I am what most people consider somewhat prolific.  I produce a lot of story over a little amount of time.  This is particularly true for someone who is a full-time graduate student.  This also comes from what are considered amateurs, though I consider myself an amateur so there is little distinction in my book.

People ask me all time “How do you write so much?” “How do you do it?”  The answer is really rather simple:

I write every single day.

The answer is, if writing is what you really want to pursue, if you really want to get your book out there and published and have people read it.  You have to finish it.  In order to finish it, you have to be motivated.  To increase your motivation, you have to have a regular practice.  Make writing a habit.  I write every single day.  I certainly did not start out writing every single day. Believe me!

From about 2008-2011, I didn’t write a single word except what was due for school and most of that was research papers, not creative ones.  In September 2011, I started writing again.  It was like my mojo and muses exploded out of me and I managed about 60 short stories in the span of a year.  By short stories, I mean stories under 30,000 words.  Now, that’s like half a novel in some of those shorts.  I averaged about 39,000 words a month! Not including my school work.  A novel of 50,000 wasn’t that big of a stretch for me.

I wrote every Friday.  I wrote every Friday. I wrote EVERY Friday.  It was my day.  My friends knew it. I arranged my homework and work schedules around it.  Fridays were my days.  Quickly that advanced to three days a week, four, five and before I knew it, I was writing every day.

I started writing novels with NaNoWriMo. Well, at least that was my intention. I wanted to do Camp NaNo in June or August of 2012.  I had a two week intensive class in June, as well as traveling–so that was out.  August, I think I was home all of ten days in the entire month.  I did my own Camp NaNo in July.  In 19 days, I wrote and finished “Forever Burn”.  It evened out at 68,000 words.

19 days to write
70 days to edit for my first draft

Everyone writes at a different pace.  I type about 100 wpm, so knocking out 5-10k words a day isn’t rough for me.  My best friend hits about 800 words a day.

So…after all this…my advice to you aspiring authors and to you writers out there who want to be published and who want to finish your piece.

WRITE EVERY DAY!