Writing is a process…

As I’ve been pushing myself through this staggering process of writing something on a daily basis, I’ve developed a framework to follow as I write.

Here’s how my routine has developed over the past 17 months since starting this crazy endeavor…

And yes, it is crazy. I have a 9-5 and a house full of pets and children. If I can do it, so can you.

Prep Work

You won’t get anywhere by sitting down to a blank space on your monitor.

It’s a waste of time to stare into the screen that mocks you for your groggy, half-awake, caffeine-deprived brain in the morning or you empty, tired brain if you’re doing it at night.

You need a mental Red Bull to get going.

The Capture Process

Throughout the day, I have three ways to capture my ideas:

1. My phone always has a note-taking app open

2. I have a notebook with a pen handy at all times

3. There’s a tab open on my laptop with a Medium draft open

There are a million ways that people swear by in terms of how they do it, whether by thumbs, voice, or video, to capture them.

You will not be in a situation where you can catch all of your ideas (life happens), but these three allow me to capture far more than I did when I was unaware of my potential as a writer.

You have this potential as well, and if you haven’t developed a capture system yet, I highly suggest you use the framework above and adapt it to your situation.

Idea Generation

The more mature your capture process, the better and more numerous your ideas will be.

I get mine from:

• YouTube

• Life situations

• X posts and Medium articles

• Newsletters

• Books

Anything that catches your eye or lights you up. These are the things that you should jot down and record in your system.

The general rule of thumb is “f*^# yes” or “no”.

If it made you feel something, it’s worth expanding on and exploring in more depth.

Thunderdome

If you’ve never captured ideas before, the first section will be a little tricky at first. Your brain isn’t used to opening itself up to the world and extending its radar systems beyond your daily struggles.

Your perception of the world changes over time when you open yourself up…

Once you have an idea or two (hopefully more), you’re ready to drop into the writing session.

Here’s what I do:

• 5-10 min of reviewing thoughts and ideas

• 15-30 min of studying or reading from a course

• 30-60 min of writing

• 5-30 min of exploring or engaging on social media

When all’s said and done, it’s about a two hour period in which I do this every night.

There will be nights where I only have an hour.

There will be nights where I have three.

Each of these activities expands or contracts accordingly, but the proportions are always the same.

There are days where I will take a break and change it up in terms of how much I do, but that’s dependent on my goals for the short-term.

If you need to, set a timer for each activity. For me, this is generally how my sessions go so I flow from one to the next now.

Another suggestion I’d make to those of you who have never written before is to JUST WRITE during the section where you do it.

Don’t edit.

Don’t browse the internet.

Don’t get distracted by anything else.

Write out whatever idea you have selected for the session.

There’s a time and place for the editing process, and I would encourage you to do just this for a week or so before moving to the next phase.

I know, I know, you want to crank these puppies out and make your millions from your wonderous inspirations that the teeming masses are waiting for.

On second thought, go ahead and give it a try. Honestly, it’s what we all do at first until we realize that writing, editing, and publishing on the same day is taxing.

I’ll wait here while you do.

So obviously, I’m not going to wait around for you to find out the hard way (though I know you will since we all do).

The fact that this revelation only happened a few weeks ago is ironic and rather hypocritical of me to call out.

However, the majority of you who are reading my issues are in the same boat as me so I feel better about sharing my stumbles with you.

Next time, I’ll break down how I go through the editing process for the writing that I do.

I’m starting to brainstorm my first eBook on writing both short and long-form processes because my take on TwiX and Medium are not what others consider a good idea.

Feel free to let me know what you think about this idea!

Thanks for reading!