My Writing Habits: The Ideal and the Real by Sandi Somers

 

Image by 123rf.com

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

(Proverbs 16:3).

It is a truth universally acknowledged that good writing habits bring success.

And good writing habits are what I’m focusing on at this strategic time.

I'm very much an early riser. With fresh coffee, I write my morning pages and then head into the Word for a leisurely time with the Lord. 

My devotional time feeds my writing. While reading and meditating on scripture, thoughts and ideas spring spontaneously to add to a new article or to in-progress devotionals.  After writing a quick outline, I record into my cell phone, as it’s much faster than composing on the keyboard. (I’ve started to clean it up immediately—as first drafts are often messy.) After breakfast and a walk (weather permitting), I continue my current project of revising and polishing unfinished devotionals, writing five days a week if possible.

 My writing table faces my east window—I need the rising sun and morning light and space to enlarge my thinking. (How could Annie Dillard pull down her blinds and write in a dark room?! But she said she gets too distracted by what happens in the world around her. I’d get claustrophobic if I did this.)

However, my daily word counts and time don’t add up to those of some prolific writers. Not by a long shot!! Nor do I have their mental stamina. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said he could write seven days a week, up to 12 hours each day. He said that in one day he could revise 20 typewritten pages, single-spaced, margin to margin, top to bottom!

Or take Stephen King, who wrote 2,000 words per day, although he admitted slowing down as he’s aging. Or consider Michael Crichton, one of the most prolific writers of the last two centuries, who wrote 10,000 words daily. Or Margaret Mead, who got up at 5 a.m., and wrote 1,000 words before breakfast.

Then there’s Graham Greene, who wrote 500 new words a day while revising his previously-written work. Or Arthur Hailey, who wrote 600 finished words per day. Goals to aim for!!   

When I finish writing for the morning, I follow Ernest Hemingway’s process, to “always to stop when there was still something there in the deeper part of the well,” to create a thought-filled bridge between the two days’ work.

During the weekend I meet with the Lord for a “Business Meeting with God”. In my special journal for this purpose, I write thanks, successes, questions, hopes, and plans, and wait for God’s answers. Sometimes the Spirit's still small voice speaks immediately, or I think of strategies. Sometimes, however, the answer doesn't come until the days and weeks ahead. 

For planning ahead, generally 12 weeks works best, although I do keep an eye on longer-range goals. I work through a questionnaire I adapted from Lloyd John Ogilvie, who writes, “The Lord constantly wants to surprise us with what he can do if we dare to risk, to accept his gift of faith, and to leave the results to him.”

Then we ask ourselves: “What would I dare to attempt if I were sure that the Lord would intervene to help me, infusing wisdom, love, courage, and strength? (Mentally picture it completed.) What had I avoided by thinking, ‘That’s impossible!’ What steps do I need to take? Where/how is God prompting me now to step out in faith? What is the next thing I need to do?”[i]

That's my ideal writing pattern. 

But as we all know, life happens, and our ideal writing life doesn’t always work out. In our posts last month, we acknowledged both distractions that derailed us, and interruptions that were God’s divine appointments.

But whatever happens, I’m discovering that the secret of writing success is to saturate my writing with prayer, as Jeanette Oke did, and listen to God’s whispers. And write, write, write! The writer Peggy Stoks said, "If I showed up at the computer every day whether I felt like it or not, my pages would eventually turn into chapters, and those chapters into a complete book." That is my goal.

But beyond that, my aim is to give my writing and my time to the Lord, knowing that He is guiding my steps in the ideal and real of my writing life.

---

[i] Adapted from Lloyd John Ogilvie. Lord of the Impossible. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 1984. Pp. 9, 15-16.