Every Saturday I highlight a link that I think is worth checking out
for writers, particularly those who are working on developing a daily
writing routine. As soon as I read L. Lambert Lawson's great post "
Writing Every Day: Our Honor Becomes Greater Than Our Moods" last night, I knew it had to be this week's featured link.
I'm featuring this not because he starts out by mentioning "Write Every Day." (Well, okay, that certainly didn't do anything to discourage me from liking the piece...) What I really loved about it, though, was how he synthesized multiple different pieces of advice and inspiration here. He draws from not just what I've written, but from behavioral psychologists and Stephen Covey, who is the source for the title of his post.
Historically, I've been quite good (or, rather, poor) at letting my moods and whims take hold of my direction in some aspects of life. I've written quite a few times about how I had written frequently as a child but then spent hardly any time as an adult writing up until this past year. But once I committed to writing every day and got a bit of momentum, having that commitment has gotten me through many, many days when I truly didn't feel like writing. Those might not always have been my best writing days though I think that in general once I get in a groove for a writing session, my original mood is largely irrelevant. So that quote from Covey really rings true for me and is a nice crystallization of how I feel about that very topic.
In fact, I'm finally making some progress with using the same core concepts behind the Daily Writing Chain in another area of my life. My wife and I have had a small side business for years which has started to languish in the past several years for a variety of reasons. I committed to putting a small amount of effort into it every day starting July 1st. So far, I've met that commitment every day and even met a small stretch goal which I had set for myself for the month of July as a whole.
We've talked some here recently about how writing every day doesn't work for everyone -- people for whom it doesn't work shouldn't feel any less good about their own routine. But for me, and for quite a few other writers, it's been a very fruitful technique.
Thanks to L. Lambert Lawson for his insightful post.
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