Writing faster doesn’t mean pushing yourself to the limit, sacrificing sleep, or exhausting yourself while chasing impossible word count goals. And yet, that’s exactly what so many writers are doing, then wondering why they’re so exhausted all the time.

Today, dear Happy Writer, I’m sharing with you five tips on how to write faster without burning out and without turning writing into another source of stress. These are fun strategies that help you write faster and write more while protecting your energy, your creativity, and your love for writing.

Let’s see how to write faster while keeping writing fun and enjoying the writing journey. If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below to discover how to write faster without burning out.

Tip #1: Write faster using the Pomodoro Technique

One of the best ways I’ve found to write faster is by using the Pomodoro Technique. The Pomodoro Technique is all about writing in short, focused writing sprints, followed by short breaks in between.

For example, you can write for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break. After every four writing sprints, you can reward yourself with a longer break, usually around 20-minutes. The best part is that you can adjust both the duration of the writing sprints and that of the breaks, depending on how long you can focus and how much time you need to recharge between sprints.

The reason this method helps you write faster is that it keeps you focused on one single task. During the writing sprint, you’re only focused on writing. You don’t slow down the process by editing, doing research, or getting distracted by random notifications. You’re fully focused on that one task, and you give all your energy to it.

And knowing that there’s a timer counting down, it creates a playful sense of urgency for the task. It motivates you even more to write, curious to see just how much you can actually write during that time.

REPATED POST: The Pomodoro Technique for Writers

Tip #2: How to write faster by turning writing into play

This tip goes hand in hand with the previous one. You can turn your Pomodoro writing sessions into a fun little game where you’re competing only with yourself.

For each writing sprint, write down your word count. Then, in the next sprint, see if you can beat your word count from the previous sprint. And to make the game even more fun and help you write faster, plan some small (or big!) rewards for reaching new writing milestones. This motivates you to write faster during each sprint to earn your reward.

Need help tracking your writing sprints? I created a fun and easy-to-use Google Sheet you can download for free to track your progress after each writing sprint. It automatically calculates your total words for the day, shows your overall progress in your book, and even tells you exactly how many words you have left until the finish line. Use it to turn your writing sessions into a fun little game so you can stay focused, write more, and enjoy the process. You can download the word count tracker using the form below:

To take this game even further, try doing writing sprints together with your writing friends. This challenge will motivate you to write even faster as you strive to be the one reaching the highest word count during that session.

Finding ways to add a bit of playfulness to your writing sessions will help you write faster. When you’re playing, you’re having fun. And when you’re having fun, you no longer dread your writing sessions. Instead, you enjoy your writing sessions and you’re having fun writing.

That joy brings you into a flow state. The longer you can maintain that state, the more productive and enjoyable your writing sessions will be.

Let me know in the comments what are some fun things you do to make writing feel more like play and less like work? And if you currently don’t, you really should try adding more playfulness to your writing sessions.

Tip #3: Create the ideal ambiance for a productive writing session

To write faster, you need to be able to stay laser-focused during your writing sessions. But all the clutter around you steals your focus.

In order to create the right environment for a focused, productive writing session, you should eliminate all distractions—both physical and digital. A cluttered desk filled with pens, books, notebooks, unopened mail, and half-empty coffee mugs can easily distract you from your story. And so can all the notifications constantly popping up on your phone and laptop.

Do you want a truly productive writing session? Clean your desk, close all unnecessary apps and programs, and silence all notifications. With all these distractions gone, your muse will return full of energy to inspire your next writing session.

That takes care of removing what hinders your focus. Once that’s done, it’s time to add in the things that actually support your focus.

Do you focus better with music playing, or do you prefer writing in complete silence? Do you prefer bright lighting, or does soft candlelight help you relax and focus better? Do you like a clean, minimal screen, or are you more motivated to write when the writing program has a beautifully designed theme, maybe one that matches your genre?

My personal preferences are the Ravenclaw Common Room sound atmosphere from Ambient Mixer, a dark room filled with lots of fairy lights, and a customized Scrivener theme that helps me immerse myself even deeper into the story.

When you’re surrounded by the right atmosphere for you, you focus better during your writing sessions, and you’re able to write much faster. And if you happen to work best in a crowded or messy space, that’s perfectly okay too.

This is all about creating an atmosphere that works for you, making your writing sessions as enjoyable and inspiring as possible so you can be as productive as possible.

Tip #4: Join a writing community to stay motivated and write faster

In tip number 2, we discovered how to write faster by turning writing sprints into a fun game with other writers from your writing community. But that’s not the only way the writing community can help you write faster.

When you’re working from home, alone at your desk, writing can start to feel a little lonely. And when that happens, you sometimes lose a bit the motivation as well. But when you’re part of a writing community, you feel much more motivated and energized to work, especially when you’re writing alongside others.

I sometimes meet up with other writers in a café, where we each work on our own projects. And every time, I notice the same thing: I write so much faster there than when I’m writing alone at home. Being around other focused writers energizes me, and seeing them deeply engaged in their work helps me stay focused on mine.

So if you want to write faster, try meeting up with other writers for writing sessions.

You don’t know any writers in your town? No problem! Join an online writing community. Several authors I follow on YouTube host virtual writing sprints. So you still get to work together with other writers, just from a distance.

You still encourage each other, stay accountable, and keep going, and that does wonders for both your motivation and your writing speed.

RELATED POST: How Writing in a Café Makes You a More Productive Writer

Tip #5: Actually learn how to type faster

Wow, this is mind-blowing! How did I even come up with such an ingenious tip?! But jokes aside, this is actually an important one.

Sometimes, our writing speed isn’t limited by how fast our ideas are flowing, but by how quickly we’re able to capture those ideas on the page. And that’s where learning to type faster can make a real difference.

Improving your writing speed can help you write your book faster. There are many programs available online that you can use to train yourself to type faster. A simple Google search will reveal lots of them, and many of them are completely free, like this one, for example. Give it a try and see if it helps you write faster. Why not take advantage of all these free resources to help you become a more productive writer?

The faster you type, the easier it becomes to keep up with your ideas—and the faster you can bring your stories to life.

This post was all about how to write faster without burnout. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:

Writing More in Less Time with the Pomodoro Technique for Writers

Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments what methods you’re using to write faster and at the same time enjoy the writing session.

The post How to Write Faster Without Burnout – Fun & Easy Tips for Writers to Boost Writing Productivity appeared first on Happy Writer Hub by Maria Baias.

What if I told you that all it took to become a more productive writer was implementing a few small writing habits into your daily writing routine?

In this post, I’m sharing with you 9 simple daily writing habits that help you achieve writing flow faster while also enjoying the writing process. No more pressure. No more stress. No more burnout. You can integrate these small, playful writing habits into your everyday life to make writing feel lighter, easier, and more fun… even on busy days.

If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below to discover what small daily writing habits we can use to write more consistently, get into flow faster, and make the writing sessions more enjoyable.

Writing Habit #1: Start with a tiny writing warm-up

Sometimes, when you start your writing session, it can take a little while to get into writing mode. One simple action you can take to help you get there much faster is reading what you wrote the previous day.

This small first step helps you warm up for the new writing session. As you read, you remember what you wrote, what your characters are doing right now, and what was the last thing that happened in the story.

By reconnecting with your story first, it becomes much easier, and more fun, to continue writing right where you left off.

Writing Habit #2: Create a daily writing trigger

Is there anything you could use to signal to your brain that it’s time to start writing? Maybe you train your brain to know that your writing starts right after breakfast? Or after an early morning walk. Or, if you’re a night owl, right after dinner.

By adding your writing session into a specific time slot in your daily routine, it becomes much easier to start writing because you’re signaling to your brain that this is writing time now.

Your brain learns the pattern: you’ve done your daily exercise, and the next thing it expects is for you to sit down and write. So you’re basically training your muse to show up as soon as you take that action.

Writing inspiration… on command.

Writing Habit #3: End every session mid-sentence

I’ve heard several authors suggest this habit, but it’s not one that works for me personally. I’ll still mention it here because many writers do find it useful.

The idea is to stop your writing session mid-sentence, so that the next day it’s easier to jump straight back into writing by continuing from where you left off.

Every time I’ve tried to do this, it has actually made me more confused. When I’m writing, I know exactly what I want to say, but if I stop mid-sentence, the next day I don’t always remember how I wanted to phrase that sentence or where I was going with it.

Give it a try and let me know if it works for you. I’m curious if it actually helped you get into writing faster.

Writing Habit #4: Set a ridiculously easy daily writing goal

Sometimes we procrastinate on starting to write because our word count target is overwhelming. If you say to yourself, “Today, I have to write 3000 words,” that can feel overwhelming, and it makes you dread even starting your writing session.

But what if, instead of 3000 words, you set your word count target to just 100 words? Suddenly, that feels much more achievable and a lot less intimidating.

And here’s the fun part: once you start writing, you often end up writing a lot more than 100 words. Lowering the word count target for the day might actually help you write more, and you’ll feel a lot less stressed while writing.

Writing Habit #5: Turn writing into a mini game

Writing is always easier when you have fun writing. When you find ways to gamify writing, you turn a task into a playful, fun activity instead of a chore.

So what can you do to gamify writing? One simple way is to use the Pomodoro technique and, with each new writing sprint, try to beat your word count from the previous writing sprint. It becomes a friendly competition with yourself where the only winner is you. And no matter what your final word count is, you still win, because you’re advancing your book.

RELATED POST: The Pomodoro Technique for Writers

If you need help tracking your word count, I created a free word count tracker Google Sheet (linked in the form below) that you can use to track your writing sprints, your daily writing progress, and your overall book progress.

And if you love stickers, like I do, you can use them to decorate your writing tracker every time you reach a new writing milestone. Pretty stickers as a reward for playing a fun writing game.

There are so many fun ways to gamify writing and enjoy the writing sessions more. What’s your favorite way to gamify writing?

Writing Habit #6: Create a writing ritual you love

Having a writing ritual signals to your brain that you’re in writing mode, and that this is the time to focus only on your writing.

Your writing ritual doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as having one dedicated spot in your home where you always write. Or maybe you always write at your favorite café.

You can also create a fully immersive writing atmosphere for your session using lighting, sound, a specific place, a dedicated keyboard, or even a special coffee next to you. All of these little cues signal to your brain that this is writing time.

My writing ritual includes fairy lights and the Ravenclaw Common Room sound atmosphere from ambient-mixer.com. What’s your special writing ritual?

Writing Habit #7: Separate writing time from editing time

One thing that really helped me increase my daily writing productivity was separating writing from editing. Writing and editing use two different parts of the brain.

When you’re writing, you’re being creative. You’re building new worlds, creating new characters, and using your imagination to the fullest. When you’re editing, on the other hand, you’re being more analytical, checking for errors and fixing things that are already on the page.

So when you keep switching from writing to editing during the same session, everything slows down. Your brain keeps switching from creative mode to analytical mode, and that makes the entire process feel a lot harder than it needs to be.

A simple fix is to keep them separate in your daily writing routine. Write first and write messy. Nobody is going to see it or judge your first draft. And when it’s done, you can go into analytical mode and focus on refining and improving your manuscript.

Writing Habit #8: Celebrate showing up (not word count)

When we’re ambitious and overly critical of ourselves, we can start to feel guilty if we show up for the writing session and end up not writing any new words.

But just because you didn’t add any new words to the page doesn’t mean that you didn’t make progress on your book. Maybe your writing session was spent brainstorming new ideas on where to take the plot next, or coming up with new ways to make your characters miserable, or how to save them.

Maybe you simply reread what you wrote last time, so you can reconnect with your story and figure out how to continue tomorrow. All of that counts as progress.

Just because you don’t have a new number to add to your word count tracker doesn’t mean you weren’t working. Writing is so much more than adding one word after another. It involves lots of brainstorming, world-building, character development, and just… thinking.

Celebrate showing up and spending time in the world of your book, even if it was just for a short while.

Writing Habit #9: End the writing day on a cheerful note

We often tend to focus on the critical side. So we say to ourselves, “I only wrote this many words today,” or “I should be further along after this writing session.”

But remember that every small progress is still progress. And both your current writing session and your next one will feel so much better if you take a moment to celebrate today’s wins.

Celebrate that you showed up. Give yourself a little sticker, or a bigger reward, for another day where you showed up for your book. Leave yourself an encouraging note for tomorrow. Find small, fun ways to celebrate and end today’s session on a positive note.

When you do that, the day and your writing will feel lighter and happier. You’ll enjoy the process so much more when you celebrate your progress instead of criticizing yourself for not being where you thought you “should” be.

Big writing goals are built on small daily writing habits. Choose the ones that feel good, let go of the rest, and enjoy the process of becoming a more consistent writer.

This post was all about the simple daily writing habits that can help writers be more productive. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:

Learning from the Writing Habits of Famous Authors

Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments which tiny writing habits you’ve implemented in your own writing routine that have significantly boosted your writing productivity.

The post 9 Simple Daily Writing Habits for Productive Writers (That Actually Feel Fun) appeared first on Happy Writer Hub by Maria Baias.

Have you ever wondered how Stephen King manages to write and publish so many incredibly long and successful bestselling novels? Wish you could do the same? It’s not magic—it’s discipline and cultivating the right habits. Today, dear happy writer, we’ll learn how to become more productive writers by studying the writing habits of famous authors. We’ll peek into the daily routines of prolific authors and uncover the secrets to their creativity, productivity, and enjoyable writing sessions.

Whether you’re constantly struggling with a hectic schedule or the occasional, frustrating experience of writer’s block, you can easily borrow these habits from successful authors and apply them to your life. Let the masters inspire you and teach you how to become a more productive writer.

If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below to learn from the writing habits of famous authors.

Consistency from daily word count goals

We’re starting the journey into the writing habits of famous authors with my favorite author—Stephen King. I love his writing style and how he brilliantly portrays the complexities of human psychology in his many, many novels. But what’s his secret for being so incredibly productive?

Consistency!

With novels like The Stand, It, and Under the Dome (my favorite Stephen King book)—all longer than 1,000 pages—consistent writing is absolutely crucial. Such massive projects demand dedication, consistent work, and a commitment to keep going until you reach the finish line.

Stephen King writes 2000 words (or 6 pages) per day, every single day. He makes no exceptions, not even on Christmas Day or on his birthday. Here’s the perfect role model to follow if you want to have a successful writing career!

I’m not saying you have to write 2000 words a day. What I am saying is that it’s helpful to be consistent in your writing, even if you can only write 200 words a day. Just keep the momentum going so you can move closer to your goal of writing a book!

I know that compared to Stephen King, many writers have far less time to dedicate to writing. A full-time job, family commitments, or health concerns make it challenging to spend several hours per day writing. But maybe you can spare 15-30 minutes per day? These small writing sessions will compound over time, and bit by bit, day by day, your manuscript will grow into that full-length novel you’ve been dreaming of writing.

The key is showing up regularly.

Writing inspiration from a change in scenery

Who doesn’t love a nice, long, relaxing bath? It’s a great way to unwind and clear your mind after a stressful day. And you know what happens when you clear your mind? You make space for new ideas! That’s what helped Agatha Christie come up with the intricate plots of her novels. Agatha Christie often got new ideas for her novels from taking a bath or washing dishes. Both activities have a meditative effect on the mind, enhancing the flow of creative ideas.

Which is the weirdest place you’ve come up with ideas for your novel? Here are some more examples from other prolific authors:

• A graveyard – A bit creepy, I know. But it seemed to work for Mary Shelley, who got her inspiration for her famous novel Frankenstein during her walks through graveyards.
• A train – I can’t imagine a world without Harry Potter and all the other beloved characters from the Harry Potter novels. And it all started on a delayed train, where J. K. Rowling sketched her first ideas for the book that would eventually fill the hearts of so many children and adults. Who wouldn’t love to have that kind of inspiration? Did you just switch tabs to book a train ride? I hope it works for you!
• A castle – It was a castle in Scotland that helped inspire some of the settings in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
• A prison cell – If you were in prison, what would you do with all that time on your hands? Miguel de Cervantes made excellent use of his prison time, beginning to write Don Quixote.

RELATED POST: Where Do Authors Get Their Creative Inspiration?

From a hot bath to a bone-chilling graveyard—inspiration may strike at any moment, any place! Have you tried any of these locations? Hopefully not the prison… But the others seem like good places to visit for some inspiration for your novels. Off you go, and don’t forget your notebook!

Productivity from outlining like a master

Okay! I know this one is a bit controversial and that some pantsers have very strong opinions about plotting. But so do plotters, and they swear by it. It’s worth giving it a try, but ultimately, choose the path that feels right for you.

Here’s the fun thing about the internet—you can easily find out the daily routines and writing habits of famous authors. Read about their practices, learn what makes them successful, and then model them.

John Grisham is an extremely successful author of legal thrillers, captivating millions of readers worldwide with bestselling novels like The Firm, The Client, The Pelican Brief, and many others. I wouldn’t mind achieving even a fraction of his success!

John Grisham relies heavily on outlines to keep his story on track. In fact, he mentions he prepares comprehensive 40-50 page outlines to have a good idea of where the story is going before he even starts writing.

An outline of 40 or 50 pages! That’s a lot of advance preparation! But does it work? Considering how successful he is, I’d say yes… Many other successful authors also rely on outlines, using them to shape their books, either in the form of a detailed roadmap or a shorter summary containing the main plot points. Give it a shot and see if outlining works for you.

Efficiency from writing sprints

We’ve talked about writing sprints before, and we’ll talk about them again because they’re a fantastic tool in a writer’s arsenal. They significantly increase your writing efficiency, allowing you to write more quickly.

The English novelist, Anthony Trollope, used writing sprints as a key component to his writing process, his impressive list of publications being all the proof we need of just how effective writing sprints can be. His approach to writing sprints was simple, but highly effective—writing in 15-minute intervals, with a target word count of 250 words for each interval. He dedicated three hours a day to this process, so if you do the math, it adds up to an impressive 3000 words a day.

Talk about efficiency! Wouldn’t you love to be able to write 3000 words a day and have one novel written in one month? Of course, we’re not all able to write 250 words in 15 minutes, but maybe some of us, slower writers (even with the sprinting) can get 250 words in 30 minutes. That’s still progress!

Short, focused bursts of creativity allow us to fully immerse in our novel, enabling us to write as much as we possibly can at maximum speed during a short period of time. Writing sprints also reduce the pressure of having to write an entire novel, keeping us focused on this writing session. And then the next one, and the next one… until the entire book is written. So writing sprints are a key ingredient to becoming a more efficient writer, all while having fun sprinting through the pages.

RELATED POST: The Pomodoro Technique for Writers

If you need help tracking your writing sprints and word count progress for your book, I have a Google Sheet Word Count Tracker that you can download for free and never lose track of your book progress again.

Work ethic from discipline and daily routine

Some writers resist discipline, thinking that it’s too restrictive, but it’s actually a crucial component of the successful career of many creatives. Talent alone isn’t enough. Many leading artists and writers attribute their achievements to their self-imposed discipline of doing the work, no matter what.

Nora Roberts credits a significant portion of her remarkable success in the publishing world to her unshakable discipline and strong work ethic. Over her long writing career, Nora Roberts published nearly 250 books under two different pen names (Nora Roberts and J. D. Robb), publishing about four books a year. She essentially juggles two writing careers, so if you want to learn how to be an exceptionally prolific author, I’d say there’s no better role model.

How is Nora Roberts so prolific? She has the discipline to sit in front of her computer and write for six to eight hours every day. And she even finds some time to write when she’s on vacation. Now that’s dedication!

Nora Roberts’s work ethic is absolutely impressive, but I realize that it’s a level of commitment that not every writer can match. Writing for six to eight hours feels completely unattainable when you work a full-time job, have a family to take care of, the dogs are begging you to take them out for a walk, and you still have to sleep and take care of your health. And please do prioritize your health, because achieving anything else on the list depends on you being well and healthy.

How can we achieve success like Nora Roberts? That depends on your personal circumstances. If you’re a full-time author, you can definitely try Nora Roberts’ writing routine. Try to cultivate a daily writing habit of six to eight hours if you can focus for that long.

Even with a busy schedule, you can still strive for strong self-discipline, adapting Nora Roberts’ work ethic to your own life. Just one hour a day, every day, dedicated solely to writing and free from distractions, can have a huge impact on your progress. Consistency and dedication are key to a successful writing career. It’s up to you how you tailor them into your own schedule and make them work for you.

Focus from chaos

And now, let’s get back to the magical world of Harry Potter! It takes an incredible amount of imagination and focus to write such a fascinating wizarding world that makes you want to be part of it. So you’d think one would have to be locked away in solitary confinement to bring this world to life.

Turns out isolation isn’t a necessary component for crafting amazing stories. J. K. Rowling wrote the first three books in the Harry Potter series in bustling cafés, proving that you can focus and connect with your muse even in the most chaotic environments. She probably would have continued writing from cafés if fame hadn’t gotten in the way! With the Harry Potter books becoming famous and her fans recognizing her everywhere she went, writing from cafés became counterproductive, leading her to find quieter writing places.

We were talking earlier about the importance of being consistent for a successful writing career. In this day and age, distractions are practically everywhere, conspiring to interfere with our focused writing sessions. Finding a way to write—even with all the noise and distraction of a café—will help you stay consistent in your writing.

J. K. Rowling’s inspiring journey shows us that a writer’s success doesn’t come from finding the ideal, quiet environment for writing. It comes from cultivating the discipline to write effectively regardless of your surroundings, proving that the ability to write anywhere is paramount to success. If she was able to create an entire magical world in the middle of a noisy café, then surely we could also find the focus we need to create our own captivating worlds and characters.

This post was all about the writing habits of famous authors. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:

How to Write a Book While Working a Full-Time Job

Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments which famous author-inspired writing habits you incorporate into your own writing.

The post Writing Habits of Famous Authors: Tips on How to Be a More Productive Writer appeared first on Happy Writer Hub by Maria Baias.

Have you been struggling to figure out how to write a book with a full-time job? So many of us say that we would love to write a book. But life, work, and many other obstacles often get in the way. Or maybe we let them get in the way because we’re scared to start. We’re scared of doing something new; we’re afraid of criticism, of failure, so we keep putting it off indefinitely. But if you overcome that fear, it is possible, dear happy writer, to write a book while working a full-time job.

In this post, I will share with you some tips that helped me write my first novel while working a full-time job. I hope you find some of these tips helpful, and I hope you will succeed in writing the book of your dreams.

If you prefer the video version, check out the YouTube video below for tips on writing your book with a busy schedule.

Find the time to write a book with a full-time job

If you want to write a book, the first thing you need is to find the time to write it. And when you’re busy with a full-time job, and adding to that the commute time, the time you spend with your family, and all the house chores, not to mention you also need a few good hours to sleep, it feels like you’re already using more than the available 24 hours in a day.

So, then how do people do it?! How can anyone manage to find the time to write a book when working a full-time job? Here are a few things you can try.

Short writing sessions every day

Writing for half an hour per day is all you need. If you’re consistent and write every day, even if it’s just a few hundred words per day, you will get to the finish line. Day by day, the words add up, and with just a few hundred words per day, in less than a year, you can have a book written by you.

Isn’t it exciting to imagine yourself holding your own novel in your hands?!

But to do that, you have to get that half an hour. It’s not a long period of time, so hopefully it doesn’t feel overwhelming. But where do you find that spare half an hour?

Any chance you could reduce the amount of time you spend in front of the TV or watching Netflix or some funny cat videos on YouTube? Yes, I love them too! But the funny cats, dogs, and other animals can wait until after your writing session.

Maybe you’re already not doing any of these activities, and you wonder what else can I skip?

Since we’re only talking about half an hour, do you think you could set up your alarm clock just half an hour earlier in the morning (for early birds) or go to sleep half an hour later (all you night owls out there that I envy)? Do you think you could find some spare 30 minutes early in the day before going to work, or late at night after you’re done with all your other housework and everybody else in your household has gone to bed? That can be your quiet writing time. But sleep is important, so you shouldn’t deprive yourself of sleep.

If mornings and evenings are not an option, then how about your lunch break? Can you skip lunch or eat while working? That could also give you the half an hour you need to write.

If none of the above work, there’s also your commute time. No, I’m not suggesting you take out your laptop and write while you’re driving! But you could use dictation apps and dictate the book into your phone and transcribe it at a later time. Many authors use dictation to speed up the writing process, and it might work for you, too. And if you use public transport for your commute, then you can take out your laptop, or tablet, or even your phone, and write.

When I wrote my first novel, most of my writing sessions were in the early mornings. The first thing I did in the morning was to write in my novel. When I started my day writing, I felt much more relaxed throughout the day because I gave myself that half an hour (or an hour sometimes) every morning to expand my creativity. That helped me be more creative throughout the entire day and brought creativity to my job as well.

Let me know in the comments what your preferred writing time is. Do you prefer writing in the morning, in the evening, or on weekends?

Writing marathon on a weekend

I was going to suggest here writing the full weekend, but I realize there might also be some other things people need to get done on a weekend. So you can still go about your weekend plans, but maybe you can take one day per weekend or every two weekends to write. A writing marathon!

When you dedicate a full day to writing, you can advance your writing more than you expect. That’s because you’re immersed in your book for a whole day, and that can put you in a flow state. Ideas come faster when you’re spending all that time in the world of your book without interruptions.

If you think your will alone will not keep you writing for a whole day, try a writing challenge. I tried a 10K writing challenge several times, and the challenge always helped me to push myself towards achieving the goal of writing ten thousand words in a day. It’s an added motivation to push yourself to write more. I never actually managed to write ten thousand words in a day, but the idea of challenging yourself to get to 10K keeps you focused, and makes you push yourself harder to finish it.

If you don’t get to 10K, it’s okay! You still made huge progress in writing your book, and you’re several thousand words closer to the finish line. Well done!

Writing sprints (Pomodoro technique)

Writing sprints go hand in hand with the idea of not editing while you write. We’re slower in writing when we stop to edit each sentence we’ve written to make it sound better. But editing while you write might slow down your writing.

Some people prefer to edit while they write, so it’s up to you to decide how you want to proceed with your writing. But if you want to finish writing your book fast, it might be better to focus on finishing your first draft first, and when it’s done, you can do all the edits you want.

If you want to write fast, writing sprints are your best friends. Whether you’re trying the short daily sessions or binge writing on a weekend, using writing sprints will increase your output. Not only will you write more during your writing sessions, but you’ll also be more focused on what you’re writing.

How writing sprints work

They are based on the Pomodoro Technique, which encourages you to work for 25 minutes and then take a 5-minute break before going to the next 25-minute working period. When we apply this to our writing session, it means that we write continuously for 25 minutes.

Keep your fingers on the keyboard!

During the writing sprint, you do not surf the net; you do not research anything; you do not edit, and you do nothing else other than write sentence after sentence in your book. Then you get a 5-minute break, and then you start again.

Try to write as fast as you can during each 25-minute slot and see how many words you can write during that time. Then, challenge yourself to write more in each new 25-minute time slot.

If you see that 25 minutes is too long for you, you can try doing 20-minute writing sprints. Or you can go for 30 minutes if you don’t lose focus and you want to push yourself more. Or if you’re really adventurous, set your timer for a 60-minute writing sprint.

I didn’t believe it when I heard other writers talk about the efficiency of writing sprints, but then I tried it and I was amazed at the results. I wrote so much more by using the Pomodoro Technique!

Whether or not you believe it would work, I suggest you give it a try. What do you have to lose? Try it a few times, and if you don’t like it or you feel it doesn’t work for you, you can change your approach. But I highly recommend you try this technique and watch your word count grow.

WRITING SPRINTS TRACKER

To help you keep track of your Pomodoro sessions, I created a Google Sheet that you can download for free so you can monitor your progress after each writing sprint. It calculates your progress for the day after all the writing sprints, shows your full progress in the book and how many words you still have left until the finish line. Use it to make writing days more productive and fun.

Be consistent in your writing

Writing every day makes the job easier. Why? Because if you leave a few days between writing sessions, you might forget what you wrote, or you might forget what you want to write.

If you only have half an hour per day to write, you don’t want to use half of that time to trace your thoughts, to remember where you were, or what you’re supposed to write next. You want to spend as much of that time as possible writing and advancing your book.

Consistency is equally important if you’re a weekend writer. If you don’t have time to write during the week and choose to write only on weekends, then it would be easier for you if you could write every weekend, or every second weekend. Just don’t let too many weekends go between your writing sessions so you don’t lose momentum and so you don’t waste too much time reading through what you last wrote and remembering why you wrote that and where you were trying to go with it.

Have fun writing your book

Finally, a significant aspect of writing a book is to have fun writing it! Enjoy the time you spend creating and putting your ideas into words, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters!

Don’t view writing as a chore. View it as a fun experience during which you get to explore your imagination, to explore new ideas, and to share them with the people who will read your book. If you do that, you’ll be looking forward to your writing sessions, regardless of how short they might be. You won’t even see the time fly. Just make sure you set up a timer so you don’t forget to go to work because you’re having too much fun writing.

Attempting to write a book with a full-time job is not easy. But with patience, dedication, perseverance, and most of all, passion, you will manage to write that book you’ve been dreaming of writing.

I wish you the best of luck in writing your book! And remember to have fun on your writing journey!

This post was all about how to write a book with a full-time job. If you enjoyed it, you might also enjoy this post:

How to Write When You Don’t Feel Like Writing

Now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments what your best tips are for writing a book while working full-time.

The post How to Write a Book with a Full-Time Job and Finish Your Book appeared first on Happy Writer Hub by Maria Baias.