If you participate in Lent, you’re accustomed to giving up certain things—chocolate, social media, soda—in your life during the 40-day period. As a writer, however, there are also some negative habits you should give up, too. So, with the last few weeks left of Lent, refocus on these six habits you can remove from your writing life.
1. Comparison.
We all get caught in the comparison game at some point or another, and as a writer, it can be hard not to compare your current writing status with someone else’s status, especially with access to other writers’ lives on social media. Remind yourself that you’re seeing another person’s highlight reel on social media and that you don’t know how many years, rejection letters, and self-doubt they had to work through to finish their first draft or find a literary agent or receive their first royalties check.
2. Perfectionism.
Waiting to write until you have the perfect setting or a stroke of inspiration, not releasing your manuscript to an editor because you don’t feel it’s good enough, or tucking your manuscript away and not publishing it because you’re scared of what people will think are all negative experiences that spawn from perfectionism. A perfect book does not exist—every book on the market has a few errors. So, don’t let your desire for perfection stand in your way of publishing your book.
3. Your time.
Your time and energy are extremely important and the more of it you give away to people and activities that don’t serve you or your writing, the less time you have to fulfill the true desires of your heart. If you’re spending three hours a day scrolling social media, you’re wasting three hours you could put toward writing. Use the screen limit settings on your phone to track and set cut-off times for social media and then give the remaining time back to yourself to do something you truly enjoy.
4. Self-doubt.
If there’s one bad habit that can stop your writing dead in its tracks it’s self-doubt. Give this negative self-talk the boot through positive affirmations, journaling, and any other activities that can help you beat self-doubt.
5. Excuses.
If writing is something you truly want to take up, you have to kick excuses to the curb once and for all. Don’t let yourself make excuses for not writing. You’re not too busy; you simply need to reallocate your time. Bad grammar hasn’t stopped other writers. If it’s got you down, sign up for an online grammar course or pick up a writing guide book from the bookstore.
6. Idealism.
There’s never going to be a perfect day to write or a perfect time in your life to publish your book. There will always be something standing in your way or creating a sense of writer’s block. Build up your creative stamina to be able to surge past these roadblocks along the way. Idealism will simply stall you out altogether. When you feel your idealism kick in, allow yourself to be messy. Creativity and inspiration can be found in the messiness of life, too.
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