If you plan on making a living from your writing, or significantly increasing your family’s income, you are going to need to treat your writing like a business rather than a hobby.
Set up an area in your home where you can comfortably work for several hours at a time without interruption. Make sure that the room you choose doesn’t have a television, or double as your children’s playroom. It could be a spare bedroom, or a corner of the master bedroom, or a converted dining room. It doesn’t matter where it is. What matters is that it becomes your working area, and that it is respected as such by all members of your family.
Your work space should have a comfortable chair and a work surface at the correct height for writing and/or keyboarding. Make sure your desk area is large enough to hold at least a notepad and reference book (or two) along with your laptop or keyboard and monitor. You also will need good lighting to ensure you don’t get eye strain from dim light, or blinded by glare from the windows.
To get enough writing done in a day to make your writing career produce more than a pittance will require uninterrupted, highly productive time to write and research. Set a schedule for yourself each day and don’t let yourself get distracted.
If you plan to write 10 articles each day, then you’ll need to determine what you need to get done in the block of time before lunch, before dinner, and before you end for the day. If you wait until after lunch to begin, you’ll find yourself working late into the evening, possibly leading to a later start the next day, and a likelihood that you won’t meet your goals.
Set concrete goals for yourself. Don’t wake up with a vague plan for ‘doing some writing.’ Decide beforehand how many articles, words or pages you are going to get done, and stick to that plan no matter what.
Taking a sick day every now and then, or working a half-day once in a while aren’t ad things, but when you’re first starting to write, one half day is easily followed by another, followed by a do-nothing day, and pretty soon you’re out of the habit of writing regularly. Because of this, it’s important to stick rigidly to your plan and goals for at least the first month to get yourself into the habit of working hard on your writing career.
The good news is that the more you write the better and faster you’ll get at it, so soon you’ll get more done in less time. With the extra time that comes with experience, you can either grow your business by adding new clients, or take more personal and family time.
Leave a Reply