drop everything and routine

I used to marvel at writers who write a lot. Now, I'm glad to say, I am one of those writers. My secret is not innate awesomeness. It's routine. 

Here's what I've found works:

• Make an outline document for your novel. I like using Google Documents for this as well as for each of my chapters. Include a section for: title, genre, logline, principal characters and their primary strengths, flaws and desires, and an initial sketch of the plot. I recommend studying the hero's journey.
• Don't start writing until you have strong ideas for all key plot points. Particularly important, I think are a beginning with a hook, a reversal midpoint that represents some kind of severe setback or near-death experience, and a killer ending you will look to writing.
• Choose at least one chunk of time per week to get at least the first 2-3 hours of writing done. I love going to Starbucks on a Saturday or Sunday morning, setting up my iPad with keyboard, and savoring a Venti Peppermint Mocha while listening to the Moana soundtrack or The War on Drugs album Lost in the Dream on my wireless headphones. This first session should give you momentum.
• Choose a day of the week to be an "accountability day" upon which you will share with someone what you have produced. Mine is usually Friday, though sometimes I finish early.
• Create a weekly writing goal. Mine is one chapter. Typically, this turns out to be 10-20 pages.
• Use the magnetism of accountability to attract you to your goal. Sprinkle in writing time as needed throughout the week in order to meet your goal.
• Share your work with your accountability partner or group. For me, this is my wife and my 8th-grade students. To the latter, I read aloud one chapter per week. This I have found to be a powerful force of motivation. I know at least some students are waiting to hear what happens next, so I am inspired to write something good for them. You might choose to share with a writer friend or with a writing group.
• Solicit feedback. I pose a Google question to my students via Google Classroom. You might ask for email responses, verbal responses, or comments on a shared document.
• Once you have feedback, copy and paste it as a group of comments in the chapter document. If any errors are easy to fix, do so right away. Leave all other errors to fix after you've completed the novel's first draft. Otherwise, you will be liable to get sidetracked, stuck in the mud where your wheels are destined to spin. Of course, when reviewing feedback, you need not make all suggested changes. Let the comments simmer. Decide later what the best course of revision will be.
• Once you've finished your novel's rough draft and revised and edited according to your feedback, print out one chapter at a time and revise and edit by hand. This often leads to better revisions.
• Print the chapter again and record yourself reading it aloud, pausing to make corrections whenever you find new errors, unnecessary repetition, or awkward passages. For this, I use the Voice Memos app on my iPhone. Then I send myself the completed audio file and upload it to Google Classroom for students to review if they wish. I don't know how many listen to these, but I know that at least some of them do, and this gives me an extra boost of warm-fuzzy to stoke the fires of my commitment.
• Make changes based on the notes you made while recording.
• Repeat until your routine becomes second nature.
• Enjoy your shiny, happy writing habits. :)

Of course, my routine might not work for you. Then again, it might. Try some or all of it. Tweak some or all of it. Or not, and not. But do something. Good routines do not just happen – they are cultivated. 

So get cultivating. Drop everything and ROUTINE!