How to write more, struggle less
I’ve always been fairly prolific… compared to people who never wrote anything at all. In high school, I wrote poems and a play, and one novel, but that took all four years.
In college, I was an English major, so I wrote more, but pushing through the essays was a grind. Getting through a couple of pages each month felt like a huge win.
Now I write 50,000-80,000 words a month. I write a couple of pages every workday, usually more. Even on a bad day, I write about one thousand words.
What changed for me? How do you go from cranking out a few hundred words at the cost of your sanity and physical health, to getting into a writer flow that finishes novels on a regular basis?
Those questions are rhetorical. I’ll tell you how: with the five tips below, I learned to write more and struggle less.
If you have any more suggestions that have helped you in the past, please share them in the comments below!
Freewrite every day
I got this idea from Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, which I talk about all the time (see this article about comedy books if you don’t believe me).
Every day, set a ten minute timer. For the whole ten minutes, put pen to paper and WRITE. Do not let your pen stop moving.
Write about anything. Whatever pops into your head. Write a grocery list, make a dumb rhyme, regurgitate niche anime knowledge, whatever! Just keep writing.
I find this exercise is easier to do with a real pen and paper, because it’s harder to self-edit.
Do this every single day, and even bump your timer up to fifteen minutes after a while, and you will exponentially increase your word count stamina.
Work through a prompt book
This one’s my favorite.
A prompt book is a collection of simple prompts with space to write about them. One I really like is called Write the Story, and it gives you not only a prompt, but six or seven words you have to work into your little story.
These are great because it teaches you to write on command, not just when “inspiration” grabs you. If you want to be a writer, writing when you want, rather then when you feel like it, is a necessity.
I got mine from Target. They have them in the notebook section. Grab one, flip through it, and if it looks good, go for it.
Do one a day or one a week, whatever you can, but do it regularly.
Ghostwrite blogs
There’s nothing better for getting used to writing a lot than a deadline.
Often, when he self-monitor our writing, we get lazy. We put things off. I can be guilty of this, too!
But if you have a client waiting for their 2,000 words on kayaking, you’ll kick it into gear. Plus, because it’s ghostwriting, you won’t be wracked by existential questions of Art and Value. You’ll just get it done.
It doesn’t pay well, but if you’re used to not making any money at all for your words or not having to write on a schedule, this will help you write more on a regular basis.
You can easily find ghostwriting work on Upwork, a freelance marketplace I use regularly for finding clients.
If you need help getting started, download our guide: Top 9 Ways For Creatives to Make Money Online.
Write your own blog
When I knew I would be making the switch to writing full-time, and hopefully writing comedy full-time, I knew I needed to practice regularly writing jokes.
Whatever it is you love to write about, you need to learn to do it regularly. Practice by starting a lil’ blog.
Your articles can be very short, especially to start, but do it weekly. If you miss a week, no big deal, but write another one ASAP.
I also made memes for it.
Here’s the one I worked on until I started writing full-time. It’s called Unsolicited Comedy, a name I’m still very proud of.
I used Blogger to make this, and I don’t recommend it. If I had to do it over (which I probably will at some point), I’d recommend Squarespace. It’s simple to get started and easy to add new posts that look good. This blog you’re reading right now is made in Squarespace!
Attempt NANOWRIMO
NANOWRIMO is National Novel Writing Month. It takes place every November. It’s also the organization that provides support for novel writers attempting the challenge (check out their website).
The rules are simple: do your best to write 50,000 words in one month.
Attempting NANOWRIMO, and eventually beating it, helped me learn how to buckle down, turn off my internal censor, and just write.
I have a whole video series on how to conquer NANOWRIMO. Watch it here and get pumped for November!!
How to create more, struggle less
These five things helped me to get into a writer flow that makes it possible for me to do this full-time. I make a living by my words, but it took a lot of practice to get here.
If you try these five things, you’ll write more, struggle less. But you can help yourself even more.
Download our 21 Creativity Killers guide to identify what’s holding you back and how you can kick its ass.
