Have you ever told yourself you just didn’t have enough time to write? Never feel like you’re in the mood or perhaps that the muse has abandoned you? Perhaps your coffee wasn’t strong enough, or the words didn’t flow properly.

Maybe.

Or in my case, prepare for the most honest answers as to why I wasn’t writing more:

• Netflix
• iPhone
• Gaming
• Social Media

Now, does this sound like you? No, of course not. It never does. Even now as I write this post (my first in months apparently) I am engaged in three different Twitter conversations. I regret none of them, but they *might* be distracting me. Maybe.

To put everything into perspective, my writers’ group decided we were all being pretty unproductive and many of us set our lofty goals for the month of June. Being in a group where some folks are already living the writerly life tends to light a fire under your rear end. I decided, you know what? I can do this. So I raised the stakes and said I’d do 1k a day for all 30 days. 30k. Easier than NaNoWriMo, right?

So, full disclosure I work full time as a manager at an electronics retailer and have no kids. Sometimes work followed me home or work continued after work hours were over. I certainly averaged more than the standard work week, but you’re not here to read about that, are you?

1000 words every day.

How many days did I fail to hit 1000? Two. I’ll admit, it was a LONG month. But how many days did I do over 3000? Five! My end of the month count?

Are you ready?

I managed to sneak past 57.5k words in 30 days (I did crack 60k, but it took one extra day of 2.5k). How did I do it you ask?

First off, Allison Tait has a wonderful saying about how you just sit your bum in the chair and do the work. No waiting for the muse, pretend she’s stuck in traffic and just get started. Yeah, those first words might be garbage. In fact, she may not turn up at all. No matter what though, I turned up every night between 9 pm and 12 am and wrote. Every. Single. Night. My days off I started writing earlier in the day, but the majority of my progress was during those hours. My recommendation is to find the time that suits you best.

Second, have an idea of where you’re heading. Whether you’re a planner or pantser, you need to know the direction of the story and the scope. My approach is what I like to call sign posting. Because I’m writing adult fantasy, aiming for 100k, there are certain beats I need to hit before I arrive at the finale. I place events every 20 thousand words, that way I know where my characters are going, but it gives them room to grow and move.

Third, and this will be hard for some, DO NOT EDIT AS YOU GO. If what you’re aiming for is a first draft, then push onward until the word count is done. The first draft will almost always be garbage but it needs to be out there so you know who is a part of the story and what the story is (and in many cases, isn’t). Editing comes after you know the three acts and then you can weave in foreshadowing and the such to make it seem like you’re really clever. BTW, I loathe editing, but there’s still time for me to find a love for it.

So, in short:

1. Turn up and write! Form a habit, it doesn’t have to be every day, but the more often it is, the more it helps. Also find your uninterruptible time.
2. Plan a bit! break down your word count and the basic ideas. If it helps, at least figure out these three: Inciting Incident, Midway Turning Point, Climax.
3. DO NOT EDIT. Worry about getting to the end. The reason I say this is because as writers we can edit our stories into oblivion. Save all that crushing self doubt for later, but every time you get to the end, you level up as a writer. True story.

Will this work for all of you? No. Many of you will scroll Netflix’s menus for as long as it took me to write this post (read: 25 mins). Many of you will be “too tired” after work. I fell asleep at the keyboard twice during the month (both of my fail days were naps instead). I’m not proud of that, but I wanted to show up and do what I could. Writing is hard work and most of us do it because we love it, but it’s still work.

Anyway, look, if you guys want to give it a go, be my guest. Challenge yourself. Let the people you love know, you’re going to write “X” amount of words. Update them daily on social media. Get people talking about your progress. My boss, who is not particularly bookish, kept mentioning how he couldn’t believe how much I was writing. This was actually uplifting and also worked well when I told him I needed time off for writing courses or festivals. He was much more understanding and saw how important it was to me.

This may not count toward a book, but I’m counting the words anyway. Nine hundred and seven of them to be exact.