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Guest post by Krissy Bradford

Just over a year ago I made the decision to write every day. It had been a New Year’s resolution for too many years to count but life and work always seemed to get in the way. I’m a freelance writer by trade, which means I write most days anyway – but I wanted to write a novel. That was my dream. And, apparently, to become a novelist you need to actually write, not daydream about writing. I was determined that this time would be different and for the first time in a long time I was in the right headspace to commit.

So on 1 August 2011 I started. I wrote 874 words that day and it took me an hour and thirty-three minutes to finish them. I struggled mightily. I had to claw those words out of my brain but since I finished that first day I have not looked back since. It has been long. It has been hard. There have been many days when I didn’t want to write – but I did. I’ve now been writing for 392 days straight.

Here’s how I did it

The first step. The hardest part about changing any behavior or developing a new one is beginning. Starting anything new means negotiating a steep learning curve and if you don’t have a plan of attack, you’ll fail. I planned for success this time by doing three things differently.

1. I joined 750words.com.
   Sure, I could have written my words in any word processing program, but what drew me to 750words.com is the fact that the site does everything for me. It tracks my time; it tracks my word count, and it saves my work automatically. I also like the accountability of the monthly challenges and committing to a rewards-based system.
2. I wrote at the same time every day. Establishing a routine was very helpful. I tried writing at different times of the day and quickly found that I wrote better in the evening, after all my work was finished. I now write, every day, just before or just after dinner. Having this set slot means I could stop trying to ‘fit’ writing in. It just gets done automatically, without me thinking about it at all.
3. I stopped trying to write the perfect sentence.
   I discovered that writing daily wasn’t about writing perfect sentences. It was about getting words on the screen. When you write on the fly, there is no such thing as perfection. That can come later.

When you shake off the desire to write perfectly you’ll find the words come more easily. Sentences flow. Some of it may not make sense, but that’s not the point. You’re putting words down – that is the number one most important thing.

Write even when you don’t want to.

I wrote when I was sick with the flu. I wrote on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. I wrote through two deaths and the grief that followed. I wrote through a bad bout of insomnia. I wrote through happiness, sadness, tiredness and tipsiness. I wrote the night when I sliced my finger open with a stick blender and had to have seven stitches (that was an experience).

The point is that you find time. You push everything else aside and you get it done. These days it takes me between 13 to 22 minutes to write 750 words. It’s not a long time but for those minutes I am 100 per cent committed to writing.

Yes, life is distracting. I’m sure yours is a billion times more distracting than mine, but if it’s something that you choose to do, you make time. You just do.

What I achieved

Okay, I am going to do a bit of trumpet-blowing here, but I’m doing it to illustrate what you can achieve when you get into a productive writing groove. Here’s what writing at least 750 words a day helped me achieve.

• Rough first drafts of the first two books in a trilogy. Each draft is well over 50,000 words long.
• I completed NaNoWriMo for the first time after years of never writing more than 5000 words in one story (50,143 words in the month of November 2011).
• I finished a children’s book I’d been writing for months.
• I completed seven short stories, two of which I’ve entered into competitions.
• I mocked up every feature article I’ve written this year (ten in all).
• I wrote my first YA novel – over 60,000 words (it’s currently being tweaked and edited).
• I’ve started on my second YA novel.

All in all I have written more than 390,000 words in the past 12 months – 390,000 words that would have never been written otherwise. Characters were born. Stories were told. That, to me, makes all the time I’ve invested worth it.

Believe me when I say that I could not have done any of this without the discipline I gained from writing every day. It has taught me consistency. It has sparked creativity that I thought was long gone. It has shown me that with a little hard work, I can write my novel. I can write many novels if I want! It’s in my hands now.

So if you want to write – if you want to be a writer – you need to write every single day. There is no other way around it. You can do it. Is it hard? Yes. Some days it is. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Krissy Bradfield is a freelance writer from Perth, Western Australia. She will have a book published before she dies. You can follow her progress at krissybradfield.com.

Nook Kindle PDF Look for it in the iBook store.

Take the February 750word challenge. The website 750words.com challenges writers every month to write every day that month and make it at least 750 words.

Now, think about it. February only has 28 days; except this is a leap year, sorry. Still, that’s one day less to win this challenge. You can write 750 words for 29 days straight, right? Take the challenge!

And here’s the Table of Contents from January’s writing challenge, in case you skipped any or want to repeat one.

NEW EBOOK Available on Nook Kindle PDF Now an iBook

This is the last day of our 750 words per day challenge! Have you written every day? What have you learned from your writing this month?

Today, write a reflection about your writing for the last month. What have you learned? What was hard? What was easy?

In light of what you have learned, where do you need to focus efforts to improve your writing?

Please share with me, post a comment! I always like to hear your good news!

NEW EBOOK Available on Nook Kindle PDF Now an iBook

I started the summer with good intentions. But somewhere along the hectic schedule, I got off kilter. My daily word count dropped. My creativity level plummeted. I could blame it on the heat wave. Or I could face reality and admit that I needed a spark to get my writing back on track.

That spark came when I saw a news blurb about a weekend writing conference sponsored by the Nebraska Writers Guild and since the location was only 90 miles down the highway, I decided to attend. It offered a handful of morning sessions and time to write. (Plus, it was free!)

Now that I've returned home with a bounty of fresh information and business cards, what do I do with this information? Store the cards for later perusal? Put away my notebook with pages of notes and ideas?

Nope. After the writing conference, it's important to make use of the information immediately. I've already typed the notes I scribbled. It's a good practice because it reinforces the main ideas and helpful hints offered by the presenters. When it's fresh in your mind, you'll put the information into practice. That should translate into more sales.

I'm also in the process of sending notes (yes, handwritten) to the writers and publishers I met and traded writing stories with. Such a varied group of writing interests! This personalized detail to attention will help networking efforts. Perhaps a collaboration or publishing contract will result from these introductions.

And most importantly, now that I'm home, it's time to plant rear end in chair and write. It's time to put inspiration into action.

The spark has reignited!

by LuAnn Schindler. Read more of LuAnn's work at http://luannschindler.com/. Graphic design by LuAnn Schindler

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Visit WOW! Women On Writing for lively interviews and how-tos. Check out WOW!'s Classroom and learn something new. Find jobs on the Freelance Job Board. Enter the Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest. Open Now!

So, admittedly, I'm late posting this entry. It took my laptop a little longer than usual to warm up today.
For months, my writing has been steadily building, becoming more and more reliant on technology. I don't know about you, but I've come to rely on technology so much that my writing would be severely hampered without my computers.
I'm of the era that, although my college classmates had computers, I didn't see the need until I had my 100-page senior thesis to write. Remind me, how did they write long form without the computer? By the time I graduated, I fear I had forgotten. Plus, by then, I was dating a computer science graduate.
Bring on the technology revolution!
Until recently.
For the past several months, I've limped along with a laptop that seems to be running on its own leisurely time and pace. Generally, I wake up at 5 a.m., start my laptop, make and eat my breakfast and my tea before my technology is ready to go. My husband brought home a computer from work that no one was using. I now know why. While no one claims that it happened to them, with this computer, I've encountered more so-called "blue screens of death" than I care to remember. So many, that I've grown attracted to the bright blue and am thinking I should consider a color change to my walls to reflect my lack of fear.
Bring on the blue screens!
I can interview someone by telephone. I can take notes, make lists and doodle with my trusty pen and paper. I can write my stories and take notes long-hand. I can outline my novels on index cards. But all of it is for nothing if I can't get the information to the computer.
I know I can be creative without a computer. I just can't be as fast...or as wide read...or, ahem, paid, without using a computer.
I know that I can't do without e-mails for keeping in touch with friends, family and clients.
But for a few weekend mornings, I'd like to be able to make the decision (not have it made for me by my technology) to sit down to write. Fueled by my creativity and my pen and paper, some days I wish I could just write without thinking about Internet connections.
How about you? Do love technology so much that you're not able to write without it? Or do you look back, wistfully, wishing to tap into your creativity and share your writing with others without having to jump-start your laptop. I know I do.
Especially today.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a creativity coach and writer living near the North Carolina coast.

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As many writers have pointed out, sticking to a routine and writing every day at a set time and letting yourself just write makes you more apt to come into contact with your inner self, your unconscious self.
In the spirit of the holidays, is your self--as it is set out on the page--a spare, seemingly unloved, basic Christmas tree with a few lights and fewer ornaments? Or are you one of those Christmas tree loaded with colorful blinking lights and enough ornaments to have sent Charlie Brown's petite Christmas tree into a state of shock? Or do you find yourself to be a cross-section of both, depending on the day or time of day?
For me, I find that I tend to edit as I write, ending up with a basic tree with a few ornaments. Fortunately, I think my inner editor replaces my inner critic. Generally, I spend time formulating in my head and then getting the idea on the page, but often I hesitate over the keys, contemplating the word before I press each letter. Thinking twice as I begin a sentence, visualizing where it will take me.
I had a professor who, if I remember correctly, characterized fiction writers in two groups based on drafts' needs: putter-inners and taker-outers. I'm a putter-inner. I write the bare bones and need to put-in more, decorating each bough with more ornaments or tinsel as I review each draft. Frequently, when I end up with a spare tree of a fiction piece, I sometimes envy the taker-outers. Although they need to take out, their tree is lushly decorated.
So, are you a putter-inner or a taker-outer?

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and creativity coach. Besides contributing to AOL's ParentDish, she blogs at The Write Elizabeth, delving into creativity in everyday places. She is looking forward to sharing the Peanuts' Christmas special with her kids, as well as the Heat Miser song.

(C) Copyright wow-womenonwriting.com Visit WOW! Women On Writing for fresh interviews, news, How Tos, and writer's markets. Enter the WOW! Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest Open Now!

That’s right us judges have done decided and now you get to choose which is the bestest.

And if that isn’t enough on Monday you get to choose between the winner of round one and the winner of round two for the utlimate uber-winner of Zombie Idol 2008.

Go, zombies!