I was asked how I achieved self-discipline to write, and I came up with this long-winded answer.
Writing takes a lot of confidence to get up and go and a lot of self-discipline to keep at it, which is probably why it’s so hard for many to write in the first place.
I believe that confidence is proportional to the sum of what you are as a person, and self-discipline is something you have to teach yourself through painstaking effort. Since my confidence is a given, (narcissism!) the other half of my starting engine for writing comes from self abasement for not writing as I bury myself in lesser joys of life (video games and, well… video games). I feel bad for not writing when I’m doing something else enjoyable.
So yeah, I guilt myself into it. Healthy? Probably not, but the cool thing is, when I get started writing, I usually don’t stop for a few hours, which in my mind, totally makes up for it.
But that’s only sometimes.
My other kicker to get up and write is usually just the right place and the right time.
I’ll explain.
Every day I think about stories. Situations, conversations, beginnings and endings, and sometimes totally random stuff that makes no sense but it sounds so cool that I couldn’t stop the thought. Every day I go into la la land and mill over my stories, and, if I spend enough time in la la land, I give one look at my computer, make sure it’s that time of day where no one will bother me, and sit down and just go at it. It works too!
How is that self-discipline?
I have faith that the right place and right time will come. But if it doesn’t within half a week, I sit my butt down and get to it anyway, whether or not what I’m spewing out is good material.
I put myself on a type of internal clock even I don’t understand, but oddly follow, because if I don’t I revert back to explanation one of this post, and I write anyway.
-Kyle Townsend “Quirky”
The World of the 7 Evil Dwarves 