Week of Writing-- How to Remember You're Writing Something

Picture this: You sit down with a notebook and a pen, adrenaline rushing through you, an idea clearly laid out in your head. You pen the first chapter of your book-to-be, then go off to eat lunch, hiding your story under you bed so that your snoopy little brother doesn't get it.

One week flies by.

Two weeks gone.

Three weeks, three months, three years pass by and you still haven't touched that story you wrote, or began to write, anyway. Did you give up? Or did you just forget? Most of the time, an aspiring author forgets that they were ever writing a story in the first place, and the pages they wrote are left to rot.

I've started hundreds of stories. Notebook paper is used up with my ideas. But how many did I actually finish? Well, I'm disappointed to say that I haven't finished any of them (although I do have a current project that I do NOT plan on leaving anytime soon). A lot of people could say the same.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that you can't write or that you won't write or that you're not good enough to write. I'm just saying that the human race happens to be a forgetful race, and if we don't write something down for all eyes to see, we're going to forget our previous plans for better opportunities.

So how do you remember that you were ever writing something, so that your freshly written pages don't gather dust under your bed or in your closet? I've discovered many methods that have worked in these last few weeks. Here they are:

1. Use your phone. Your parents gave you phones for a reason. Most phones today have apps that allow to you create alarms, reminders, or other things that make sound to help you remember something. Use this to your advantage. Create daily reminders that go off at a specific time to remind you to write. On your alarm in the morning, make a note telling you that you need to write sometime today. Some might even go so far as to change their wallpaper to something like, "Write today!" or "Remember your story!" (I did this once. I ended up changing it, but it did work.) Books are sometimes called 'old-fashioned'. But when writing one, why not take a modern approach to it?

2. Put your book/story somewhere where you'll see it every day. It might seem like a good idea to hide your writings where nosy siblings won't find them, but unless you hide under your bed every day, you might as well be giving your book a permanent vacation to Forgotten Land. It's much better to put your story in a place where you'll remember to write in it. Do you regularly sit on your bed? Put it by your pillow so that as you sit down, it will catch your eye. Do you use your desk for homework? Put it on your desk so that you'll constantly look at it. Lay it on your bookshelf, keep it in the bathroom, or whatever else you need to do to make sure that your story isn't forgotten.

3. Set a goal. One of my good friends and fellow bloggers set a good example to follow. She told me, "My goal is to write at least 1,000 words a day until my book is finished." I won't tell you who she is in case she wants that information to remain unrelated to herself, but that's beside the point. She set a goal for herself to write, and goals are the basis of success. Make a goal for yourself, and write it down where you'll see it often. This will help, I PROMISE. I have no idea if she's followed through or not on her goal, but she made a way for her to remember to write and that's what matters.

4. DON'T GIVE UP. Do you ever feel frustrated because your writing didn't turn out the way you wanted it to? It's okay, don't feel bad. This is something every novelist, reporter, and short-story author goes through. There's no getting around it. The only thing you can do is keep trying. The majority of the time, the stories I've written have been forgotten because I didn't like how they turned out and left them alone to think about it. Well, I never got around to thinking about it, and they went forgotten and unfinished. If you don't like what you've written, just rewrite it. Read it and think about what you could do to make it better. Don't just leave it alone.

The fact is, nobody's perfect. We're all going to forget to write sometimes, and that's okay. But if Suzanne Collins stopped writing The Hunger Games after the first chapter, we wouldn't have the trilogy or the movies or the theme parks. Your book could change the future, and unwritten stories are just sad. So don't give up, and don't leave your half-penned story alone. When you're writing something, remember: you're writing something!