Staying motivated is a key to writing success, so here are five tips for increasing your writing discipline. Without discipline, you won’t write a query letter — much less a book proposal or full manuscript!

Before the tips, a quip from Elizabeth Gilbert: 

“As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you,” says Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love.

Another writing quip on self-discipline: “After inspiration, the most important gift you can bring to your book writing is discipline. It sets the writer in you free,” say the writers and editors at Book Coach Press. 

Discipline and freedom can co-exist – but successful writers need to have more self-discipline than freedom! Read on for five tips for increasing your writing discipline, and click on the Writer’s Little Instruction Book: Inspiration and Motivation by Paul Martin for more in-depth motivational tips. 

5 Tips for Increasing Your Writing Discipline

1. Stay hungry. Find what your writing motivation is, and work it, baby. Work it! Me, I write to earn money. My writing goal is to earn a few thousand bucks a month – which I’m actually struggling with this month because all I want to do is blog. But earning money as a freelance writing is my self-discipline. “Stay hungry” is a writing tip that involves finding what keeps you motivated to write, and stay focused on that. 

2. Balance self-acceptance with challenging yourself. Every writer needs to learn self-forgiveness. More importantly, every writer needs to find the balance between self-discipline and self-forgiveness. Err on the side of too much self-forgiveness, and you’ll barely meet your writing goals. Err too much on the side of discipline, and you’re a workaholic (welcome to my writing world!). 

3. Vary your writing projects. When I’m struggling with writing motivation, I work on one assignment for an hour, then reward myself with a blog post or a visit to a writer’s forum. The more I break up my writing assignments, the easier they are – and the more I get done. This writing tip doesn’t work for every freelancer, because some need to stay focused on one assignment at a time. The trick is to find your own way to increase your writing discipline, and find the freedom in that. 

4. Make a plan. Set your writing goals, whether it’s 500 words a day or 3 hours a week. Or, set a writing schedule: every day from 7 – 9 a.m., or after the kids go to bed until 11 p.m.. Once you have your schedule set, then your writing motivation may increase because, perhaps paradoxically, you’re free to be creative, inspired, and productive. It’s the same as sticking to a fitness plan or building a healthy relationship: you need to be committed and focused to be a successful writer. 

5. Figure out how discipline sets you free. If you’re disciplined or motivated to write, then you’ll struggle less with inspiration and creativity. That is — if you’re not trying to avoid writing distractions, then you’re free to concentrate on what you really should be doing: writing books, pitching queries, or creating poetry that touches readers’ souls. For more help increasing your writing discipline, read 10 Tips for Lazy Writers to Increase Motivation.

Do you have any tips or thoughts about these tips for increasing your writing discipline? Your comments are welcome below…

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