When I was in middle school, I had a favorite notebook. It had a cover of deep blue with geometric shapes and circles on it — and it was the perfect size for my hands. Although I never kept track of how many notebooks I went through, that blue one seemed to last the longest. Partially because its cover felt softer than any other notebook’s surface; but mostly because this was the one where I started keeping track of my writing habits — habits that continue today. But apart from me, what are some other writing habits that other writers tend to have?
A Writer’s Notebook This is the notebook you use for your writing. You can do writing prompts in it. You can keep little bits of conversations you hear throughout the day. You can record all your story ideas in one place… A Morning Pages Journal Created by writing and creativity coach, Julia Cameron, Morning Pages are three hand-written stream-of-consciousness pages you write first thing when you wake up in the morning, before you do anything else. Cameron specializes in creative unblocking and recovery, and Morning Pages are the primary tool she recommends…. A Pocket Notebook Since your Writer’s Notebook will likely be a larger notebook, like a Moleskine or spiral-bound journal, it may be difficult to carry it around with you all the time. But…
If you want to become a better writer, there’s one thing that will always help you no matter what: getting feedback. Feedback allows you to learn what you’re doing right and what you need to work on. In fact, the right kind of feedback can help you make your writing better than you ever thought you could.Where To Find Feedback There are many places you can get feedback on your writing: Writers groups – Almost every community has a writers group. These groups are very welcoming and can also be good feedback providers. Just be forewarned, not every person in a writers group will be a professional writer, so you not always get much feedback you can use. Fiction writing…
One of the biggest complaints I hear from writers is about the difficulty of distractions. Twitter. Facebook. Google Reader. These social media outlets are highly tempting to the average writer, not to mention the everyday interruptions of a career, housework, and television. Are there strategies we can use to help keep us on track during a writing session? 5 ways to banish writing distractions for good: Dark Room Feature If you find yourself looking at all the shiny buttons and tempting options on your desktop, try a dark room feature, which blocks out everything on your screen and leaves you with nothing but a blank page and cursor. Freedom This is a program for both Mac and Windows users, which…