by Charles Bobbitt

Created on: September 23, 2008   Last Updated: May 14, 2012

If you want to write more every day, the first thing to do is to set some concrete goals. More' is simply too vague a word to inspire us to real progress. Try to visualize what your goals are for your writing. Do you want to write three 1000-word articles a day? Do you want to write 2000 words on your novel? Are you hoping to work up to daily posts on the four different blogs you started?

Unless you set some goals, you will be doomed to disappointment. More' will never be enough. Your progress will never seem fast enough, and you will never clearly see the progress you do make. You will have no concrete achievements to celebrate. Instead of targeting the obstacles that are holding back your writing and steadily overcoming them one by one, you will battle valiantly — yet vainly — to correct all the problems at once. You will try for everything and end up with nothing.

Also, make sure the specific goals you strive for are obtainable. If today you are writing one article a day, set a short-term goal to write two articles a day. Perhaps your long-term goal is to write ten articles a day; but remember, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Once you get comfortable writing two articles a day, go for three. After that, four. Continue step-by-step, celebrating your progress along the way, until your long term goals are reached.

Make some goals. Make them specific. Make them realistic.

Once you have set your goals, it is time to identify the major obstacles that are blocking your path. The amount that you write in a day is controlled by two things: how quickly you write and how much time you make available for writing. Therefore all potential strategies consist of nothing more than helping you to learn ways to write faster or helping you to learn ways to carve out more time for your writing.

Before delving into the common obstacles for writing more a day (and possible ways for overcoming these obstacles), it is worthwhile to review the basics of the writing process. The process of writing is simple in theory (although often difficult in practice) and consists of roughly six steps:

- Coming up with an idea to write about
- Gathering information
- Organizing the information
- Refining your idea
- Writing a first draft
- Revising and polishing

As is seen, the process writing can be likened to an iceberg. Much of it lies below the surface. When we think about writing faster or finding more time for writing, we often focus on one aspect

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