Turn Off the TV, Write a Novel

When writing a novel, there’s more to success than getting the work done. Being successful really comes down to a few things, namely, putting in the work, and having the time to do that work in the first place! Setting goals for your writing is important, but don’t forget to also set yourself up for success.

This is my story.

It takes a lot of effort to write a novel; a lot of planning and organizing, and above all, a lot of writing. In order to actually accomplish all of that, you need plenty of concentrated time. Last year, I read a personal testimonial from a writer. I don’t even remember who it was or what exactly they said, but this was the gist of it:

I deleted Netflix and published two novels.

It was simple enough to inspire me!

Set yourself up for success

But I didn’t want to simply “delete Netflix” and hope for the best, so instead, I set myself some specific goals.

Netflix was a big one. The popular streaming services give us the ability to binge-watch shows by the season. You sit down to watch TV and look up 8 hours later. I wasn’t watching that much TV, but I was watching enough that I knew quitting it would free up several hours per week that I could spend writing my novel. So I decided to do that.

The key is to actually use the time you’ve freed up on writing!

It only took a few weeks for me to start writing an hour or two a day. I quickly discovered that’s all you really need to get a tonne of work done. Realistically, no one can write for 8 hours a day every day, so simply setting some small achievable goals is all you need to get started.

Since setting this goal, I’ve written over 600,000 words on my novel, plus journaled my entire process! I wanted to free up a little more time, so I also deleted my social media apps and freed up another hour per day, approximately. That was major! And it’s really helped me be successful in my writing goals.

What simple, achievable goals have you set for yourself in order to make more time for your writing? Have they worked? Let us know across our social channels and share some tips with other writers just like you.