I’m getting back in the saddle.
Even though I love writing, getting back to it on a daily basis is a struggle. I’m having to deliberately sit down with the intention to write a minimum word count.
When writing my last book (Magicstorm HoaV #4), I could easily do my daily word count of a few thousand words a day. The words weren’t always easy, but the dedicated time and using it every day was just part of my habits.
Now, I’ve realized that I need to be more reasonable with myself. I’m asking me and my muse for a minimum of 1 hour a day, and 1000 words. Once I can attain that easily (and in a few weeks, the kids will be back in school so the time at least will be easier to find) then I can increase it and work on getting back to my pre-life/stress/suckage that I used to have.
How about you? Do you BICHOK every day? How do you make sure writing every (or most every) day is one of your habits?
Spread the Word
Posted on July 21, 2013, in #AmWriting, Writing and tagged #AmWriting, Amber Kallyn, BICHOK, Habits, Writing Life. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Amber Kallyn 
BICHOK and what it stands for – good word. Lately I spend so much time in social media, I don’t have time to write a decent word. Glad to see you’re getting down to business. I should do the same.
Hi Cathrina,
For me, social media is fun… which equals a time suck, LOL. The will power to turn it off is slow to come, but I’m working on it 🙂 Good luck with your writing!
I totally get what you mean. Due to health reasons, I had to stop my daily writing (which I’d been doing steadily for 9 years with few interruptions) and I’m still having trouble. I set myself a low, easily reachable goal of 100 words to prevent myself from getting discouraged. It worked pretty well for drafting. Now I’m revising and it’s been a struggle. I promised myself a page a day. We’ll see how it goes. Good luck.
Hi Erin,
I hope you’re feeling better! I get you on the lower goals. Thanks for the luck, and you too. For me at least, editing/revising can take longer than writing, but it’s worth it 😀
Funny you should blog about this…I have had a lot of major upheaval in the last two years–I may have commented about this before–everything runs together sometimes.
In 2011 (November), I had knee surgery which went fine, but I developed pneumonia, slept for five days, and almost died. Then last December I hadn’t heard from my parents after calling them all day on a Sunday and getting a constant busy signal on their landline. When I called Monday morning, the line was still busy so I called my friend and he drove me over there to find them on the floor, dehydrated and sick. They were in the hospital and then had to go into a nursing home. My mom is now in a wheelchair and my dad walks with a walker–I have to sell their home, etc. etc. Yeah, I’ve had to make adjustments in my writing schedule and sometimes I don’t even feel like getting out of bed, let alone writing.