Invariably, if you want to reach your goals, you must incorporate discipline into your routine. Most of life’s goals demand this. You already know many on the list: get fit, pass an exam or two, learn lines for your role in a play, take better photos … You get the drift, hopefully without my boring you. But here we are, all of us considering our individual goals as writers. They are very personal goals. Survey a bunch of writers, asking them what goals they have for the year and how they will reach them. You will receive a soup of amazingly divergent targets and processes, all based on reaching ‘my writing goals for the near future’. Are yours going to be there?

What will be the discipline that converts your dreams of finished works into finished works?

 Recently one of the members in our writing group described how he was forging a path to the goal of finishing his next book.

Wake at 3 am. Sit at desk. Write till 8 am. Shower. Go to work. Repeat. Production through the roof. If only, you may think. Me too.

Other ways I have heard or read how people discipline their approach to their writing include:

• setting a word count for the day,

• setting time aside, much like the person mentioned above,

• using local facilities, such as the library, to remove home-based distractions,

• leaving writing materials set up in a space at home, ready for use if a few spare moments find a way into the day.

Just one more. One of my favourite stories is that of a writer who writes daily to a word limit, in the strictest possible sense. As soon as that word count was reached, writing was stopped. Job done. Even mid-sentence.

So many different approaches. All of them lead to published novels. Some lead to enviably regular publishing of best-seller, NY Times #1, award-winning novels. Remember, though, that these are outputs from those who have found a discipline formula that suits their character, temperament, relationships and life situation. Your needs may be nothing like theirs.

If you are a single mum wrangling children, juggling shifts to survive and pushing against the tide to maintain family structure and sanity, you are hardly in a position to allocate regular, rigidly planned blocks of time to your writing. Finding peace to allow creative juices to flow is equally challenging. Putting both together is nigh on impossible, but not totally so. Be encouraged by what you can find, not lament that you cannot possibly just drop everything and work on creation.

If you find yourself in this situation, may I suggest that you work with notebook and pen/pencil?

“But that is so old fashioned.” I hear you say.

That may be, but here are some good reasons for a time and place poor writer to use them. They are:

• easy to carry with you, can use it anywhere,

• easy to store,

• immediately available; no passwords or login fails,

• no break down,

• negligible cost compared with technology-based alternatives,

• does not need updates or charging,

• no on-going costs,

• never ‘no signal’,

• cannot be accidentally erased or saved in a location you forget,

• you cannot forget to press ‘save’.

Are those enough reasons to convince you of the value of the notebook for time-poor writers who are always on the move? In fact, I think all writers should have a notebook with them at all times in case that glorious and elusive light-bulb glows bright.

Something to think about when you are considering pen/pencil and paper. Many classics were ‘penned’ using materials and locations inferior to those readily available to us. You do not have to look hard to realise that more famous works were written on paper or papyrus, than by using technology (of the electrical sort). For thousands of years papyrus was the mainstay for writers. The writing implement was anything that could be found to make marks with: sticks, sharpened cane, quills, metal shards. Pottery pieces and wax covered wooden tablets were also used to carry the written word. The quality of modern pen/pencil and paper makes writing oh so easy.

Start with a low-cost book. About A5 size is good as it will be easy to carry. Smaller is fine, but larger often means you must think how you will carry it with you. You will be surprised at the convenience of the notebook as a travel companion.

What is so exciting about always carrying a notebook with you? Let’s have a look our next article: I’ll grab a coffee and write a few lines

Hope all is well with you

Damon

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