  Contests & Activities
This week: Creating New Habits Edited by: spidey  
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Welcome to the Contests & Activities Newsletter. I'm spidey , and I'm your Editor this week!
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Creating a Habit
There's a reason many successful authors claim to write daily or on a schedule. Creating habits can help greatly to improve your skill at anything. Practice makes perfect, right? But how do you go about making something a habit?
You've probably heard that it takes 21 days to create (or break) a habit. I've read a few articles stating that claim is a bit inaccurate. It depends on the person and, often, the habit, but the ways to go about creating or breaking a habit will generally work the same for everyone.
 Write it down. It can help to write specifically what you're trying to do, a goal you have in mind. A plan. Rather than the non-specific goal of "Write more often," think about something like, "Write for one hour a day" or "Enter one contest/activity per week." Or if that seems a bit lofty of a goal, "Write once per week" or "Enter one per month." It's not wise to attempt a goal that's too much of a change. If you haven't been writing at all, a daily writing goal may be too much. It also might not be. It's up to you to know yourself and what is a reasonable goal for you.
Reminders. I think the hardest part of creating a new habit is to remember to do it! It didn't come naturally to you before (which is why you're trying to create the habit), so it's not going to come to mind easily now. In this technological age, there are many ways you can set reminders/alarms/alerts with devices like phones, tablets and computers. Or if you're of the pen-and-paper age, write it down somewhere you'll see it often, like a calendar or a sticky note on a mirror.
Repeat. Repeat the behavior as often as you can. Repeating it will eventually create the habit. Writing at the same time in the same place can help you create a connection in your mind, perhaps creating a spark of creativity when you're in that place at that time.
For my role-playing friends (I've learned from my last newsletter that there are quite a lot out there! It doesn't surprise me that creative writers would be interested in creative role-playing games!), there is a website called HabitRPG that allows you to create lists of activities you'd like to make habits out of, and you can check them off as you complete them. Checking them off gives you points to enhance your character! I can speak from experience that it really works to create new habits, and it's a fun site!
Good luck creating new habits, and as always, Keep On Writing! 
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My last newsletter, ("Contests & Activities Newsletter (December 23, 2015)" ), discussed dealing with a Feast or Famine situation.
I'm a very active role player, mostly in freeform play-by-post format, and it is indeed excellent for skill development! It provides a more interactive medium by which you can learn more firsthand about choices and the thinking behind them, it can spawn ideas for new stories, it can help flesh out a character so that they can be written better, and the format I use also helps to work on writing skills (though style does necessarily change in certain ways). I don't write stories or poetry nearly as often as I used to, but role play has still kept me actively writing and imagining.
~ Zelphyr 
I totally agree!
Welcome to RPG's!! Been playing Diablo a very long time...love it always!!
~ Seshat
Thanks! I'm enjoying it very much!
I love playing RPGs. I've played them on and off since I was a kid and love the creativity and improvisational skills you need to essentially tell a collective story as you go along. While I've enjoyed being a player, I've found that I really love being the DM/GM. Designing a story and trying to tell it effectively while receiving constant input from multiple other players is an exciting and brain-stretching challenge!
~ Jeff 
I can imagine that being the DM/GM would be quite fun and a great opportunity for creativity!
GLAD to hear Dungeons and Dragons is still being played......it was my son's great adventure as a teenager forty years ago; as Dragon Master, he always had a game going around our big oak table. Now he's spent thirty years with United States Air Force; I wonder how much the strategy planning with DandD has helped in his work for them.
ann
~ ANN Counselor, Lesbian & Happy 
I hadn't thought of the way a game like that could develop strategy skills, too!
Thanks for highlighting my contest!  And yes, I've played Dungeons and Dragons once- except I was completely confused as to what was going on.  I did have fun, though!
~ Dragon is hiding
Sure thing! And I had the same thought the first time I played. I'm learning little by little, and I have a blast every time we play!
Have you ever played an RPG? Would you consider playing one? |
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Contests & Activities: January 20, 2016 Issue [#7433]
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