You’d be surprised by the number of people who would love to write something or have their work published but who actually do not sit down to write on a regular basis.
They have lots of ideas, start something, don’t pursue it, then they move on to the next project, dreaming all the way. I know – I have been guilty of this myself.
There is nothing wrong with dreaming, but if you have dreams you might as well strive to achieve them. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, you have only failed if you have given up.
So concentrate on action. Good habits are just as easily formed as bad ones.
Start by allocating a five-minute slot on a day of your choice. Then fill those minutes with writing. Not procrastinating, not editing, just writing. About anything. Just get it down on paper or into your computer.
Then, the following day, allocate a ten minute slot – and be sure to fill it with writing. Then gradually increase the time you allocate to writing every single day until you reach the maximum that you are comfortable with or your schedule allows. Now all you have to do is write for that amount of time every day.
The key here is momentum. Keep it going and things become easier, so aim to do even the bare minimum every day, just to keep moving. Writing is like physical exercise: the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
If you have to miss a day or two because something more important needs dealing with, allow yourself time to deal with that thing but plan to write again as soon as you can.
What you will find is that the habit of writing is established and takes care of itself.
To improve your writing (or anything else in your life, for that matter), you must do one or a number of things differently.
Wanting improvement simply means you want different results because you are not satisfied currently. So, consider this, one of my favourite lines:
If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have always got.
Therefore, identify which particular area you wish to improve then do something differently to achieve a result which you have not experienced before. You may well enjoy it.
So make your writing ambitions more realistic. Whether you want to just scribble a few notes down, write to a higher standard on your blog or work on that novel you know you can write, work towards it every day.
By setting this goal for yourself – and then achieving it – you will gain more confidence and enthusiasm and your writing will indeed improve.
This simple little plan worked for me. I used it to help me write a novel, Naughty by Nature.