How this Mind-Brain Habit Develops a Winning Writing Mindset

“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Wrote Napoleon Hill in his famous book “Think and Grow Rich”

It’s a mantra many famous people have embraced and achieved greatness.

Writers too should embrace the same mantra. After all, they live in their minds, creating, critiquing, and churning out content.

What’s your mindset about writing? Successful writers have a certain kind of mindset, a positivity that pervades their inner person, they are constantly thinking of writing a perfect piece, book, or article, unfortunately for all writers, it’s an elusive dream.

Why a positive mindset matters

Have you ever given a writing project your all? burnt the midnight oil, typed feverishly at every opportunity, researched, verified, and double-checked your sources, polished that article to a mirror finish, edited, proofread, and published only to have no one read it?

Did you feel like throwing in the towel but some mysterious force kept you writing?

That’s a writing mindset. All writers who have made a name for themselves never gave up. Despite lackadaisical reception by their readers they kept plucking away.

And that’s because they have developed a certain mindset that supports their writing process.

What’s your approach to writing?

A writer’s approach to writing is key to developing a conducive mindset to writing. If you believe you can only write on Monday mornings, or weekends or you can only write for two hours before bedtime, that mindset will determine your productivity.

Prolific writers know that they are in control of their writing process, they build ironclad structures and systems around their writing and protect, preserve and maintain their writing schedules.

When you develop a writing mindset, you will feel more in control of your writing, because you decide when to sit down and write, when to put in the hours, when to push beyond the pain, and when to keep plucking away at the keyboard long after inspiration and motivation are gone.

A writing mindset helps you to overcome, procrastination, self-doubt, judgment, and fear.

So how do you develop this mindset?

You start by developing and taking control of your thought patterns, opening yourself to a certain way of thinking, developing persistence, enhancing productivity, and Challenging negative behavioral patterns.

You have to challenge negative thoughts. “I’m not good enough, my writing sucks, nobody will ever read this, I’m not talented like so and so,”

These negative thought patterns hold you bound to mediocrity.

Challenge every negative belief, “why do you think you are not good enough? Why do you limit yourself to a certain genre of writing?”

Work on your attitude, and build the power of self-belief. Focus on productivity, work on finishing that piece, then the next, and the next after that. Don’t rest on your laureates, keep plucking, and soon you will become a prolific writer,

Plan your writing, develop a clear writing schedule and adhere to this schedule consistently.

Inspiration is overrated, do not wait to be motivated to write, Work instead with goals and targets

Now that you call yourself a writer, Approach writing with all the seriousness it deserves and treat your writing as you treat your 9 to 5.

Develop a routine and stick to it

Writing like swimming in the ocean is never mastered on the sidelines, you must jump in and learn to fight the currents and ride the waves. Mastering your mindset, and the way you think about writing is key to becoming more productive.

Disciplined daily writing is not only key to your productivity but it will help you get better, and the better you get the more you will find pleasure in writing.

Build an impregnable writing habit. There are days you will wake up and won’t feel like you want to write. A daily routine that forces you to sit and start plucking away without room for excuses will ensure that you overcome that natural desire to take it slow.

Completing hard tasks is often not enjoyable, our bodies are constantly trying to maintain a state of homeostasis. a self-regulating process to maintain comfort and stability against external forces.

Habits powered by daily routine help us to fight against homeostasis. They free you from conscious decision-making, automating your writing process. An effective daily routine once installed happens without a conscious decision on our part.

It frees you from lethargy and helps you focus on your creative work. It allows you to effortlessly immerse yourself and become a proficient writer

Novelist Alexander Trollope was a prolific writer, He wrote 49 novels just because he maintained a consistent daily writing routine he would start writing from 5:30 AM to 8:30 AM and that was every day of the week, then he would go to his daily job as a postmaster.

And he left some advice to whoever wants to change their writing mindset, he said, “A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.”

Continuous pecking away, constant improvement, and Incremental progress add up over time to become a mountain of productivity. 500 hindered words written every day will add up to 182,500 words in one year that’s equivalent to four books of 45,000 words each.

How do you manifest this kind of stick ability?

Develop self-efficacy

Develop your self-belief to succeed. You have the capacity to execute everything you put your mind to do.

Believe that you will finish writing that book — that you will work tirelessly on that project even if it will take ten years, and that you will beat every form of discomfort, research, and write those articles.

Believe in yourself knowing that you are the right person for the job. Build that inner stamina and find inner motivation long after inspiration is gone and all that remains is grit and tenacity.

Develop a growth mindset.

Carol Dweck from the university of Stanford explored how the power of our beliefs has an enormous impact on all areas of our life, including our writing. Dweck suggested most people either have a ‘fixed’ or ‘growth’ mindset.

To develop a writing mindset, we need to approach our work with a growth mindset. People with a growth mindset believe challenges are good and there is no limit to our ability to learn and progress.

In other words, we will face setbacks, but they will help us become better writers.

Write in your Peak Moments

Every writer has their peak moments, a time when they are settled and have minimal distractions, they can concentrate, get into the flow and just write. It might be early morning, late at night, or during lunchtime in a park seated on the bench, eating a sandwich.

Peak moments may last one hour two hours or three hours, it doesn’t matter how long they last the trick is to curve them out of your schedule and write, consistently every day at least six days a week.

When choosing your peak moment think of distractions, will you be interrupted, is the space quiet, secluded, and conducive, how about your mental and emotional state will you be strong enough to get into that creative flow?

Show up

Lastly, writing is all about showing up. make it a priority and let nothing stop you from showing up.

Show up consistently every day of the week or at least six of them, and show up at the same time at the same spot. Soon your body will get used to the routine and after a while, it won’t feel like a drag to seat at your desk and write. You will actually start looking forward to it.

When starting, just before sliding into the habit, work with a calendar — block out that chunk of time and set a reminder. It will pop up on your phone or your laptop and help you remember to start writing.

Final thoughts

Writing is hard work, and sometimes may feel like a chore, but writing is pleasurable, (after you’ve written the final word,) getting those words on paper takes effort, you have to write every day because that is the only way you can get that book out of your mind and to your readers.

A writing mindset will help you to achieve these objectives. It is the key to consistent productivity mastered by prolific writers.

 

This article was first published Here:How to Develop a Winning Writing Mindset