by Simon Wright

Created on: June 18, 2009

Success at Helium comes from building up a portfolio of quality articles and momentum plays a key role in this. Writers who get into the discipline of writing regularly are much less likely to allow the pressures of everyday life to derail them. A good way to achieve this discipline and writing success is to commit to a writing schedule.

Using a writing schedule to maintain momentum:

When you decide to write will depend upon other what free-time you have and your personal preference. Some of us prefer writing in the morning and some prefer writing in the evening. You may also have to juggle various other commitments, such as childcare and the day job. However, the key is to find a time that generally be free for writing. As an example, let's say that you have your evening meal between 6pm and 7pm. In that case, maybe you might commit to write for one hour between 7pm and 8pm. That should be enough time for you to craft at least one Helium article and will still leave you with additional time to see to other commitments.

The benefit of having a set schedule is that it conditions your body (and brain) to the fact that you are going to be in writing mode at that time of day. This should make it easier to get straight into the swing of writing, compared to having a more haphazard approach to writing.

Dealing with unavoidable interruptions to your schedule:

Life is unpredictable and there will be times when something crops up that has to take precedence over your cherished writing schedule. That's fine but it does have the potential to derail you, especially if the interruptions extend beyond one day. The inherent danger is that you get out of the habit of writing and suddenly it seems all that much harder to get back into your writing rhythm.

Ideally, the best way to deal with unavoidable interruptions to your schedule is to make up the time as soon as is feasible. So if you have a night out organised on the Monday, then maybe you aim to do a double session on the Tuesday. There may, however, be some occasions when you simply have to accept that you can't make up the time and that the best thing to do is simply to get back into your usual writing pattern.

Commit fully to your writing:

Procrastination is one of the great enemies of writers. It's all too easy to find excuses to put off or interrupt your writing. The washing needs done, you need a snack, maybe you should check your e-mails, the list goes on. Procrastination is part of human nature but it's

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