10 Ways to Improve Your Writing Life

How can you improve your writing life?

After over 20 years as a full-time professional writer, I’ve learned some things about that.

Whether you’re writing part- or full-time; fiction, nonfiction, or freelance; it doesn’t matter—the bottom line is you’re spending a lot of time using your creative brain, as well as a lot of time at the computer.

For both of those reasons and more, you may benefit from trying out these tips.

Improve Your Writing Life Tip 1. Don’t stand or sit all of the time–alternate between the two.

Sitting too long is bad for you. It leads to lower back, hip, and knee pain, encourages weight gain, and according to recent studies, can even shorten your life.

Enter the standing desk. For awhile, everyone thought these new wonders were the solution to all our sitting problems, but then we discovered if you stand for hours, you end up with similar problems to those caused by sitting all the time—namely lower back and heel problems, leg aches, hip pain, and more.

The best option, it turns out, is to incorporate both into your writing time. Stand for a while, then sit for a few minutes, then stand up again. Set up your writing area so you’re able to switch back and forth easily between the two. I have a tall chair that I use at my standing desk so I can move quickly between one and the other. It sure does save me a lot of aches and pains!

2. Drink water while you write.

We tend to get lost in our stories and forget to take care of ourselves. If you fail to keep drinking water, though, your mind will slow down, and that’s not what you want when you’re in the middle of a scene.

Even slight dehydration can create fatigue and headaches, as well as forgetfulness and lack of clarity. So keep a glass of water near you and keep sipping as you type.

Improve Your Writing Life Tip 3. Work on your perfectionism.

If you’re a perfectionist (and you know who you are), you’re probably never going to get rid of it completely, but keep working on it. There are few things that will mess you up more than trying to be perfect all the time.

Perfectionism slows you down, makes you less productive, and hampers creativity. Ask yourself: Can I let this go? Is this good enough to move forward?

Don’t let your perfectionism stop you from finishing a project. If you’re stalled on something or having a hard time getting that next scene down, remind yourself—it’s okay to write badly.

It’s okay if it’s not perfect. Better to get something down then fail to write at all because you’re searching for perfection.

4. Don’t wait to work on your platform.

One of the mistakes I made was to wait too long to start working on my author platform. It takes time to build a readership, and if you think your publisher is going to do that for you, think again!

Authors absolutely need to take charge of this part of their writing careers, and most wait too long to get going on it.

You don’t have to have a book published—in fact, it’s better if you have a platform before publishing. If you need more information on how to build one, check out my book, Writer Get Noticed!

No matter how you go about it, start putting something out there so readers can begin to find you. When your first (or next) book comes out, you’ll be glad you did.

Improve Your Writing Life Tip 5. Have a definite quitting time.

Writing will take over your life if you let it. There is always something else to do, and if you’re not careful, it can become overwhelming.

Sometimes we think we’ll go at it for just a short while—a week, or a month, maybe—but then we find ourselves toiling away for longer than that, neglecting to exercise or eat right, until something happens that affects our health, and then we have to stop.

Don’t let it get to that point. Find a way to work writing into your life on a regular basis so it becomes part of your daily routine. You want to keep doing this for years to come, right? So keep the overtime to a minimum, make sure you’re taking care of yourself on a regular basis, and quit when you need to.

6. Find out what you’re good at.

Writers are trained to look for their “flaws,” and then work to fix them. Nothing wrong with that, except it makes most of us unbalanced—we spend a lot of our time looking for our weaknesses while ignoring our strengths.

This is disastrous when it comes to your writing career as a whole. The competition is tough out there. You have to figure out what you do well, and then build on it, if you hope to stand out.

In your strengths lies your highest potential. Discover what they are, and then get even better at them. Doing so helps you rise to the top a lot faster.

Improve Your Writing Life Tip 7. Discover why you write—beyond the hope for sales or notoriety.

Why do you write?

We can use all of our motivations to our advantage. If you want to make money writing, you absolutely should go for it. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely possible.

If you’re hoping to build up a readership and maybe win a contest or two, let those goals propel you to work hard and you may just make it happen.

But chasing after only external rewards like these can leave you feeling empty and discouraged if those rewards don’t come, or if they take a long time coming (as they often do). These types of rewards can also wear thin after a few years.

You’ll chart a healthier writer’s journey if you connect with a reason to write that has nothing to do with the outside world. Choose omething that fulfills you no matter how many books you sell or don’t.

Do you write because you don’t feel “right” otherwise? Is it because you love the act of storytelling, enjoy bringing characters to life, or thrive on reporting important information to others?

Find the reason that keeps you writing no matter what, and then regularly remind yourself of it. It will sustain you during the rough periods.

8. Invest in yourself and your writing business.

Writing is an easy business to start financially. All you need at the bare minimum is a pen and paper. But the more you get into it, the more it helps if you invest in certain things:

• A writing nook—you need a space of your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I’ve written full-time for over 20 years using no more than a corner of the room and a low-cost desk.
• A good writing chair—even if you stand part of the time, you need a good chair you can feel comfortable in for those times when you write while sitting.
• A reliable computer—again, it doesn’t need to be overly expensive, just something you can use to write and manage your websites and social media without having to worry about it quitting on you.
• An attractive and welcoming website—if you can design it yourself, you’ll spend less money, but if not, this one is worth paying someone to help.
• Professional author photos—once you start selling books or services, this one really is worthwhile. We live in a visual world, and many of your potential readers or clients will be meeting you for the first time online, so it’s worthwhile to put your best foot forward.
• Education—anytime you can manage it, go to a writing workshop or conference, or hire a book editor. I have never once regretted investing in any form of writing education. It’s something we often fail to do for ourselves, but it’s super important to your long-term ability to continue to improve and stay up with everything that’s changing in the publishing world.

Improve Your Writing Life Tip 9. Take at least one creativity-inducing vacation a year.

Most every year, I take about 7-10 days to get away and just allow myself to “be” in a new location, usually somewhere by the ocean. I’ve become committed to this yearly tradition because of how much I get out of it.

Not only does it help me recover from a busy year, it jumpstarts my energy and motivation, and gets my creative brain firing full steam again. I often return home with outlines completed for new books and a year’s worth of other projects ready to begin.

Creativity thrives on novelty. That doesn’t mean you should overschedule yourself while you’re away, though.

In fact, it’s best to plan maybe one activity per day or every other day, and allow yourself to drift through the rest of the time. This opens you up for some brainstorming and daydreaming, which is critical for your future writing projects.

10. Trust yourself.

Early on, I had a hard time believing that I could really be a writer, or get my books published, or have any sort of success with them. I often thought that I was kidding myself that I could do any of it, but yet I wanted to try.

The same has happened in my professional freelance life—there have been times that I’ve taken frightening risks in service to my writing career. I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing, but looking back, I realize I should have trusted myself more.

If you feel compelled to write and you want to keep moving forward, trust yourself. Your instincts are probably right, and even if they’re not, as long as you build in a few safeguards (a savings account is one of the most important!), you’ll be able to recover from your mistakes. You’ll feel much better if you give it a shot and fail than if you never try at all.

What helps you improve your writing life?