I wanted to be a writer, but I had more bad habits than stories to tell. I whittled the number down to four and found answers to each one.

Mistake One — no particular time or place to write.

When I wanted to write, I would do just that. Want to write. I would think about it and imagine being a writer. But there was school work, and then there was actual work.

When I got married, my wife and I began a family. The saying is “letting the urgent displace the important.” And there was generally something urgent going on.

My desire to write was not even on the important scale, much less the urgent one.

What I finally did. I set an appointment with myself for the same time and place every day. It did take a few weeks of adjusting until I found the best time that worked for all seven days of each week. That finally removed one agonizing (for me) pre-writing decision from my plate every day.

Mistake Two — no particular writing goals.

Whenever I did eventually pick up a pen and start writing, I had no idea of how long I would do so. I may work an hour, or I might work ten minutes. I may write a hundred words or five hundred words.

What I finally did. I set goals for writing time, be it an hour a day or fifteen minutes. Alternately, I could set a goal in terms of words, I could do three hundred words each session, five hundred, or a thousand words before I quit for the day.

Mistake Three — no visual tracking proof

I was a visual learner, and I just did better, in general, when I could see what I was doing and what I was aiming at. I never realized I could have a more visible way to track myself.

What I finally did. I found that cheap and free wall calendars could be picked up sometimes in the winter at auto body shops, dollar stores, and drugstores. The inexpensive month-at-a-glance type is acceptable at last resort, but a wall-type calendar is even better. It can be hung in a place clearly visible from places where you work. A big red “X” on each day you write will shout at you from across the room!

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Mistake Four — insufficient proofreading

My proofreading skills had always been good, but at times my eyes seemed to eventually glaze over. Sometimes my proofing was good. Sometimes I was only fooling myself. Sometimes I felt seriously good about my grammar and my spelling. But sometimes I got in too big a hurry just to get the boring job over with. I found that I preferred having written to writing.

What I finally did. I tried, at first to beg my friends and family to proofread my writing. They were pretty good, but I always felt as though I was imposing on them.

My next phase included trying freelancers like those working with Fiverr. They have helped me with a LOT of different projects and they are great, but I still struggled with proofreading results.

An editor reminded me of Grammarly, and I started using it again. It changed my life. It was like working side-by-side with a really good and patient editor. I could almost proofread and edit in my sleep. (As one of my earlier editors had accused me of doing already.)

Final Words

I never seemed to get anything published, but quite frankly, never got any rejection notices either. My inventory of useable articles soon began to increase, and I started submitting stories to KDP Books and Medium, another life-changing advancement for my writing.

Now it seems I am writing regularly and well. My stories are being published in Medium and in some Amazon kdp books. I am having a blast. I may have a little more self-imposed pressure (less as it becomes more a habit) and a lot more satisfaction.

I must thank Robert Ralph, Kristina God, Sally Prag, Winston and Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles (and more) for their help and their patience!