What's one thing you've done to become a more productive writer?

Stephanie here! Next week we'll be back to business as usual here on the blog, I'm going to be talking about being a shiny object chaser, which is true for most creatives I know. We mostly think of our tendency to get distracted as a bad thing, but there are good parts too, and we'll explore those next Monday, September fourth.

Also, Go Teen Writers Notes will resume next week. This is an email we send out every two weeks(ish) that's meant to provide encouragement to you in your writing life. When you subscribe, you get a tutorial on creating a story workbook, which is a tool of mine that has been evolving since 2008 when I signed my first contract.

The last panel question I get to ask this summer (*sniff sniff*) is, "What's one thing you've done to  become a more productive writer?"

Shannon Dittemore

I fight for my writing days. Like everyone I know, I’m busy. And when you’re the one who’s home all day, it’s easy to be asked to just watch someone’s kids for a sec, or take care of this one little thing, or be the team mom (VETO!). But I’ve had to learn to say No. It’s not easy at first, but once you see how productive a normal work schedule makes you, you’ll suffer through the awkward conversations without giving in. For the record, I only have three dedicated writing days a week. The other four days are full of activities with and for others, but I protect Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday as violently as I can.

Jill Williamson

I’m plenty productive. For me, that’s not the problem. The problem is that I end up cutting so much of what I wrote. Technically, what I’m doing is discovery writing. Since I haven’t had enough time to fully develop my stories, I end up cutting tens of thousands of words. In my Kinsman Chronicles, I cut over one hundred thousand words between all three books. That’s the length of a full novel! When I see that happen, it feels like I’m not being productive, like I’m wasting words. I’m continually reminding myself that those words were helpful to find the true story. And I know that if I give myself more time to fully develop my next project, I won’t need to cut so many words.

Stephanie Morrill

Like Shan mentioned in her comment, my "secret" to productivity has been developing a routine and guarding it. That looks different as life seasons change, but I think that's the best thing you can do to be a productive writer.

Same as Jill, I usually don't struggle with being productive. Usually, I want to be writing, and it doesn't feel hard to me to say no to lunch with friends or shopping or whatever, because I love my work so much.

But when my personal life is hard, like it has been this month, that's when I struggle to be productive. That's when I start to fall into the trap of, "I'll just take today to clean/read/Netflix binge, and then tomorrow I'll get back to my manuscript..." Usually my house is very clean during these weeks, but I'm not doing the work that feeds my soul. I find that what helps me get back in the groove is starting small. I'll tell myself, "Once I write for 25 minutes, then I can mindlessly scroll through Instagram," or whatever activity feels more appealing that writing.Often after 25 minutes, I feel motivated to keep going with writing.

Also, I'm a to-do list girl. Something that has helped me to feel productive and happy in novel writing is to keep a log of when I'm working. I treat it like a time card. I note what time I started working and what time I stopped, and I specify what part of the novel I worked on. If checking things off a list makes you happy, I would encourage you to try this. 

What about you? Have you learned any tricks that help you to be more productive?