The Spring edition of Mslexia is full of great tips for would-be writers.
The magazine’s philosophy of creative practice echoes my own, so I can’t resist quoting:
‘[Writing researcher] Robert Boice compared writers who scheduled a daily writing session with those who wrote only when inspired. He found those who scheduled time to write were three and a half times more productive than those who wrote when inspired. (Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert Boice, New Forums Press).
In addition to a mounting word count, ‘scheduled’ writers also had more creative ideas, on a more regular basis, more editorial acceptances, better mental health.
…it takes ten years or 10,000 hours to become an expert (The Making of an Expert by KA Ericksson, Harvard Business Review)… to become a better writer, Ericsson believes you need to work at all elements of ‘deliberate practice’, including: significant effort to improve performance, expert feedback, and high levels of repeated activity.’
As I've always maintained, writing is like any other job - some days you turn up for work and you don't feel in the mood, but that wouldn't stop you teaching your class/filing your invoices/finishing the spray-paint job on a van, so why should it stop you writing?
Mslexia is a UK-based magazine and e-supplement for women writers, link below:
http://www.mslexia.co.uk