Writing isn’t an art but a habit. This is something that I realized only lately. It doesn’t matter whether you are writing 50 words or 3000 words, all that matters is that you have taken time off to sit in front of your laptop/journal to pen/type down your thoughts. It isn’t easy, atleast not for me. Even though there have been innumerable instances in the last 10 years wherein I started a blog and left it after two or three posts. Te start has always been glorious. The excitement of starting something new soon fizzles out to give way to routine, mundane and unappreciated. I am not saying that this is what everyone goes through but specifically me.
So, when I analyzed why I always quit after attempting something new I found out that there are 3 major reasons:
- What starts as excitement becomes a chore
- Priorities change as something new and exciting replaces your writing
- Fear of failure
But this time I didn’t want to give up. What have I done this time to prevent me from quitting:
- Set weekly goals to ensure that no matter what I will finish writing atleast 4 posts per week. I have created a system wherein I get incentives (dessert after a weekend dinner, read my favorite book, watch my favorite TV show etc.)
- Start actively seeking for feedback on my posts. The more my posts are read by the people,the greater the feedback(constructive or otherwise) which will help me better my writing
- Alter the content of the Blog to keep myself from getting bored. My blog doesn’t symbolize a recurring “theme”. Its a rather honest attempt at sitting down and cultivating a new habit
I am well on my 5th post now but I am sure that I will definitely stick to the habit this time. There will be good days when I enjoy every word of every sentence I write and there will be bad days when I will deter from even approaching my computer. But, the important thing is to overcome the procrastination and go ahead and type atleast a few sentences that make sense and represents your thoughts lucidly.
Here’s hoping to a long stint!
Solo 
I’m with you on this. I too, have started writing, and left it again over the years. And it is only over the past month have I resolved to publish a couple of posts a week. I hope I’d stick to it this time around. The more we sit down and do anything, not just write, but practice anything, we’d get better at it over time. Practice makes man perfect.