Ok, lets say five because fifteen is too many...
One: Chill out! You really need to not force yourself to write. If you are overly organised like me then please do not think that scheduling an hour of writing between work and the gym will cut it. You need to be calm, in a clean room (preferably cleaned by you) and sat at a table with your favourite tea and hopefully a pet cuddled in your lap.
Two: Plan ahead. I know that sort of contradicts the above but honestly if you have a couple of story or blog ideas jotted down next to you at the the time it makes the writing process 100% easier. For example, I got a hair cut today- pretty trivial I know but instead of focusing on that I jotted down a couple of bullet points about the experience that could make a story. The work environment, the need to chat at the salon, the story of my stylist etc etc.
Three: Write in one sitting. If you sit down at your laptop with a couple of bullet points try to close the end of your story in one sitting. I always stick my headphone in and look at my keyboard and write whatever pops into my head. I do this until two hours later I look up and see pages of writing and hundreds of red lines where spelling mistakes have been made by my ferocious typing. This is my process and then I come back the next day and do a good edit. One sitting really helps you get into a flow of writing and avoids the risk of losing passion for your story.
Four: Limit noise. A weird one but with head phones blocking out the world nothing affects my concentration. I sit in a quiet space and just think before writing. A good talking to myself and a couple of wasted sentence in the beginning will help create a story or poem or play or whatever you want to write about. Noise is always a distraction so I limit my distractions and that gives me space in my head to think stories.
And lastly: Mood. It sounds strange but try and influence and manipulate your mood into thinking like a writer...that sounds rather odd but if you think to yourself, "oh I'll easily bash out a couple of stories today on what is new in Chester" then it puts you in an excited and passionate mood that would be heard in
your writing. I always have big plans on what I want to do and get really excited and then don't follow through because I wait too long after being excited to actually write. Writing in the mood to write is what creates music on paper.
