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Daily writing habit

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Do your good habits ever fizzle out?

I had been noticing that my writing habits had sort of fizzled over the last few months.  An observation like that can easily cause me to feel guilty and discouraged - which is pretty unhelpful and demotivating.  

Fortunately I approached things a little differently this time.

I stepped back and looked at the reality.
Sure enough, I was not writing regularly.  
I wrote some mornings but not consistently.
My blog posts had become sporadic at best.

Then I asked myself how much is enough - because how in the world will I know if I'm writing enough if I don't know how much I "should" be writing?

What would it take to get my daily writing habit back again?
What are the obstacles I’m facing?

One obstacle was that I was feeling conflicted about whether to write with pen and paper or on keys and screen.  There are things I like about both. 

I love the “feel” of writing in my notebook with a favorite pen.  
On the other hand, I also love the convenience of digital composition.  It is wonderful to be able to later cut and paste paragraphs of what I’ve written to use in a blog post or some other piece.  

It can feel like a dilemma.  Like a tug or war.  But maybe it doesn’t have to.  I remind myself that I’ve been fairly successful with both morning pages and having a 500-word digital goal.  I think it’s possible to be practicing both at the same time; in fact, I’m pretty sure I have done that from time to time.

So why not give it a try?

I set up my new goal like this:
  • Morning page in my notebook 
  • 500 words on my computer
Those are both fairly manageable for me.  
Morning pages are just fun.  Easy.  Rambling.  A brain dump.  Julia Cameron says that they are to “see where I am and what I want to do with my day.”  There may or may not be something usable in my morning pages.

Typing 500 words is also pretty easy for me.  By the time I move from notebook to computer I might have a hint of direction about something that I want to write about.  Maybe I’ve jotted down ideas or snippets of a theme or a topic which I can now explore and maybe actually compose something.

Do I ever get stuck?
Of course I do.  I admit that there are times when I find myself typing the question: So what am I going to write about?  However by the time I finish the question often an answer has begun to form.  An idea, a topic, a theme, something.  Once I am typing I am usually surprised at how quickly the words pile up.  If I’m at all motivated I hit 100 almost immediately - and then 200 and then I’m halfway there!  

So that was my goal...
And now...
Success!

I’m happy to report that I am back in gear!
I have now been doing morning pages again along with at least 500 digital words for two weeks now.  (I am allowing myself flexibility on weekends without feeling guilty.)
It feels good to be writing consistently.
Once again I feel like a writer.  

Because I am writing.
Every day.

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