How to Get Your Ass in the Chair and Words on the Page

There is no paper in this typewriter. Photo by Min An

Hardcore procrastinators, perfectionists, and recovering people pleasers: Do you want to write consistently, but somehow always end up watching all the Netflix Christmas movies or helping your cousin’s girlfriend’s dad move instead? Now you’re exhausted, and all the ideas in your head have turned soggy. How do you actually build a writing practice that doesn’t suck and feel like punishment instead of pleasure?

I’m sharing what’s working for me. Take what you like, and leave the rest:

• No holy grails
• Work with, not against, your personality
• Frequency over quantity
• Set tiny goals
• Create a flexible, custom practice

No holy grails

This drawing of a bird hangs over my desk. I look at it every day. It’s from an old friend and one of the most talented artists I’ve ever met. The bird is, of course, speaking German, but it can be roughly translated as “nope.”

Take it from a recovering self-help junkie: I so badly just wanted someone else to tell me exactly what to do. That’s why this book genre sells, and why this type of article gets so many eyeballs. It’s tempting to get someone else’s framework/schedule/3EasyStepsToSuccess, because if it doesn’t work, I can blame them, and I never have to do the hard work of figuring myself out…