The importance of a writing routine

If you are a writer then you need to write

About a month ago, I was trying to figure out why I wasn’t getting much writing done on my current manuscript Murder at St Thérèse College. I felt like I had recently hit a wall with my progress.

I felt really happy with the story itself: a young adult murder mystery about power, privilege and perception set in a prestigious residential college in Canberra. So why wasn’t I moving forward with my writing?

I managed to finish the latest draft of my previous manuscript Song of the Summer earlier this year, so I reflected on how I made that happen. I’d chipped away at it slowly over time but three periods of dedicated writing time stood out to me: a week in the Dandenongs in March 2022, a week at Bundanon in September 2022 and nine days in February 2023.

What did these periods of time have in common? They were times when I had put aside the rest of my life to focus on writing. They were periods of extremely dedicated, almost non-stop, writing time where I just sat at my desk and wrote as much as physically and mentally possible.

My writing view from the Dandenong Ranges in March 2022.