3 Self-care rituals to get you writing
Between work, picking up the kids, walking the dog, when was the last time you penned down an update to that book you’re writing? When was the last time you concentrated and flowed with your characters, or wrote something that you can agree made sense to you?
97% of writers hardly finish their novel or written work for multiple reasons or excuses.
With these few ten minute rituals, you’ll be itching to get back to your writing:
- Read: This sounds obvious, annoying really that multiple blogs just expect you to read, just read, as if you don’t have priorities, a social life, dinner to stir up in the kitchen or a project to turn in.
Well that’s not what I’m asking you to do. I’ve done this and it really works, I don’t read to finish the book or to get lost in a single sitting, but rather, I read a single chapter a day.
Pick out any book you really like from your over packed shelf and get through that single chapter. It doesn’t have to be everyday, but at least try it every weekday. Just get through one chapter at your own pace. This exercise will stimulate your vocabulary and even strike that flame of inspiration you burned out during your last writing sprint.
- Exercise: Some people visit the gym everyday of their lives and nothing can stop them, I’m not telling you to become one of them. But I will tell you why exercise is important to your reading and writing.
Exercise is known to be beneficial to the mind as it improves your memory, boosts your mood and reduces depression and anxiety.
If you’re asking yourself at this point, how does this get you writing, then the answer is pretty simple, really.
Writer’s block, the bane to a writer’s existence can easily be cured with exercise as it helps remember the story you’re telling, it reduces the anxiety of writing and ‘not feeling good enough’.
Try it, go for a run down your street or on the treadmill, practice that home-bound workout you’ve been too hesitant to engage in and try writing afterwards, you’ll be startled how easy it will be.
- Set Goals: I’ll let you in on a little secret… The key to staying motivated is setting goals. I’m not telling you to rely on a single goal of finishing your piece of writing, that’s just one goal. Think of the process like a carefully planned game, with quests, or missions, these goals are going to help you reach your main goal of finishing your piece of writing.
Start small with your goals, I practice this regularly and frankly it has become a habit with this blog, with my novel, with everything I do really.
I mentioned something about reading a chapter a day, take that goal for example, it’s a sub-goal that’s going to get you that much closer to finishing your book or poem or blog post even.
Writing is a process, it’s not the easiest and it’s not the most favourable to some, but I hope this article helped. Leave a comment, tell me what you thought about the rituals, did you try them?
