I'm currently a college student in my third year, and the semester is still pretty early in terms of progress. I do have a bad habit of being easily distracted, which makes it hard to focus on stuff, including having to write for my novel.

So to all writers in Royal Road, what are some key strategies that can keep someone like me focused on being able to write daily for my novel? 

Best personal advice from me is know that people are reading your novel, and that they are waiting for your next chapter.

To procrastinate is to let your fans down. Even if just one person reads it and follows it, it's my personal opinion that you should continue to post for that reader.

Unless you really hate your story and how it's going.

You really have to ask yourself what it is that helps you back on topic, normally. People can give you all the tips in the world, but that's going to amount to much if they don't personally work for you. Here's a lot of what I do, though.

I am a fellow easily distracted person. I'm no longer a college student, but I do have a fulltime job and somewhat of a social life and adult responsibilities. In general, I have to set myself reminders for everything. Right now, I have a goal to finish my novel by March 1st. That means I put in my calendar the due dates for every single chapter until then, spaced around other things I'm doing. Like NYC Midnight starts in two days so I have to take time off for that, and I'm also reading an ARC and that's due the 27th... there's a lot to do. My point in mentioning this is I have to put these things in my calendar. If I don't, I forget them. Maybe it'll help to set yourself reminders in places you know you'll see them. Like your phone homescreen. They have widgets for lots of things nowadays.

In general, I set timers for things, and I make time for things. I get distracted by RoyalRoad or Tumblr or my phone again? Okay, that's fine. I can only spend ten minutes on this before I need to shift my focus back. I'm in line at the bank? Time to write, or to read if I still have to do my daily reading. I wake up a little earlier than normal? Time to write. And on and on and on. Find every excuse to write, or you will find every excuse to not. Or, at least, I do.

At the end of the day, don't beat yourself up about getting distracted. It happens. Accept it and, when you're aware you've gotten off track, figure out how to get back. Identify what works best for you and then make every attempt to build a writing framework around it.

Make a schedule, remove the distractions and enforce discipline.

If you want to write seriously, you need to treat it seriously, too. I have a full time job and a strict release schedule. Haven't missed a single one. I write whether I feel like it or not, whether I'm inspired or motivated or not, whether I'm tired or had a bad day at work or sick or whatever. The only way I've accomplished this is by treating it like a second job because, well, for me it is one. I want to make money from writing so I can eventually work less and write more, and the only way that's going to happen is if I choose to put the work in. So I do. It's not always going to be my best writing, and I'd argue sometimes it's not even good writing. But it's done, and my readers don't want for content, and I can always fix the most egregious issues in revision later. (Seriously, even I don't know where I was going with that weird crystal ceremony subplot.)

This also means I cut way back on my other hobbies, which are frequently things I want to do more than writing but are less important. So I rarely play video games during the week anymore, I only read a couple of chapters before bed instead of binging an entire novel, cancelled Netflix, etc.

My practical advice is to schedule a specific time for yourself to write. No matter what else is going on in your life, that time—whether it be an hour, two hours, only half an hour, whatever you can manage in your situation—is for writing. That's it. Close all other tabs. Shut your windows. Put your phone away. Write.

You don't sacrifice that time. Not for parties or get togethers, not for new releases, not for recovering from a long night out, not for cooking after a long day without lunch. That's your writing time, and it's a commitment you make with yourself.

Sometimes you'll spend the whole time staring at a blank page, trying to come up with an idea. Sometimes you'll write two thousand words, and out of those two thousand words only two hundred are worth a damn. Sometimes you'll write something you'll end up scrapping entirely the very second you come back to it next time. That's fine. It might not seem like it, but it's progress. Writing is just hard sometimes, and you don't hit your flow state every time you do it. Hell, starting out you probably won't even know that you can hit a flow state. But the more you put yourself in a position to write, the more often you'll find yourself writing well, and though the words won't always come easy, they won't come at all if you don't try to pull them out.

If you're serious about writing, you find the time and you do it. The only way it happens is if you make it happen.

Quote:If you want to write seriously, you need to treat it seriously, too. I have a full time job and a strict release schedule. Haven't missed a single one. I write whether I feel like it or not, whether I'm inspired or motivated or not, whether I'm tired or had a bad day at work or sick or whatever. The only way I've accomplished this is by treating it like a second job because, well, for me it is one.

I can see the benefits of treating writing like a job, but doesn't that mentality potentially lead to burnout? Forcing yourself to write even on your worst days seems like an easy way to burn yourself out on writing.

It can if you overextend yourself, yes. Just like literally anything else in life. But you also need to work outside your comfort zone and push yourself if you want to achieve something sometimes. For myself, I'm going to be straight and say flat out that I am lazy. If I wait until I feel like writing, I'll never actually get any of it done. I have 20 years worth of unfinished novels as proof of that. So I decided to stop waiting for the "ideal" time and situation to write, I don't wait for magical idea fairies to sprinkle motivation dust on me, I don't let myself make excuses so I can go fart around in game anymore. I want to be a writer, and writers write. So that's what I do.

Cymas summarized it perfectly. I have been thinking about a story and starting to write it for a full year, and the end result was two chapters. I forced myself to write for a month, and the end result was fifty chapters. This has been a recurrent theme for me for the past eight years that I have spent on this website.

My suggestion to you is to set a time for you to write, every single day. I understand that you have finals, assignments, and whatnot, but it would be a lie to yourself to say that you do not have the time to spare two hours (or 2 hours and a half) to finish a chapter—Just start preparing one day before you usually prepare, and there you go, you have your two hours.

As for burnout, I believe that writing two hours a day shouldn't do that to you. It's like going to the gym and some people have been doing that for ten, twenty years. Burnout is usually two things; either your mind is doing the usual where it wants you to stop making effort and go watch youtube, or you have just reached a big point in your story that you have been planning for a long time and now you don't know what to write anymore.

For the second point, I would just remind you of the first day you started writing your story. On that first day, no one has any idea where the story is going to take them. Maybe you had a setting idea in mind, or a character, but there was so many blank spaces. However, you still managed to write and reach what you have reached. At that point, just write. It's fine if your writing is bad or even terrible, you can go back and fix it later, but you cannot fix an empty page.

TLDR; schedule a time to write, and keep that schedule sacred. Do not break it unless you really need to, and immediately go back to it after.

A lot of good tips in this thread, and I'll add another; just write.  It's more important to just do the act of writing than anything else.  This seems absurdly obvious, but it doesn't even have to be your story.  Just write your thoughts or jot down ideas.  The point is to keep up the habit of doing the thing.

I try to write every single day, even if I'm tired.  Even if it's not anything useful to my story, I just write something, and I'm at the point where I'm so used to it that it becomes second nature instead of a task I have to remember.

Jouto Wrote:

Quote:If you want to write seriously, you need to treat it seriously, too. I have a full time job and a strict release schedule. Haven't missed a single one. I write whether I feel like it or not, whether I'm inspired or motivated or not, whether I'm tired or had a bad day at work or sick or whatever. The only way I've accomplished this is by treating it like a second job because, well, for me it is one.

I can see the benefits of treating writing like a job, but doesn't that mentality potentially lead to burnout? Forcing yourself to write even on your worst days seems like an easy way to burn yourself out on writing.

No, it teaches you how to not burn out on writing. If you think of forcing yourself, it's worse than saying 'let's get to work, what can I accomplish today'. 

Which, frankly, is how I got through college. I had to study every day, whether I wanted to or not. 

Once out of college, you'll have a job to go to. Which you will do, whether you want to or not. 

Or take care of an ailing relative, care for your kids, walk a dog, do your laundry. So many things in life that you just have to say: Let's get to work and get something done.

Learn to manage the burn. :)

Since making this thread a few days ago, I'm going to do this to help make me write more:

* After coming home from college, eating dinner, and doing daily hygiene, I go write whatever I can before 9 PM.
* I sleep at close to 9 PM, no exceptions.
* I try to do as much college work in the morning, as my classes begin around the afternoon.
* Remove as many distractions as possible. Both phone and on my laptop. I'm using Cold Turkey Blocker to block any websites that are considered a distraction to me. I have nothing like that installed on my phone yet, but I've removed most social media apps and a good amount of games as well.

I believe this new routine will help with my writing, and will get me to pump more chapters as soon as I can. All I just need is to improve my typing speed a bit.

Thanks to everyone that provided the great tips for this thread. 

Jouto Wrote: Since making this thread a few days ago, I'm going to do this to help make me write more:

* After coming home from college, eating dinner, and doing daily hygiene, I go write whatever I can before 9 PM.
* I sleep at close to 9 PM, no exceptions.
* I try to do as much college work in the morning, as my classes begin around the afternoon.
* Remove as many distractions as possible. Both phone and on my laptop. I'm using Cold Turkey Blocker to block any websites that are considered a distraction to me. I have nothing like that installed on my phone yet, but I've removed most social media apps and a good amount of games as well.

I believe this new routine will help with my writing, and will get me to pump more chapters as soon as I can. All I just need is to improve my typing speed a bit.

Thanks to everyone that provided the great tips for this thread. 

Sounds like you've figure out what works for you! Best of luck with your writing endeavors!

Being focused on something is a habitual thing. My method is to try setting aside a specific time when you can write comfortably.
However, don't feel like you have to stick to this time rigidly for the sake of writing, because we all know, shit happens. Instead, make writing a top priority during this time.

And you don't have to spend all those reserved time solely for writing. I'd say try writing for 20 minutes and then taking a 10-minute break to do something else. Over time, you can adjust the balance of writing and break time to suit your needs.

Do that consistently, for like a month, use a timer if you have to. And don't forget to reward yourself if you have achieved small milestones of your work. That would help you gain the strength and the will to keep doing it again. Cheers!