Need a kick in the butt to write?

As writers we want to write. We know what we want to write and we know how to write it.
So, we simply sit down and write. Don’t we?

Finding it hard to write?

Well, actually, maybe it’s not quite as easy as that. So many of us writers seem to find it hard to get down to the nitty-gritty business of actually writing. Myself included. So I’m interested to know what makes you decide to sit down at your keyboard and start tapping? Or, if you prefer to use pen and pencil, what makes you sit down and start setting words out on that blank piece of paper?

I’m not talking about writer’s block – where you can’t think of what to write. Most of us have plenty of ideas fizzing away in our brains. Neither am I talking about finding time to write – that is simply a matter of juggling competing priorities.

We know we want to write. We have the ideas. We have the opportunity. Why don’t we just get on with it? What stops us?

What stops me writing?

For me, procrastination is easy. Instead of getting on with my story, I check emails, fool about on Twitter, catch up with folks on Facebook, paint my nails, tidy the house, even do the washing up – which I don’t need to do because we have a dishwasher.

It is almost as if I need someone to tell me – “Sit down – NOW – and write!”

I have a number of theories about blocks that prevent us just getting on with things. I will share these in another post.

15K in May

That brings us to my latest challenge – designed to get me writing. 15K in May: 15 thousand words in the month of May.

That’s easy isn’t it? Only 500 words a day, on average. If I miss a day, 500 words are easy to make up the next day.

There are a small group of writers, on Twitter, who are doing the 15K in May challenge together.

• @MrKelly2U
• @mariaAsmith
• @LynneinPborough
• @ileandrayoung

Our hashtag is #15kinmay.

We’ve based it on the motivation that similar schemes bring – the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April and, of course, the wonderful NaNoWriMo novel-writing month in November.

So far, so good. Yesterday I wrote 1,000 words. Yes, it was my Birkbeck homework (for my creative writing BA) and yes the deadline is today. So, yes, I was motivated by a deadline rather than by 15K in May. But 1,000 words is a good start.

15K in May? Easy!

I will keep you updated on progress.