Choosing to take a course that requires you to set your own hours of study is great – it’s so flexible! However, if you’ve never had to organise your own time before it can be tricky. And, having no deadlines can lead to procrastination. So, a good place to start is to create a study plan – it’ll help you decide:
Once you get organised, you’ll soon start to think of studying as an essential part of your day. Plus, a study plan acts as a great motivator – as you work your way through it, your sense of achievement should grow as you complete the course modules.
The number one factor in choosing where to study is quiet – you need to be able to concentrate. So, a quiet room would be ideal. But, quiet is only one of the factors that can affect how well your study goes. You should also make sure the room is:
You should try to have a chair and a desk so that you can work comfortably. It’s also a good idea to have your course modules, dictionary and anything else you might need close to hand. This means you won’t have to keep getting up to fetch things, which breaks your concentration and flow of writing.
Some people work better in the mornings, other are suited best to studying at night. It may take some time to work this out and you should be prepared to change your study plan if you find that studying in the mornings really doesn’t work for you.
As with deciding when the best time to study is – it may also take some time to work out how long your optimum studying time is. But, again this is valuable information once you have it. Remember, everyone’s different. Some people can work for 10 hours straight – although we wouldn’t recommend it – others can only manage one hour before they need a break.
As we all know, writing is a skill that improves with practice and most writers agree that you should try to write something every day. So, plan to sit down and study everyday to begin with, but if you find that it’s not possible, simply change the plan. You should aim to make your writing a habit and, once established, habits are hard to break. Many writers find themselves missing it if they don’t do it for a day or two.
Plus, studying regularly helps you retain the information you are learning. Leaving long gaps between study sessions will almost certainly lead to you having to re-learn some of what you covered last time.
And, don’t forget to approach every new subject with a positive attitude! Believe it or not, being positive has been shown to be beneficial in improving the learning process. So, believe you can do it and you’ll certainly improve your chances of actually doing it.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll deserve the publishing success you are sure to achieve!
If you want to find out more about being a published writer request a Writers Bureau Comprehensive Creative Writing course prospectus.
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“I’m currently working on my fourth book, have been paid for my writing by at least 15 different magazines, and now earn half my income from writing – all thanks to The Writers Bureau’s course." Sarah Plater - Writers Bureau Writer of the Year 2017 |
