If you can write for only ten minutes a day, do it! When you have completed the ten minutes you will have a sense of accomplishment that will give you the energy you need to start the ten-minute time period the next day. While starting a writing project is easier than finishing, starting a “writing time” can be the hardest part.
Many times we hinder our own progress by setting goals that are too difficult to maintain in the midst of everyday life. If I set the goal for myself to write for three hours a day, maybe some days I could do that, but most days I couldn’t. On a day when I couldn’t complete that goal I would feel discouraged instead of energized, and this negative feeling (believing that I “can’t” instead of “can”) would make it more difficult for me to approach writing the next day.
By choosing a small set of time that you can consistently complete you will remain in a rhythm where you are gaining a sense of accomplishment each and every time you sit down to write. This way you don’t need to wait until the novel is finished to have the feeling of accomplishment. Even to finish a thirty-minute writing session is a great accomplishment. To write thirty minutes each day for a week is an even greater accomplishment. When these small accomplishments keep piling up, you’ll end up with a full book after a year—that’s what happened to me.
