What makes a writer a writer?

Its “writing”… Right?

So what happens when you feel like you’re a writer but the writing you desire to do is not what you end up doing…?  And it’s not for a lack of things to say or write, but more so a result of inertia.

Inertia = a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged

It’s absolutely frustrating.

So what do I end up doing about it…?

I read… I end up borrowing and reading lots of books… Books about writing and being a writer and being a better writer and being a prolific writer…

And after reading them all… I still don’t write.

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I listen to a number of podcasts and one of the things that a good number of podcasters do that I don’t particularly like (and bloggers do it as well), is always apologize after a protracted silence or break in delivering new episodes (or blog posts). Then they promise not let it happen again… And then it does…

I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to apologize, or have to apologize, for not writing regularly, I just want to pick up where I left off and keep it moving.

So this week I tried to figure out what would or could keep me engaged enough in writing that once I overcame my inertia I could stay in motion; this is going to the physics definition of inertia…

Newton’s Law of Motion:

An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force

Basically, an object tends to keep on doing what its doing.

So I’m writing again. No apologies (I couldn’t even say who I’d be apologizing to anyway…). Now I just have to keep on writing.

Ideas I Got To Maintain My Writing Habit

But first… (thank you Julie Chen for making this phrase stick in my mind)

I found one book particularly inspirational even though it doesn’t provide actual writing habit tips and ideas. I feel like it gave me the “permission” I needed to just go ahead and start writing again.

So in all my surfing around I found a few sites that suggested having daily blog themes and I really like this idea.

Another helpful suggestion was to pick a set time each day to just write for an hour (though that seemed more geared toward people who are trying to write an actual novel… That’s not me, not right now anyway).

Picking a regular time each day to write sounds doable enough. I am at my most creative in the mornings so that just makes sense. Unfortunately, it seems to me most other writers like to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to get their writing done before the world (and the rest of the household) wakes up.

I just can’t… Early morning wake-ups (earlier than I have to anyway) just don’t work for me. I’ll work on finding a good time of the day to write for an undistracted hour.

Okay… Now I’m really excited about the idea of having theme days. Here’s what I’m thinking…

• Monday
  • Monday Memory Verse – share a Bible memory verse for the week, one that really stood out to me from my Bible study/quiet times
• Tuesday
  • Tuesday Ten – a list of 10 things… I don’t yet know what 10 things I will list but I’m sure I’ll think up something each time (if I do Tuesday blogging)… 10 things listed in my Etsy shop maybe…?
  • Twitter Tuesday – I do love my reality TV and often will go to Twitter (as a fly on the wall) just to see what “the streets” are saying… I could embed the funniest (non-offensive) tweets I find about my shows
  • Truthful Tuesday – every post is based on some true fact (I feel like I do this already), and each post starts with the phrase “The truth is…”
• Wednesday
  • Wishful Wednesday – each post begins with the phrase “I wish…”
  • Wednesday Word – I love words… I believe the official word for people like me is logophile (some call us “word nerds”), and I aspire to be a sesquipedalian some day ;). So this is right up my alley. The objective here is to select a word and write whatever the word inspires me to say. Love it!!!
• Thursday
  • Thankful Thursday – I like this idea, but I already keep a physical “gratitude journal” that I write in everyday so I probably won’t be blogging the same thing. I do think this is an important daily practice though 🙂
  • Thinking/Thoughtful Thursday – writing about a controversial issue or hot topic… Sounds enticing, but not really my thing… I don’t really like to poke the bear just to poke the bear, but when I feel strongly enough, the dam will break 😉
• Friday
  • Friday Funny – sharing a joke, funny meme, or funny story
  • Friday Faves – sharing blog posts from other bloggers that I’ve particularly enjoyed or found helpful
  • Friday Lie-Day – tell three stories/facts, two will be true and one not… Readers will then be invited to guess the truth. Sounds like fun but I don’t know how good I’ll be at coming up with new “untruths” week after week 😦
• Saturday &/or Sunday 
  • Summary post – summary of my favorite posts from around social media or the blogosphere… It could be a summary of anything really
  • Silly post – self-explanatory. I don’t know… Seems a bit “blah” to me…

Now some bloggers recommend not necessarily trying to blog every single day of the week as that might get exhausting (and I tend to agree).

This writers’ fatigue can then lead to my writing habit screeching to an abrupt halt… Again. So I’m going to have to be realistic about this and pace myself.

I may try just three days a week for starters. In particular, I find the following most appealing:

• Monday Memory Verse
• Wishful Wednesday (I’m a dreamer and I do a lot of wishing)
• Friday Faves (my version of Twitter Tuesday)
• Weekend Word (to get my logophile fix)

OR

• Tuesday Ten
• Thinking Thursday
• Weekend Word

After trying them out, I’ll see which feel/feels the best to me and then adjust accordingly.

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Tomorrow, I think I will respond the “A Write Every Day Q&A” questions posted by Ramona DeFelice Long. You can check out that post here.