This newsletter has gone out for 26 years. I have missed two Fridays in that time period.

I’ve been asked how I do it, and all I can say is it is such an instilled habit that a Friday cannot arrive without me wondering what’s left for the newsletter. Then I’m asked what’s the hardest part. Finding grants or markets. Culling feature submissions from so many writers. Dealing with ads, maybe. In reality, it’s writing these editorials.

In the beginning I would rack my brain for new ideas. Over time, however, I developed a perpetual eye and ear. If I struggled, surely someone else did. If I hit a wall, surely someone else did. I’ve even been known for collecting enough ideas to write a month ahead. But it was not anywhere near that easy to start with.

It started with giving myself a weekly deadline. To miss it was to receive feedback asking why.

Then I learned rather than wait for ideas to come to me, I watched for them. Everything I read, heard, watched was fodder. I might read another editorial in another publication and wonder why they didn’t say this or that or something different. I’d take a wrong turn, regret it, and write about it. Everything I thought, did, and touched held potential.

But by Friday, the article(s) had to be written. No excuses. What that did was this:

1) Erase writer’s block.
2) Create habit.
3) Teach myself to be keen for ideas in any place, any time, any capacity.

Once those habits were in place, I evolved. Now I do it with ideas for fiction. Push yourself to follow through no matter what. Learn new habits. And tell yourself that there is zero reason for not getting it done. You’ll develop a routine, ritual, and desire to write regularly, and writer’s block will become a thing of the past.