7 Tools to Help Keep You Writing

Cory Mandell, who teaches screenwriting at the UCLA extension Writer's program, sent out a newsletter update with a great list of ways to charge up creativity and dive into writing.

1. Make your goals public. Set a writing schedule and send it to some friends and/or fellow writers. Promise to check in with them on a weekly basis to update them on how you're doing. Being accountable to others can go a long way in helping us stay on track.
2. Consider employing the Kurosawa Method, especially for those of you with particularly hectic schedules.
3. Try using the Breaking the Glass Exercise, it's an effective weapon in the fight against resistance and fear.
4. The Jerry Seinfeld Chain has helped many of my students stay on track.
5. If Facebook, email or some other internet siren-song is your procrastination drug of choice, you might want to try a program that limits access during scheduled writing times. I know several working writers who use the app Selfcontrol.
   
6. If you haven't read The War of Art, I'd highly recommend doing so. 
    
7. This might be a bit extreme, but I know writers who put some money on the line at stickK in order to have a tangible incentive to get those pages done.