A Quick List of Tips for Treating Your Writing Like a Full-Time Job

Jen Matera reports:

"Treat your writing like a full-time job in order to be as successful as you can be...[I]f you’re treating your writing as a full-time job...what steps should you take in your daily life to facilitate this?...Set aside a series of hours each day you’ll work...Ensure you have a work area strictly for your writing...Plan for breaks. Employees are usually allowed miscellaneous breaks and an hour for lunch...Establish a pattern and stick to it...Unless you’re doing your own marketing, stay off social media! Your boss wouldn’t allow you to aimlessly surf Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter at work...Set manageable goals, assess them, and reevaluate them as needed...Write. Write something. If your characters aren’t speaking to you, work on outlines or synopses or write something else...When your day is done, stop. Save your work. Make some notes for tomorrow...This won’t work for everyone. It probably won’t work for most, to be honest. But if you [manage] better when there is structure, give it a try."