by Tim Beyers

Created on: August 11, 2008

How to write more a day

Most writers I know want to write more. It's a hand-to-mouth problem: No words, no food - and yet they still don't write as much as they'd like. I'm the same way.

Our excuses vary. For some, the problem is motivation. For others, it's time. Still others suffer from a terminal addiction to the Web and its distractions. (Raises hand.) The good news? It's possible to cope with each of these problems and still produce 1,500 to 2,000 good words per day. Here are five tips for boosting your output.

1. KEEP SCORE. Freelance writers are, by nature, competitive. We have to be; we're competing for space: in magazines, in newspapers, in the "up-and-coming writers" submissions pile at New York's top literary agencies, and in the digital pages of notable websites like this one. Writers who don't sell their work become janitors, or barflys, or maybe janitors who moonlight as barflys. Either way, quenching your thirst for competition can help you to write more. Set a daily word count goal and track your progress in a cheap journal - mine is a 5 1/2 by 3 1/2 Mead notebook. You'll find yourself waking up wanting to win the day.

2. CREATE A WRITING GROUP. Competing with yourself is good. Competing with others is better. Challenge your writing friends to word count contests and make it real by occasionally checking each other's work. Your "wins" will be more meaningful and, from time-to-time, you'll get valuable advice for improving the hastily written drivel you just put to paper.

3. USE TOOLS THAT MAKE YOU SMILE. Most writing work is typed and double-spaced on white bond paper and ... Blah, blah, blah. Who says we have to write our first drafts at our desks, on a computer? Too much exposure to the radiated glow of a 17-inch monitor can make us look creepy - like a skier who forgot to apply sunscreen to his face after slipping on his goggles. Only with us writers, there are no stories of hanging out in lodge by the fireplace with the beautiful girl who needed help getting down the mountain. Maybe that's okay for you. I prefer being married to the beautiful girl. I also prefer the comfort of a yellow pad and a no. 2 pencil to the afterglow of my Mac for my first drafts. (No joke; check my profile for the poem "The Tree Saved Me" - it's all you need to know about my love for the mighty Dixon Ticonderoga.)

4. IGNORE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. If writing is as important to you as it is to me - a hand-to-mouth business - then you must give yourself permission to ignore

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