There are some things every writer should do before sitting down to write. These preparations will ensure that writing time goes smoothly and is a fun experience. Here is what I call the “Essential Writer Checklist”:

1) Get some sleep. You can’t write if you’re tired. If you do, you’ll make a bunch of mistakes and only waste time. If you have to take a nap in the middle of the day, do it.
2) Eat something. If it’s morning, eat breakfast, of course. Mid-morning? Get a snack or a drink. You don’t want to find yourself hungry in the middle of writing.
3) Make sure all house chores are done. You can’t write if chores are haunting the back of your mind.
4) Watch a movie. This will help give you some good story ideas, and inspire you with dreams of your novel getting turned into a movie. Most writers skip this step, and this is why so many books aren’t that good nowadays.
5) Browse the web. It’s important to be up-to-date on the latest book news, and you don’t want to miss any writing tips a blog or a forum post may contain.
6) Listen to some music. Music affects human emotions more directly than any other art. There is simply no excuse for not getting into the writing mood by listening to some good music for an hour or so before you begin.
7) Read back over everything you wrote and make sure it’s good. It’s a waste of time to continue writing something if it just has a bunch of mistakes.
8) Update Twitter and Facebook to let everyone know that you are now writing. This will help build your reputation as a writer, and thus build your self-esteem, and thus help your writing.

Remember, this checklist must be repeated every day you want to write. If you skip anything, your writing will suffer and you will never succeed.

If you don’t complete the checklist, don’t worry. There’s always tomorrow.