Consistency in Routine: It's True What They Say

In June, I decided to post about consistency because it's a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately, as an editor, a writer, and a quality assurance manager at my day job. If you caught my previous posts, you know I talked a lot about consistency in your actual writing and provided some (hopefully) helpful tips to provide a manuscript that won't be full of errors or inconsistencies.

But today, I want to approach a more controversial topic and one that I think is timely given how 2020 has been full of change, disease, protests, racism, and uncertainty.

If you hope to make progress as a writer, whatever that means to you, you have to be consistent in how you approach your writing routine. 

That's sometimes an unpopular thing to say. A lot of creative people don't like to hear the words routine or schedule. They shudder at the mention of "discliplined." But when I talk to people who are stuck or have writer's block or can't finish any piece of writing they start, one thing most of them have in common is: there's no consistent routine to their writing.

Look, I get it. I do. It's hard to get up and write every morning. Or it's hard to write in the evening after the kids go to bed. Or it's hard to sit your butt in the chair and write in the mornings (if you are retired or a full-time writer). But if you're having trouble making progress, it could be because you're not consistent.

This post is not meant to scold you or make you say all kinds of bad things to yourself right now. We are in the middle of a year that is unprecdented in our lifetimes. I wanted to indie publish a ton of books this year. One of them that I worked consistently on every day for four months was a book about how to do school visits. Enter the pandemic. Enter sheltering-in-place and distance learning. Enter a school year that won't look the same until a vaccine is found and widely available. I have an entire manuscript and book cover almost ready to go that I'm not going to publish right now; and for a while, I let it throw me.

But a few weeks ago, I said to myself: You were consistently productive in the morning before COVID-19. You are getting up so early because you have a crazy puppy who wants to get up at sunrise (and that's before 5:30 am right now, folks). So before you start editing for someone else or planning your daughter's day or insert anything here, work on your own pieces.

And I so I did. That's what I'm doing from about 6:30 am to 8:00 am every day. I feel better. I am making progress. I am consistent.

More than anything, I hope you understand that if you're hard on yourself, if you're negative self-talking, or if you're not allowing yourself grace because you're upset about the violence, or you want to organize a protest, or you're at home with three kids who have had their entire summers canceled, I want you to first be kind to yourself. You will not accomplish anything, consistent or not, if you do not give yourself grace.

Then look at yourself realistically. Where can you be consistent with your writing career? Can you work in the mornings? Is there an hour during naptime? Can someone watch your kids two times a week? Are you a weekend novelist? Whatever works FOR YOU, find it and stick to it. You will make progress. Consistency equals progress toward a goal. It really does.

What does work for you? Have you found this to be true in your own life? Let us know!

Margo L. Dill is a writing coach, writer, and editor living in St. Louis, MO, with her daughter and her dog. You can find out more about her at https://www.editor-911.com or take her next online novel writing course which starts on July 3 by clicking here.