So, you’re busy. Maybe you’re working a forty hour week. I know a lot of you will be doing more than that. Fifty? What about a sixty hour week? How many fingers am I holding up?

Now who has parents visiting? Or small kids to raise? Maybe your dog needs walking, and there’s exercise you really ought to do, and that Housewives of Gotham show is on again, and your mates are wondering why you’re not online to play Call Of Minecraft Twelve: San Vegas…

I get it, I really do. The day is already over and you haven’t taken a single minute out of it to do something just for yourself…  But you’re a writer, and so you need to do some writing. Still, it’s late, and you’re tired. You’ll do better tomorrow, right?

NO! *Slams book shut in front of your face* WAKE THE HELL UP, SOLDIER!

Here are a few reasons to bother…
Momentum. You miss one day, it’s harder to start up again. Miss two, you’re basically starting fresh, your mojo gone. Keep your hand in, and you keep up your momentum.
You eat an elephant one fork-full at a time. This is pretty self explanatory, but it bears repeating. Every day you don’t take a bite of the elephant is another day closer to the expiry date, and a stinky refrigerator. Okay that’s crap symbolism, your story doesn’t have an expiry date.

Oh wait, but you do. Are you cool with the idea of one day dying with your awesome stories unfinished, unloved and forgotten? Tossed in a deceased-estate clean-up, or wiped with the last old hard drive? Yeah, I thought so. Start shovelling tasty pachyderm-meats into your face

And how do we go about doing this?
Do ten minutes before bed. You’re not more tired after another ten minutes awake. How much worse can it get? Sure you’re not at your peak mental performance, but at least you don’t have to face the prospect of getting up to do it…
First thing in the morning. This can actually work a treat, and a lot of people swear by it. Problem is, saying now that you’ll do something then is an easy promise to break. Tomorrow morning maybe you’ll fight the alarm, or be run off your feet just like you were today. If, like me, you have more endurance than discipline, go with the ten-before-bed instead.

And what good is a tiny bite of writing in a whole wasted day of work and responsibility?
A Page for Editing.
Four Hundred Words For Your Draft.
One New Character.
One Flash Fiction story.

You know what you have to do. No excuses, it’s face-to-the-bandsaw time, people.

Best regards,

D.R.Sylvester