How to start a daily writing habit for beginner writers – Learn these 8 tips.
“Aargh!!!” You cry out in anger.
Why? Because, you want to write but you simply can’t.
Your blank word document frustrates you.
You start hearing voices like, “You are not cut for writing.” “ You are pathetic” “Your writing sucks” and so on. Sounds familiar?
If so, what you need right now is a daily writing practice that you can rely on and follow it like a charm.
You need a system that tells you what topic you will write and publish in the next 3-6 months.
So, if you are ready to win your battles and knock the socks out of your writer’s block, read these tips to build your daily writing habit.
Tip #1: Knock Out the Writers Block With Idea Explosives
Stuck thinking about what to write? Here’s a quick way to get the ideas to start writing.
Do a quick google search on a topic you want to write about. For e.g: “writing habit”. Make sure the search topic length is about 2-3 words max.
Scroll down to the bottom and pick the queries people ask related to this search term. These are your idea explosives.
So, why are they explosive? Because, you can get lots of traffic to your website fast using these ideas.
Copy and paste these topics in an excel sheet. Repeat till you have about 5-10 topics.
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Tip #2: Build the Daily Writing Habit For a Ten Year Old Kid
After building a list of hot topics, create a writing system that even a 10 year old can follow.
Here’s how:
First, rank the topics in the order of search volumes and low competition. You can do this using Ubersuggest or Google keyword planner. Next, based on the score, pick 5 low competitive topics with at least 100 monthly search volumes.
Now, open Google calendar and add these topics in the calendar event.
If you are a beginner, target completing one topic per week. So, pick topic 1, and put it on the calendar one week from now and set a reminder alert 1 day before the deadline.
Similarly, fill your calendar for the next 2-3 weeks with other blog topics. So, this way you know in advance what you will be writing.
Tip #3: Don’t Start Writing Unless You Decide This
With the topics and the schedule set, should you start writing? Not yet.
Before that, fix a place and time where you will write.
No. Not your bedroom where you will be sitting and watching Netflix.
Definitely, not the hallway where your wife will ask you to chop onions for dinner.
Fix a place where you won’t be disturbed for at least 1 hour. Call it your writing dojo.
Also, decide when you will write. I would recommend the early morning hours like 6am-7am, when your mind is fresh. But, you pick a time that works for you.
By picking up the place and time, you are all set to start writing.
Tip#4: Write Under Pressure of the D Day
What’s the best way to finish writing your blogs fast? It’s to set a D Day aka the deadline.
Nothing speeds up your writing like knowing you have an upcoming deadline that you can’t skip.
Fix a D day e.g: Sunday, 8PM. So, if it’s a Sunday, you should be ready to publish the post.
The goal here is to push you through the haze of unfocused ideas towards clarity with the deadline pressure.
Tip#5: Set Smaller Milestones
So, how do you ensure that you publish before the D day?
Start by setting small goals. Here’s how.
Maybe you want to write a 1500 word blog post every week. In such a case, break it down to 400 words per day.
Now, the numbers can vary according to your expertise. But the rule of thumb is to set small goals.
So, if you are writing an article, don’t set the goal to complete the entire article on Day 1.
For example on Monday, write the headline, blog outline.
On Tuesday, you work on expanding the outline and subheadings.
Likewise, target completing small goals. The idea is to complete your best imperfect first draft.
Tip #6: Follow the RRR Writing Strategy (Review, Re-read and Repeat) .
This goes in sync with the above point. Ie: You push out the first draft early and the remaining days you rework on bettering it.
So, for example if you have a deadline next Sunday at 8PM, make sure you finish out the first draft by Thursday 8PM. You can block your calendar every Thursday to review your first draft.
Your goal for the next few days is to polish and re-read the article.
Just like wine, your ideas get better with time. So, give more time. Let your initial ideas settle.
Then, repeat these steps to publish your article before the D-day.
Tip#7: Plan Your Creatives
After you are ready with the final draft, you can plan the creatives like images, infographics or gifs.
You may not need all the creatives while releasing the blog post.
For example, you need a header image and an opening image for your blog post. Other creatives like infographics can be completed on a later basis.
Goal here is to use at least one creative feature on your post.
Tip#8: Launch Your Article
Finally, before the D day, launch your blog post no matter what.
You might feel that your blog post is not perfect and that it’s not as good as what others have written. And that’s normal.
It’s ok even if it isn’t your best work. Trust me, just publish it. And after that, reward yourself by eating a chocolate or doing something you like.
Congratulations. You have followed a winning writing process and launched your blog article.
So, these were the tips to build your daily writing habit. Follow these steps and become a productive writer.
You are Definitely Stronger Than What You Think
Now, you might wonder if you should really try this. What if you don’t get better at all?
Well, in that case, die trying till you succeed. It’s still worth it.
Have faith in you. You may have sucked in the past. But don’t let that define you.
Start your daily writing habit, knock out your writer’s block and grow your skill as a high paying writer.
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