Persistance in Writing Takes More Than Luck

Is luck with you, are you marching forward with enthusiasm? If so, congratulations. Keep it up as long as possible. Eventually, most writers hit a wall at one point or another. The ideas don't flow and neither does the writing. Life may have taken them out of the writing loop for a while and riding the roller coaster again seems daunting. Writing is not for wimps. But there is hope. Most of those writers get back on track.

Over the past few months, I've had moments of feeling a bit off-track. Probably because I'm not in a stage of writing every day. Final revisions with small tweaks are not as stimulating to me as writing fresh scenes or major rewrites. I put off getting back to my sequel novel because I was stuck in the storyline. Looks like I have an online critique group about to start up, so that will spur me on. Once a week I work on gathering and rewriting missionary stories and find that enjoyable, but it's not practical for every day. Sometimes I read blog articles or play at connecting on Facebook. What it comes down to is doing things that make us feel like a writer while putting off writing! Sound familiar?

Here's some things we can do about it now:
1. Remember what you love most about writing and spend part of every day/week doing that stage.
2. Take a short break. Just keep in the back of your mind that you will return to it and estimate when.
3. Make a change. A change in routine, priorities, work on a different story, try a new outlining method. Change can stimulate.
4. Just do it. Sit down at the computer (or in long hand) and write a throw-away paragraph or a page of anything to get you going. Or try whatever writing exercise you like. Sometimes we just have to get back on the bicycle and start peddling.
5. Reward yourself. Make simple goals with small rewards and bigger rewards for the completion of ten simple ones.
6. Take all the positive encouragement you get from family, friends, critique groups--anywhere it is found--and use that energy to keep moving forward. 

Persistence does pay off and so does attitude. I'm calling today my lucky day because Bishop Stories is finally going off to submission land! Wish me luck!
What helps you persist at your writing goals?

The new-to-me blog of the week is a popular one from writer Janice Harda: blog.janicehardy.com  With a name like Fiction University in her blog, you can guess she is a writing teacher. This blog offers more than a thousand helpful articles. I know she has one or two in there that will help me unstick my plot problem. Have a great week!