1. Brew a fresh cup of tea…make it a pot.

2. Have blank paper on hand for taking notes while working. 

3. Set work-time parameters. 

4. Set achievable goals. If you average 500 words a day, don’t set a goal of 5,000. 

5. Rinse. Repeat. Sit down to work for your chosen amount of time, then give yourself 5, 10, 15 minutes off, and go again. I’m not actually a fast writer, but I am a repetitive one. I work in installments of time several times a day.  

6. Give yourself rewards. Whatever works for you—I like using episodes of TV shows. 1,000 words and I get to watch an episode. This keeps me from bingeing on a show (most of the time) and helps me reach my goal posts on the book. 

7. Pick the right playlist. I use music to get me in the writing mood, with different songs assigned to characters or scenes. But when I actually WRITE, I prefer classical, soundtrack, or even wonderful white noise/rain/wind, like you can make through noisli.com 

8. Minimize distractions. Those who know me are probably laughing at this one, because I’m the queen of distractions. But do as I say, not as I do!