Are You In Your Write Mind?

You carved time out of your day to write. Precious time. You plopped your derriere into your ergonomically correct chair. Your hands are poised over the keyboard, and your mind . . . your mind . . . . Where is your mind?

Are you preoccupied? Overwhelmed by all the things you should be doing? Is your mind juggling a dozen double-edged swords trailing tags of “Do This Now or Else?”

Or did you open the door to your mind and find no one home?

The clock is ticking, which royally ticks you off. Time’s passing at mach-speed and you have nothing. You begin reviewing the scene from yesterday. You’re in charge. But do you allow that quick revision to get interrupted with life distractions? Does the revision last hours as you go in and out of your writing zone? Do you end up performing “Open Scene Surgery” as life threatening to your scene as a quadruple by-pass?

Get a grip! Follow these steps to learn how to access your WRITE mind and develop habits that work for you, not against you:

Clear Your Mind

Are you Type A or Type B? Do you need to “Do” or “Be” before your write? Type A’s have a strong need to run around “doing,” crossing a dozen items off their lists. Following a pre-writing plan addresses their control needs.

Pre-writing prep: Make To Do Now and To Do Later lists. Categorize your items as Mental, Emotional, or Physical. You’ve got thirty minutes to address these tasks.

Mentally: What MUST you tackle before writing? Set your timer. Do what you can in the short time allotted. Time’s up? Put it on the To Do Later list.

Emotionally: What’s bugging you? What’s likely to gnaw on your vulnerabilities until you’re tempted to sabotage the writing session? Can you address it in less than ten minutes? Do it. If not, list it.

Physically: Ah, the final prep before writing.

1. Fix something to drink--a yogurt smoothie? Chai? Coffee? Grab your water bottles too.

2. Spiffy your writing area, eradicating or straightening the visual clutter in less than a minute. Stash things in a box if needed.

3. Move your body and prep your mind: stretch, roll those shoulders, run the stairs five times, then put on a classical CD or pop in the ear plugs.

Type B’s need to “Be” in tune with themselves. They may choose to take a walk or sit on the porch for thirty minutes. Thinking. Or not thinking. They clear their minds of the everyday mush and grime.

Be mindful of how you prepare for a successful writing session. Harlan Coben writes in Starbucks—-he craves activity around him. Stephen King prefers to write in total solitude, but he’ll jot notes anywhere.

Be Your Own Therapist

Writers set themselves up every time they sit down to write. They set themselves up for success . . . or failure. If you’ve been unsuccessful meeting your writing goals, be your own therapist.

As a psychotherapist, I know that half the people in therapy know exactly what they need to do differently to feel better, fix their problem, or have success in life. They may have deeper psychological issues that preclude follow through, but they know what they SHOULD do.

You know what would contribute to a more successful writing session for you. Do you do these things or continue falling into counterproductive behavior? Do you repeat the exact behaviors that block success? Try something different or resurrect behavioral patterns that worked in the past and tweak them to fit the person you are now.

Create Your Formula for Success

Step 1: Make a list of what you need to do to prepare for a successful writing session. List twenty-five items. No cheating. Twenty-five. You can do this. Include every little thing from an apple to Zoloft.

Get creative. Be reality-based and off-the-wall. Remove phones from your writing room. Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign even if no one’s home. Do a three-minute headstand. Make a poster that says “Have you met your goals today?” Place the poster in front of the door. Don’t move the poster until you’ve met those goals. You get the idea. Secure your ingenious ideas on paper before they take flight.

Step 2: Highlight the ten items you think will work best. Do them every time. Do the others when you need a boost.

Step 3: Follow through with your formula for success twenty-seven times in a row. You’re creating a new habit--one that will drive you toward your goals.

Down the Road

Imagine being interviewed by Matt Lauer on the Today show. He’s leaning forward, his intense gaze locked on yours. He asks, “What contributed to your writing success?”

Your thoughts scramble. What should you say? Your agent? Your editor? Your spouse? The years you struggled writing dross, learning the craft of writing, learning how to tell a great story?

What it comes down to is freeing yourself from the tethers of your everyday life and reveling in the world of your imagination. Give your talent a chance to shine. Down the road you may be sitting across from Matt Lauer promoting your latest book. Learn how to make each writing session productive and rewarding. Be sure that every time you sit down to write that you are in your “write mind.”