by 
Leon Fletcher 
LeonFlet@aol.com

Guides:

1. Establish---and follow---an ironclad schedule for writing.
 

"Writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair." Mary Heaton Vorse, American writer.

2. Write regularly, even if for just an hour a day, one day a week.

Follow the advice of famed French novelist Guy de Maupassant (1850 - 1893): "Get black on white."

3. Longer and more frequent writing sessions will of course improve your skills faster.

4. Set a goal for yourself of writing a significant---but realistic---number of words at each of your writing sessions.
 

* Many writers have a goal of writing 800 to 1,000 words during a typical 4 hours of writing session.

* Some writers set a goal---and do write---2,000 or more words at a sitting.

* The widely heralded California poet Robinson Jeffers also had a goal for the number of words he'd write each day: 14! (Right!---fourteen!)

5. Establish a routine for your writing and your related but non-writing activities--- research, planning, thinking, phoning, etc.

Example: I usually write 5 days a week:

6. Polish what you write.

"Writing is rewriting." Richard North Patterson, author of No Safe Place.

Many authors---including me---rewrite that all-important first paragraph of an article or a book, for example, 20 or more times, changing the wording, adjusting the sequence of material, cutting all but the essentials, considering alterations in every detail.

The rest of a work usually does not need to be revised that many times, but each sentence should of course be honed to be as perfect as you can create.

7. Set aside a special place for your writing.

It need not be large or elaborate. But it should be reserved for your writing only.

Reason: Your mind probably will more quickly focus on your writing as you approach and settle into your writing place.

8. Make every effort to avoid having to clear off a table to write, or having to set up your computer, spread out your notes, etc.

Reason: Such efforts can distract from your writing.

9. Develop the ability to come to each of your writing sessions with what you are
    about to write already in mind.

You don't need the exact wording of your next sentence set mentally, although many writers do that. However, thinking about what you are about to write, for at least a few minutes (longer is usually better) just before you sit down to write can do much to get you into your writing mode faster, easier, more productively.

"Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself---it is the occurring which is difficult."
                                             Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist

10. Don't write much past the length time you usually write.

Even if the writing is pouring out, most writers find it more effective to keep to their writing schedule. The temptation to continue writing when words or ideas are flowing fluently is often counter-productive---you may run into a block at your next writing session.

11. Don't give up your writing too far before you've completed your allotted time of
      writing.

That is, don't get in the habit of quitting your writing early just because you've run into an idea that seems difficult to express, for example. Rather, try to work through it for a while. If that's not productive, skip the point and start writing on an easier concept, fact, or such.

12. Don't keep writing until you are tired; try to stop just before that point.

13. Don't expect to return the next day and find everything you wrote yesterday is perfect.

14. Do maintain a positive, up-beat, confident attitude about your writing.

15. Rewrite. Revise. Edit. Polish. Improve.

"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again."                                                         Oscar Wilde. 

"I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter."
                                                              James Michener.

Leon Fletcher, author of this article, is:

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