In a recent Instagram Live with SinC’s Mindy Quigley, author Liz Mugavero/Cate Conte offered 5 tips on developing a writing process that works for you:
1. Soak up the advice. Then throw it all out.
Every writer has a system that worked for them. Outline everything. Never outline. Write at dawn. Write at midnight. The advice isn’t wrong. It just might not be right for you. Take what fits, leave what doesn’t, and stop feeling guilty about the rest.
2. Your process is allowed to change.
What worked before might not work next time. Your process will evolve. It’s all okay.
3. Consistency beats inspiration every time.
Waiting to feel ready is how years disappear. You don’t need the perfect conditions, the perfect desk, or the perfect headspace. You need to show up and write badly until you don’t anymore.
4. Work with your real life, not the writing life you think you’re supposed to have. Fifteen minutes during lunch counts. A notebook (or notes app) in the car pickup line counts. The one empty corner of the kitchen table counts. Stop waiting for the conditions to be perfect. They won’t be. Write anyway.
5. Embrace YOUR unique process, no matter how it looks next to someone else’s. If it gets the work done, that’s all that matters.
Check out the full Instagram Live video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex61ojGz5sA
And be sure to join SinC Worldwide every Tuesday afternoon at 1pm ET for a live discussion of craft, marketing, and other important topics in the writing world. Whatever the platform, or the format, SinC is Where Writers Belong!
