“What’s writing habits? What do I do, what should I write?” Life as a new writer is hectic, but you already know this.
There’s a lot of things you don’t need. A lot of things you can take into consideration and lots of things to take into consideration
Writing habits is one of them.
Do you pile on everything someone successful tell you? Do you try to navigate your way through the dangerous swamp, risking the chance of getting stuck?
How do you choose?
It’s as good a question as any. And I’m guessing you landed here because you are looking for the answer.
And the answer is neither. You mix both well together.
It’s about figuring out which habits will transform you form an aspiring writer into an active writer.
And you achieve this from listening to someone and going through the swamp.
Normally, I’d have given you a list and just said: This is how I’m doing things.
But I’m going to try something different.
My focus with the blog is giving you useful advice, sharing my experience and improving my writing. And I want to do with a storytelling vibe. Therefore, I’m going to take you through this swamp in a different manner.
It’s new, but I hope you bear with me. You’ll still leave here with some of the best habits I have developed through writing multiple novels.
Set up a writing system
You arrive home from work. It’s been an exhausting day, you drop off your bag, leave your keys at your table before getting down on the couch. You sigh as you stare at the reflection in the TV hanging just high enough to crop everything but your tired face. The shagging eyes and emotionless face.
It’s a sight to behold. Your moves at slow-motion pace towards the clock on the wall.
Damn it’s 6 pm. Time for dinner, but I just came home, you think as you order your legs to support your weight as you get up to the fridge. You reach the handle, but with power of a powerlifting champion, you swing the door open. A smile appear across your lips until you realize it’s empty.
You check the cupboards: Empty. The freezer: Empty. You start to panic. The hunger fills your stomach as you realize: There’s nothing.
You have to go to the supermarket.
You grab the keys off the table, time to go again, and catch your defeated reflection in the mirror on the way out. It’s just one catastrophe after the other.
Writing as an attachment
The mistake most new aspiring writer make is to make writing an attachment to their day. You want to write, but the condition becomes: “I’ll write a few words, if I have time.”
This will work, if you just want to write a few pages, but that’s not what you want is it?
You want to bring a novel to life. A novel that you can be proud of and that people will read. Well, then you need to do yourself the courtesy and put more thought into your writing and set up a system.
It’s the first of my writing habits: Build a system that make you work, every day.
Personally, I write 30 minutes first thing in the morning. It’s when there’s the least distractions and I don’t have to think about anybody disturbing me because they are still asleep.
But another, equally as important effect is I feel it sets me up for success for the rest of the day and I’m yet to be affected by the day’s challenge. My mind is clear and I produce my best work.
Do what works for you, but do it daily
But since you are different from me and writing in the evening maybe makes more sense, then you need to try and experiment with it.
But whether it’s in the morning, day, or evening doesn’t matter. The most important point is to figure out a time and place when to write and for a set amount of time. And then make it part of your daily writing habits.
Time and place are something you have to work out for yourself, but I’d highly recommend writing for 30 minutes.
Why the 30 mintues?
Because it’s doable and doesn’t feel too time consuming. It fits perfectly with everything else, so you can avoid distractions. Especially if you live with somebody.
Are they cooking? Done in 30 minutes. Watching a show? More than 30 minutes. The majority of distractions can be avoided because you write for 30 minutes.
And I therefore, think it’s the perfect time to start with and it’s easily enough to get stuff done.
Reward yourself
You arrive back from the supermarket with the straps from the bags burning your hands. You drop them off and pull out your utensils: A pan, a chopping board and a knife.
The recipe is as simple as they come: A pan full of pasta, some vegetables and a piece of meat.
You knock out the food in 15 minutes, grab your plate and sit down in front of the TV. First moment of peace, the thought is accompanied by a fulfilling breath.
The food wasn’t anything amazing, but it did its job. With 30 minutes left of your Breaking Bad episode, you pull your feet up and exhale.
After another 15 minutes, you feel the tiredness take control of you, reminding you: It’s been an exhausting day, but you survive. You were hungry, but you had nothing. And you got groceries instead of takeaway.
Admiration washes over you as your gaze pulls your attention to the rewards inside the cupboards.
Generally, when you go through something difficult or need to put yourself through something difficult, there’s nothing more motivated than a reward at the end.
At first when you start your writing journey, you probably can’t relate.
You write for 30 minutes every day before bed.
Your plot is developing beautifully and you’re 8254 words in.
I mean everything is going great.
But eventually you feel the fire disappearing and you start to fear: “What’s this?”
It’s perfectly normally.
The immense motivation doesn’t last forever and because your productive is slowing it’s a sign it’s time to relay on your discipline to keep going.
This leads me to the next of my writing habits: Motivate yourself by rewarding yourself.
Snack, trip, or money. The reward is your choice
It can be a snack, a trip to your favorite place, or you can pay yourself.
Pay yourself, how does that work?
It’s a simple system built on the idea that behind every writer is a person who wants to be paid for their writing.
My simple system:
I keep a system where I note my hours worked, in increments of 30 minutes. Then as I have worked for 10 hours, I’ll pay myself $3/hour worked ($30).
$3?! That’s pennies, haven’t you seen what groceries costs?
I’m well aware it’s not a lot, but that’s the point. You need to wait, be patience, and put in the work before you get to spend.
If 10 hours won’t buy you anything you have two opinions: Pay yourself more (make it easier) or work more (discipline and results)
$30 isn’t a lot, but if you keep your head down and put in 100 hours of work, you’ll get $300 in return, that’s more like it right?
The point is to choose a reward that you can use to motivate you to work, without making it feel like you get the reward for free. In essence: You’re giving yourself a reason to put in the work.
Just let the words flow
You picked your snacks: A pack of popcorn, a few squares of chocolate and a cold drink. It’s paradise. Everything you need after an exhausting day. The thoughts make your mouth water. You lay down on the couch again, grab the remote and turn on the TV.
Netflix, Max, Disney or Amazon.
The choices leave you paralyzed, but the lactic acid in your right arm makes you pick the first one: Netflix.
The snacks laying on the table is flirting with your eyes, but you can’t. Not before you decide on a show. You shift through the massive catalog of choices: A movie or maybe a show?
You browse and browse. Not this one. Looks boring. I’m not really in the mood for a crime.
You go back and forth, but impatient you go back to the classic. Another episode of Breaking Bad.
It’s your fifth rewatch, but you don’t care, it’s great. You grab your snacks, the theme music blasts out of the speakers, and you’re ready to feel amazing.
Choice is the enemy of the writer
The biggest limiter to your writing and writing habits is the choice of too many choices. The idea that your writing has to fit a specific style, has to sound a specific way or look a specific way.
It’s making writing much more difficult than it need be.
And therefore, is this my next habit: Let go.
You need to give your fingers the freedom and your mind the control to write whatever it wants. It’s the easiest way to get practice. And without the practice you’ll never improve as a writer.
By letting your fingers and mind loose you’ll realize you’re capable of writing a lot more than your initial thought. It might not be as crisp as your overly polished writing, but it doesn’t have to be.
That’s what the editing phase is for.
And right now, as an aspiring writer, your only focus should be on writing and getting better.
And the way to do it is simple: Lean back, relax, and let the words fly.
Then give yourself praise and let everything else wait until you get to the editing phase and there’s actually something to work with.
Grab a book
Your hand is moving at the speed of light trying to keep up with the drama: Popcorn, a piece of chocolate, and a wave of drink to wash it down. You’re feeling amazing and your entire being is sold to the TV show.
You not only hear their words. You feel their emotions. It’s something beautiful, until suddenly there’s darkness: Quiet. Questions.
You look around.
The lights in the kitchen works, you feel the anger rise as the TV shows nothing, not even the red dot is blinking.
You get up and study the cables. They are all attached. What if it’s the power outlet, you plug in your phone charger. It works.
Reality dawns on you: The TV is dead. How could this happen?!
You pull out your phone, frustration commanding your trembling hand to type: Black TV, nothing. TV suddenly died, nothing.
You go through page after page, but there’s nothing to help bring your TV back from the dead.
In a last attempt, in something seeming more like a desperation move, you pull out the TV box and find the manual. You turn to the last few pages: What to do in case of blackness and no response, you exhale.
The manual takes you through steps and suddenly:
Blinking lights. Darkness. The red dot: blinking.
Life.
You need to be a master of both sides of the coin
Being a writer is like a coin: it has two side.
Firstly, there’s the writing side. To be a writer you need to put time into your writing. You need to practice, and you need to write a lot.
But being a good writing is a lot more than just being a writer.
One of the biggest habits that has helped my writing the most is the other side of the coin: The reading side.
To be a great writer you need to be a great reader. It’s your way of gaining experience, see what other good writers have done. It’s a massive boost, entertainment and inspiration put into one.
I didn’t read much in the beginning of my journey, but after I discovered how big of an impact it had I decided to read for at least 30 minutes every night before bed. And I read everything.
I’m mostly a fiction guy, so I stay within this genre, but whatever the book, I’m trying to expand my interests and give every book a good chance.
And not only am I enjoying myself, it’s like my mind has changed. It has increased my vocabulary and grammatical sense. I mean, I can’t read a book without discovering some elements I can use in my own writing.
But at the same time, I use it to validate the way I’m writing: If a successful book is written similar to mine, then I should be okay.
You are your environment
You sit down on the couch and stare at the wall. Another episode done. 1 am. The day was exhausting, but you somehow still got through 6 episodes of Breaking Bad. You look at the mess currently occupying your table: The empty popcorn package crumbled together with the chocolate.
You take a moment to take in the quietness.
The street lights and the blinking dot at the corner of your TV casts your shadow to the wall, giving people evidence someone is inside.
You get up. I forgot something, the thought passes through your mind. You know you’re supposed to feel terrible, but you blame it on the chaos.
You look through the door to your bedroom. Your eyes move towards a reflection of light. It takes you a second, but the realization hits you at the same time as your eyes hit the monitor standing at your desk.
Damn, I forgot to write on my novel today.
Writing can be a monumental hobby to go to war with, but just like a real war, you need to prepare yourself by changing your environment.
Your environment is a bigger influence on your work than you might first imagine. The idea that you can go from relaxing, having fun, or playing to suddenly telling your brain: Buddy, it’s time to put the dopamine rush aside and get to work.
It doesn’t always work.
And you’ll end up fighting with both arms tied on your back and your feet wrapped inside a bag.
Improve your environment
To maximize your work potential and get the most out of these writing habits, I’d recommend you improve your environment.
When I started, I’d pack up my computer and go to the local library. It was a 20 minutes’ walk, but it was everything I needed. If I go out the door, walk for 20 minutes, then I better do work, it made sense.
Until it didn’t.
The desire to scroll, opening of social medias or games didn’t get smaller just because I decided to move my work.
It was still ingrained in me.
And it’ll still be ingrained in you.
So, while going to the library helped me become more productive, it wasn’t the savor I thought it would be. Because it didn’t save me from the biggest problem at hand: The distractions were still there with me.
When you’re creating your environment, you need to look at both the physical and digital elements. Whether it’s moving room or going to the library, a simple switch can help change your mindset.
To combat the digital elements, it can be anything. Disabling your access to social medias, only having the essentials open or a third thing.
I can’t really tell you what’ll work for you. This is something you’ll have to experiment with, but I can highly recommend leaving your phone in another room and only having the essential things open.
Writing habits: A culmination of daily action
Whether it’s writing 3000 words a day or for 30 minutes, you need to make writing a daily occurrence if you want to see any results.
I understand writing can be difficult and like our friend in the story, it’s easy to get lost in the chaos, but if you slow down, build your hobbies, then you’ll reach your goal.
A system to write a certain amount (preferably at a specified time) with a certain reward in the right environment will do a lot for your journey.
And no matter what you build as your writing habits, the most important thing is not to go overboard or pile on hundreds of things. You just need to make writing exciting and fun, and then the rest will come.
That’s a wrap for you today.
Until next time – Hope you have a productive and creative day.
Your writing buddy,
Jack