I posted this a long time ago on another blog, but it bears repeating. There is much more that can be said about each of these tips but to save on the tl;dr posts I summarized to the best of my ability. If anyone would like a more thorough look at any of these feel free to let me know and I will attempt to expand on them in a later blog entry.
Set a Schedule
It is so easy to find an excuse not to write every day. Jobs, kids, wives, husbands, chores, pets, and errands all seem to crash in on us and leave little time left in our increasingly busy schedules to breathe let alone sit down and write a 2,000 daily word goal. If you want to make a career out of writing then you have to treat it like a career. You have to treat it like a second job. This means setting goals and deadlines for yourself and sticking to them. Write at whatever time of day you are most comfortable writing. If you are an early riser, take some time before school or work or before you get the kids up. If you’re a stay-at-home parent, take the time to write when you put your kids down for a nap. Or after dinner. Or before bed. It doesn’t matter when you find the time, just find the time. Find an hour or two somewhere in your day to dedicate to you and your characters and stick to that schedule. If your quietest time is in the evening between 8pm and 10pm, make sure you are at your computer with an open word document typing between those hours every single day.
I put well over 40 hours a week for a year into my writing while I was working on my first novel on top of my 40-hour-a-week day job, busy social calendar, and planning a wedding. The stress paid off in the end.
Hoshisaurus Rex 