Writers can spend an impressive amount of time preparing to write without actually writing.

We collect ideas. We jot down character names. We research settings. We rearrange notes. We tell ourselves we need a better desk, a quieter room, a stronger cup of coffee or just a little more inspiration. Then we finally sit down to write and discover twenty-seven other things that suddenly seem urgent.

The original version of this article began with a simple truth: for many writers, the hardest part of writing is simply sitting down and making time to do it. That has not changed. What has changed is the number of things competing for our attention.

If you are struggling to begin or finish a manuscript, try these five strategies for moving from thinking about writing to actually putting words on the page.

 

1. Put Your Phone Somewhere Else

Your phone is not merely a telephone anymore.

It is your email, calendar, camera, news source, social network, entertainment center, shopping mall and tiny emergency portal to nearly everyone you have ever met.

That makes it extraordinarily difficult to ignore.

The original advice was to turn off your phone or tell people you would be unavailable for a specific period. That principle still works.

Create a writing window, even if it is only thirty minutes, and protect it.

You might:

• put your phone in another room;
• turn on Do Not Disturb;
• silence nonessential notifications;
• let family members know when you will be unavailable;
• or set a timer and refuse to check your phone until it rings.

The important thing is to remove the repeated decision. If your phone remains beside you, every vibration asks, Will you check me? That tiny decision consumes attention even when you say no.

Make the decision once. Put the phone away.

2. Make the Internet Less Convenient

The internet is invaluable to writers. It is also very good at helping us avoid writing.

A quick search for the population of Paris in 1925 can somehow become forty minutes of reading about historic architecture, watching a documentary clip and checking whether anyone responded to your latest post.

Research feels productive because sometimes it is. The problem begins when research becomes a comfortable substitute for composition.

The original article suggested turning off Wi-Fi, writing somewhere without internet access or even returning to pen and paper. The exact technology may change, but the principle remains sound.

Separate research time from writing time.

If you reach a detail you need to verify, leave yourself a marker:

[CHECK DATE]

or:

[RESEARCH THIS]

Then keep writing.

You do not have to stop the manuscript every time you encounter something you do not know.

Sometimes the most productive writing environment is one in which information is slightly harder to reach.

3. Give Yourself Something Specific to Write

“I need to work on my book” is not a particularly useful instruction.

It is too large.

A blank page can become intimidating when the task feels undefined, especially if you are waiting to feel inspired before beginning.

The original article recommended using prompts when inspiration refuses to cooperate. For fiction writers, that might mean placing characters in an unexpected situation. For nonfiction writers, it could mean examining an argument that challenges your own position.

You can make that idea even more practical.

Instead of telling yourself:

I need to write Chapter 8.

give yourself a concrete question:

What does my protagonist discover in this scene?

or:

What does the reader need to understand about this idea before I introduce the next one?

or simply:

Write 300 words explaining why this matters.

Specific assignments reduce friction.

You do not always need inspiration. Sometimes you need a smaller target.

4. Stop Treating Writing as a Solitary Punishment

Writing is often solitary, but writers do not have to isolate themselves completely.

The original article suggested writing with a friend: set a word-count goal, exchange prompts, bounce ideas around and offer constructive feedback afterward. That approach has only become easier.

Writers can now work alongside one another in person, on video calls, through writing groups or in simple accountability partnerships. The other writer does not have to touch your manuscript at all.

Sometimes all you need is someone who says:

I’m writing from 7:00 to 8:00. Are you?

Then you both return an hour later and report what happened.

Accountability creates a deadline where none existed. It can also make writing feel less like disappearing into a private cave with your unfinished novel and more like participating in a craft alongside other people.

5. Recognize When Procrastination Is Really Fear

This may be the most important step.

Sometimes writers procrastinate because they are distracted or because the work scares them. For instance:

• You may worry that the writing will not be good enough.
• You may fear that the idea was stronger in your imagination than it will be on the page.
• You may be uncertain about what happens next.
• You may even avoid finishing because completion means someone else can finally judge what you have written.

The original article calls this the “self-defeating” voice and makes a straightforward point: writers do not become better by wishing they were better. They improve by writing and reading good work. That is worth remembering along with this:

• A first draft does not have to prove that you are a good writer. It only has to exist.
• Revision cannot improve a blank page.
• An editor cannot help you strengthen the chapter you never wrote.
• Readers cannot connect with the story you kept safely inside your head.
• Sometimes the way through fear is not to eliminate it first. It is to write while it sits beside you.

Make the Writing Session Small Enough to Begin

One of the most useful things a procrastinating writer can do is lower the threshold for starting. Here are some tips:

• Do not promise yourself that you will write for six hours.
• Write for 20 minutes.
• Do not demand 3,000 words. Try 300.
• Do not insist that you finish the chapter.
• Finish the scene.
• Momentum has a peculiar effect on writing. Starting often feels harder than continuing.
• A modest writing session can become a productive one, but even when it does not, you have still moved the manuscript forward.
• Ten writing sessions of 300 words produce 3,000 words.
• One hundred produce 30,000.
• Small sessions accumulate into books.

Build a Routine That Reduces Negotiation

Writers often imagine discipline as extraordinary willpower. A good routine does something easier: it removes choices.

If you already know that Tuesday and Thursday mornings are writing mornings, you do not have to renegotiate with yourself each week.

The details can vary:

When will you write?
Choose a realistic time.

Where will you write?
Choose a place associated with focus.

For how long?
Set a minimum that you can actually maintain.

What will you work on?
Decide before the session begins.

What distractions will be unavailable?
Remove them in advance.

The fewer decisions you make once the writing session starts, the more attention remains for the writing itself.

Stop Waiting to Feel Like a Writer

Procrastination often persuades us that writing should begin when the conditions are right:

• When we have enough time.
• When we feel creative.
• When the house is quiet.
• When we know exactly what happens next.
• When confidence arrives.

Professional writing rarely works that way. Writers write before certainty appears.

They write scenes that later get deleted. They write sentences they will eventually replace. They discover characters while writing them and arguments while trying to articulate them.

The work reveals itself through the work. So turn off the phone. Close the unnecessary tabs. Give yourself one specific thing to accomplish. Find some accountability if you need it. Then quiet the voice insisting that what you write has to be brilliant before it has even been written.

The only way to finish a book is still remarkably old-fashioned: You have to write it.

 

NOTE: Originally published December 2016. Updated September 2026 with expanded strategies for managing digital distractions, writing routines and creative resistance.