Writing is work, and as with any type of work, different routines work differently for different people--but over the years I've found a number that work for me, and may work for you as well. These 3 strategies are good for generating ideas, developing your characters, and increasing your word count and quality.
1. Write in the mornings
Generally, the later in the day it is the harder it is for us to get our write on. There's a certain amount of energy we have each day that is expended in every activity, and our creativity sometimes corresponds to this energy--in the morning, we theoretically have the most energy. Whether this is practically true or not, it generally is true that our minds are clearest in the morning, before we have time to clutter our consciousness with worries and concerns and problems galore.
If you develop a morning routine in which writing is one of the first things you do, you'll find that you make more progress--you're able to write more words quicker, and the stuff you come up with isn't terrible. You don't have to spend the rest of the day worrying about it, either--if you accomplish your daily writing goal earlier on it's done and over with, and you can put your mind to other things. Plus, there's less chance that you'll be too tired by day's end to even get started, which is always at risk; it's really easy to get tired and say "I'll do it tomorrow" (which is, of course, where creativity goes to die).
2. Tell yourself the story
When I say "tell yourself the story," I mean out loud--talk to yourself! Narrate dramatically while you're in the garden or practice dialogue in the shower, act out all the parts if it feels right! Speaking out loud is how we organize our thoughts. It helps clear things up and gives a sound and feeling to the language you use. It also engages a different set of creative pieces in your brain, since you're focused on sound and flow rather than visual appearance; it's like slam poetry, only with prose.
And don't worry about other people thinking you're crazy. Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
3. When you're stuck, write the easy scenes
I like to write in chronological order. I usually know about how my endings will turn out, but holding myself back from working on it gives me something to look forward to--an incentive, if you will ("come on, Coates, two hundred more pages and we can write that silky smooth fun part, you can do it!")--but when I get stuck, really, truly stuck, I find it can help to skip around and write the parts of the novel you know will happen, but haven't gotten to yet. It helps to get the creative juices flowing, and can sometimes reignite your passion for a project you've grown a bit cold for.
It doesn't have to be perfect or line up with where the story eventually ends up exactly since nothing is perfect in your first draft, but it gets the thoughts out and leaves room for new ones. They say that while you're working on something your subconscious mind is always trying to solve problems in the background, so this lets you act productive while giving yourself some problem-solving time.
Plus if tomorrow you come down with amnesia, you'll know what general direction your story is headed in!
There are millions of writing strategies you can take advantage of, and I encourage you to try as many as possible--what you're doing now may work best, but how will you know until you compare it to what else is out there? Maybe your current methods actually suck ass, or maybe they've done great for you--but you might still be able to do better!
What strategies work best for you?
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