How to Schedule Writing Fiction & Nonfiction & Other Creative Projects

Long time ago, when I first started to write books, I read many, many books with advice from many authors on how to organize your writing life. The most consistent advice was to write at least five pages a day -- every day -- no matter what.

I was even practically criticized by a famous writing consultant by the way I wrote -- which was to start many writing and creative projects, instead of focusing on one and finishing it.

Many years have gone by now and I finally figured it out, at the very least, for myself.

The obvious is that each one of us has to find the best way for us to create. That can take a lot of time and experimentation. Meanwhile, if you keep in mind what everyone says how you should do it, that will really mess you up.

I write fiction, nonfiction and I also create guided meditations.

In Scrivener I have plot ideas for many novels. Same with the nonfiction. And I also have a whole bunch of guided meditations started.

For me, I found, that a project will naturally present itself as the next one to work on. The thing is to relax and let go of control and just listen to your inner guidance. And try not to hurry anything up. The creative process is intuitive, so time and space has to be given for ideas to develop. Forcing them, can only obstruct that natural evolution.

Perhaps the most amazing discovery I made in letting projects just sit there is that they develop on their own. One day I'll wake up and the entire thing will be there and I just have to put it down.

The other discovery, and this is a really important one, when things have time to naturally develop, all kinds of wonderful ideas emerge that were nowhere in the beginning of the project.

So, I would say, if you have a lot of ideas brewing, write them all down. See what emerges as the one to work on. And don't throw anything away! Years might go by and an old idea will suddenly take shape. Or an old idea will develop in a new way that's way better than the original idea. Or two separate ideas will synthesize into one fantastic idea.

Meanwhile, you might start a book you never finish or many books you never finish. Those are excellent test runs that you learn from, as frustrating as they may be. Many times, especially in writing nonfiction, you simply may not have all the information you need to write that book, haven't grown as a person to the level that book requires. But few years later, you might have all you need to write it. And with fiction, it might be we simply need to learn more about how to write fiction or something else might need to be learned.

If you have lots of ideas for writing and nothing is coming together, it's usually a time thing. You have to find yourself as a writer.

Early on, I was tormented by the decision I thought I had to make: shall I write fiction? Shall I write nonfiction? Shall I let go creating guided meditations? That went on for years. And finally, I made peace with the fact that it's all of them. And it's a matter of relaxing and allowing the order to emerge on its own.

Before I forget -- the idea of sitting there until you wrote something . . . that may work for some people, but I find it's a terrible idea. If you don't know what to write, don't, just wait for it to come to you naturally. Taking your mind off of it, will allow for ideas to emerge. Or one morning you'll wake up and know what to do.

And the idea of writing five pages -- forget that, too. It will vary. I remember the day I broke that sound barrier by writing twenty pages. If you can, give yourself room to create in a way that's natural for you, life will be a lot easier and writing a lot more fun.

If you have trouble with the concept of being a writer that probably comes from childhood, you can overcome that limitation.

I had that problem. It came from childhood. It would take too long to write about here, but I overcame it by first understanding it came from childhood. And the second thing I did is use a method that was given to me as a download in giving psychic readings. It's about using the "little notebook."

I wrote about that technique in my short book, The Workings of Energy in the Human Energy Field: A Psychic's Perspective. You can find it everywhere in all forms, print, eBook, audio book, including on this website under the tab, "Book a Psychic Reading."

You know you're a writer when the idea doesn't go away and ideas for books don't go away. You may try to push it away, but it never works. It never goes away. Best is to accept it and do what needs to be done to move forward with life where you are a writer.