My morning writing routine in 2020

Finding it a challenge to carve out time for your writing because of other work or life commitments? I encourage you to join me in my Daily Writing Challenge. Even 100 words a day adds up! I also have an Inkygirl Daily Writing Challenge Facebook Page.

One of my goals in 2020 is to not only be more diligent about writing something FIRST THING in the day, but also not to be so picky about what I write (social media posts don't count, though :-)).

Reason: Last year, I was always trying to work on my middle grade novel first thing in the morning. While my goal of morning writing worked sometimes, there were many mornings when I just had too much going on. I'd be distracted because I'd be on the road, or have morning appointments, be stressed about book illustration deadlines.

As a result, I ended up NOT writing many mornings. That fed into my growing overall frustration at my lack of progress, and eventually I just gave up.

Keep in mind that I never have trouble focusing on contracted book work. If someone is expecting work from me and I have a deadline, that's one thing. My middle grade novel project, however, tend to always be shoved to the back burner. Part of the reason, I know, is psychological. In the stupid part of my brain: "Once I finish writing and revising, I'll have to start sending them out into the world, and what if I end up getting nothing but rejections again?" 

But I'm also aware that I've spent so many years focusing on illustration work that my writing muscles still feel rusty, and that's feeding into my whole "but what if I can't write anymore" insecurities.

The solution, I think, is that I need to write a LOT more, and on a daily basis, even if it's not writing for my middle grade novels. I like what Jeff Goins said in his post, My Morning Routine In 10 Simple Steps. After breakfast every morning, he writes something.

From the Goinswriter.com article on a morning routine:

This can be a blog post, book chapter, article, or just some random notes to myself. For me, it’s not about what I write as much as it is important just to write. Usually, I wrote around 1000 words; sometimes less, sometimes more.

I've started to do this as well. Sometimes I write by hand in one of my Rhodia hardbound journals (also an excuse to use one of my fountain pens), sometimes I write on the computer. Sometimes poetry, a sentence or two from an imaginary story that doesn't (yet) exist, stream-of-consciousness first-person of one of the characters in my book, sometimes a blog post.

Do you do morning writing? Do you have a life that makes finding writing time a challenge? Feel free to post below.