I need more discipline in my life.

No, I don’t mean that sort of discipline. Honestly, I can’t take you lot anywhere.

What I mean is, I’ve read plenty of people saying that writing should be treated like a job. So, that’s what I’m going to try. And part of that involves bringing a greater level of discipline and resolve to it that I have been.

I am fundamentally a lazy person. It’s not very nice to realize but I’ve seen too much evidence to lie to myself about that. I don’t think I’m lazy when I’m at my day job though, and I’m pretty sure someone would have told me by now if I was. There’s usually too many demands for my attention and I’ve set myself a number of reminders and daily tasks to help stay on top of things as best I can. I want to try doing something similar with my writing (job).

Step 1 : Set aside specific times to write.

This shouldn’t be too difficult. I’m not a morning person and, between my workout schedule and when I have to leave the house for the day job, trying to write in the morning probably won’t happen. I do try to write some on my lunch break but otherwise I’ll have to wait until I’m home in the evening. I’d prefer it that it didn’t cut into family time, but fortunately Britt is much more an “early to bed, early to rise” person and I usually have a good two hours or so before I succumb to sleep myself. Prime writing time.

Step 2: Have a designated office/writing space.

Yes, I know I should have done this already. See my previous comment about being lazy. But earlier today we cleared out and tidied the spare room and gave myself an area to work in.

Step 3: Invest in some tools to help make me more productive.

The main one I’ve being thinking of is Scrivener. From what I’ve read and been told, it has a number of features that I can use to help with either new pieces or the re-drafts. I haven’t actually obtained it as of yet but I expect I will, at the very least, download the free trial very soon.

With much thanks to Ariana Fae and Victoria Griffin for answering my questions.

Step 4: Stay positive.

Ok, so this one isn’t necessarily tied in with treating writing like a second job but it’s still something I need to do.

That’s the steps I’ve come up with so far. Maybe more will occur to me later but for now, I think this is a good start.