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This Will Give You Incredible Momentum · The Daily Writer

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for writing success.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't people finish goals that they say are important to them?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's probably many answers to that question, but an obvious reason is that they simply get tired and don't see a lot of discernible progress toward their goal.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Take writing a book, for example.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you tend to be a perfectionist, writing a book can take a really long time because you're trying to both write and edit as you go.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, it's super easy to get discouraged and just give up on the whole thing.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know that because it's happened to me personally.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Once, a few years ago, I spent a couple of years working on a book.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I compiled literally 150 pages of notes, and that's no exaggeration, yet I never finished the stinking book.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's super easy to do when you're trying to be a perfectionist and you have these ultra unrealistic standards for yourself.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of doing that, here's a better approach, and I'm speaking from experience, having messed up on this a lot.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to take John Steinbeck's advice about first drafts.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: He said this write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Rewrite and process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, those are certainly great words of advice from one of the greatest authors who ever lived.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly one of the greatest authors of the past hundred years.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Once you've outlined your book, try to get the first draft done as fast as humanly possible.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: This will give you incredible momentum because it's easier to work on a book that's complete.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the revisions and the rewrites I think are a lot more fun whenever you already have a complete version of the book, even if it's not as good as it's going to be once you have the whole thing revised and published and all that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: You'll have a massive sense of accomplishment and motivation because you have something whole you can work with, and you can also see the big picture of the book rather than taking many months or even many years to finish just that first draft alone.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your daily question.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: As you think about your current book project, how fast could you get it done if you really push yourself?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.