Creativity

How to Build a Writing Habit

A writing habit changes how you feel about writing.

The more I’ve written, the more I’ve learned about the power of consistently writing every day. My writing habit forces me to come up with ideas to write about.

While I’m far from perfect, I’ve learned a lot about writing consistently.

1. Start small

You don’t need to write a novel next week. You don’t even need to write a 500+ word blog post.

Write a few sentences. Describe your day in a journal. Share an opinion on social media. Write a page of that novel you’ve dreamed about writing.

Start small. Building a writing habit isn’t a contest. It’s consistency. It’s about doing a little work each day to keep that consistency.

2. Start With Energy

Building a writing habit is easier when you write about the topics that interest you.

Avoid writing about topics that you think people want to read. Write about the topics you want to read because you’ll find more energy.

3. Start In the Right Environment

One of James Clear’s keys to building a habit is to be in the right environment.

I love this story of how soldiers broke their heroin addiction in Vietnam.

“In Vietnam, soldiers spent all day surrounded by cues triggering heroin use: it was easy to access, they were engulfed by the constant stress of war, they built friendships with fellow soldiers who were also heroin users, and they were thousands of miles from home. Once a soldier returned to the United States, though, he found himself in an environment devoid of those triggers. When the context changed, so did the habit.”

4. Start Privately or Publicly

Start writing in whatever setting you feel most comfortable in. The key is to get started.

You can write privately in your journal. Or you can write publicly on your website or social media. Don’t worry so much about where to write.

The key is to start writing.

5. Start With Patience

Every habit needs patience, especially when it comes to writing.

Be patient with the results. Be patient with your expectations. Be patient with the process of writing.

We all want instantaneous results. I want to learn faster. I want to write better. But all of that comes with time. Patience is how you grow as a writer.

6. Start Tracking Your Writing

Jerry Seinfeld writes a checkmark on his calendar every time he writes.

It’s fulfilling to him because he doesn’t want to break the streak. He keeps writing because he’s built that habit. And it’s visible to him on the calendar.

7. Start With the Fundamentals

Nobody cares about how smart your writing sounds. Stop worrying about grammar. Just focus on the fundamentals.

Write a sentence. And another. String together a few more sentences, and you have a paragraph. And then another. Keep writing, and soon enough, you have a page.

Don’t worry about what other writers are doing. Focus on yourself. Focus on the fundamentals.

Give Yourself a Reward

Whenever I finish writing for the day, I reward myself with a game of online chess (I love chess). Or maybe I watch a short Saturday Night Live clip on YouTube.

Find ways to reward yourself after you’ve written something. Make it rewarding. Building a writing habit isn’t about the agony of writing every day.

It’s about fulfillment. It’s about expressing yourself. You learn more about yourself as a writer each day.

And that’s worth celebrating.

How to Build a Writing Habit Read More »

How to Find Ideas to Write About Every Day

Writing every day is challenging.

Especially if you don’t have a process for coming up with ideas to write about.

Building a process for finding ideas and a writing routine helps. The best writers have them.

  • Stephen King used to write 2,000 words a day

  • Margaret Atwood typically writes from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm

  • Ernest Hemingway wrote from 6:00 am until sometime after lunch

Remember, your best work as a writer isn’t just determined by talent, it’s determined by how much work you’re willing to put into it.  

Are you willing to write every day? Are you willing to write when you don’t feel like it? Are you willing to write through rejection? 

You need more than motivation to be a consistent writer. You need commitment, a process that holds you accountable. 

How to Build the Perfect Writing Process

The perfect writing process is built on always finding ideas. You need to know where to find ideas to write about. 

  • 3Ps – Personal. Process. Polarizing. A personal story about your experiments and achievements that can inspire others. A process for achieving a specific result like a how-to story. A polarizing view and explain why you hold to it.

  • Historical – What has history taught us? A look at a historical figure, an event, or a past formula or process that shapes the way we think or write. Explain why it matters.

  • Scientific – This is a deeper dive into the research. You’re uncovering what studies say and interpreting it. You’re seeing what a collective group might be saying
The 3Ps are about yourself and what you’re telling the world. 
 
Historical is about looking from the outside in. You’re seeing the world from someone else’s perspective. 
 
Scientific is about uncovering something new through the lens of a scientist, finding what data says about something.
 

How to Stick to a Routine

Even if you have ideas to write about, you still need a routine that helps write day after day. 
 
Consistency isn’t a talent, it’s hard work. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, says you need to 4 things to stick to a routine or a habit: 
 
  1. Cue (your environment triggers your habits)

  2. Craving (make it attractive to start the habit)

  3. Response (make it easy to get started)

  4. Reward (the outcome of your habit)
So, for example, if you want to write every day you need to put yourself in a position to succeed. 
 
Write in the same room every day (environment). Have the desire to get started like saying I get to instead of I have to start writing (craving). Have the computer set up and ready to go. make it frictionless to get started (response). And give yourself a reward when you finish writing like having a snack or going on a walk (reward).
  

Embrace the Hard Work

While finding ideas and building a routine makes the work easier, you still have to do the work. 
 
There will be days that you feel like giving up. The best writers don’t wait because they have more talent than other writers. They write because they persevere. They write because they’ve built a routine. They write because they love it. 
 
If you want to write every day, you must be willing to work at it. 
 
Your best work is the outcome of persistent work.

Get writing and copywriting examples every Thursday.

How to Find Ideas to Write About Every Day Read More »

How to Build a Writing Habit

Building a writing habit is a superpower.

The best thing is that anyone can have that superpower with a bit of consistency and focus. You don’t need to be brilliant or talented to write every day. You just need to know how to build a writing system.

When you master this system, you’ll have the ability to build a writing career. You’ll build a library of content. You’ll build a habit that offers continuous benefits.

So, how do you build a writing habit that lasts?

Stephen King’s Writing Habit

Stephen King has written over 65 novels and over 200 short stories.

He wasn’t able to write them because he thought he was more talented than other writers. He wrote them because he built a powerful writing habit early on in his writing career.

Every day, he committed to writing at least 2,000 words a day. No less.

“I like to get ten pages a day, which amounts to 2,000 words. Sometimes, when the words come hard, I’m still fiddling around at teatime. Either way is fine with me, but only under dire circumstances do I allow myself to shut down before I get my 2,000 words.” – Stephen King on Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

If you want to build a writing habit, you have to make it a habit regardless of how you feel. You may feel the words fly onto the page. Or you may feel the words stuck inside your brain. A writing habit is developed regardless of how you feel about writing.

You should also make it easy to get started:

  • Give yourself a realistic writing goal each day
  • Focus on 2-3 topics to write about
  • Create a motivational playlist

Like exercising, you have to put in the repetition to build muscle. You have to put in the daily work to build a writing muscle.

Some days it will be easy. On other days it will be challenging. The goal is to make it a habit so it won’t make a difference because you’re committed to writing each day.

Find Your Environment

Eugene Schwartz authored the best copywriting book ever published, Breakthrough Advertising.

In addition to writing books, he also has some of the best advertisements. But like many of us, creativity wasn’t something he waited to come to him. He didn’t wait hours staring out windows waiting for inspiration to strike.

Instead, he set a timer for 33 minutes. In doing so, he did two powerful things that made him write:

  1. He put constraints on his writing.
  2. He stayed in his environment (at his desk)

A 33-minute timer is a constraint. He set a timer because he had to write within that timeframe. The only thing he could do during that time was: drink coffee, stare out the window, do nothing, or write.

He chose to write regardless of if he felt like it.

Schwartz also knew the power of staying focused. By staying at his desk, he was familiar with his setting. He had written there hundreds of times before. His environment made it easier and more attractive to do the work because he was in his comfort zone.

How to Form Your Writing Habit

Writing habits don’t come out of thin air.

They are formed through time. If you want to improve your work, you have to consistently put in the work regardless of how you feel. Your writing can always be edited. You can improve something that exists, especially over time.

Remember, the greatest writers aren’t the greatest because of their talent but because of their dedication. They are just like us. They struggle. But they also preserve.

If you want to build a writing habit, give yourself a goal, constraints, and an environment that makes it easier to do the work.

When you eventually build that writing habit, you’ll feel the power to consistently create something special.

How to Build a Writing Habit Read More »

A Creative Method Used By Famous Novelists

“Novel writing is a rather uncommon endeavor and, when it is undertaken, appears quite susceptible to extinction.” 

– B.F. Skinner

At age 19, Irving Wallace wrote his first novel. His secret? A work chart that tracked how many hours he wrote a day. 

His charts included three parts:

  • The date he started each chapter
  • The date he finished it
  • The number of pages written in that period
Here’s an example of one of his charts:

A glimpse of Irving Wallace’s chart and how well he tracked it by the number of pages written. Source came from a study of self-control techniques by famous authors.

Since he was a self-employed contractor, Wallace felt the need to discipline himself with these charts. It motivated him to write. Or it discouraged him on days he didn’t do as much. Either way, it made him accountable. 

And it worked. By 1989, Wallace had published 16 novels and 17 nonfiction books.

In studying Wallace’s progress chart, I realized he was the first to make me aware of the act of accountability. 

This is when we make ourselves accountable by documenting our work rather than just saying it. 

Quantify Your Daily Progress

Over the past few years, I’ve struggled with writing blog posts.

What I learned most when I evaluated my ineffectiveness as a writer is that I don’t make myself accountable to write something new each week. 

It’s like saying that I’m going to lose 10 pounds in 2 months. But unless I commit to going to the gym twice a week and track my meals each day, my chance of success is random.

I need short-term goals to reach long-term success.

For instance, if I commit to writing two articles a week, I’ve done something entirely different:

  • I’m focusing on short-term goals
  • I’m putting a number behind my goal

The success behind goals is linked to how people think in quantifiable terms.

Another example is how we measure the success of our reading by how many pages we’ve read. We measure the success of our career by how much money we make. We measure the success of our strength by how many days we exercise per week.  
 
Put Time Into Your Work
 
If we again look at creativity methods made by famous novelists like Wallace, we can see that the greatest creativity hack is simply putting in the time to work.
 

Ernest Hemingway put in 6 hours a day. Aldous Huxley wrote for 5 hours a day. Stephen King is said to read and write between 4 and 6 hours a day.

You see, the greatest creativity technique isn’t waiting for inspiration. Or waiting for that creative moment. 

Creativity is determined by how hard you work. By how well you track your time each day as a writer instead of waiting for something to magically appear on paper.

Write Something Rather Than Nothing

“If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing

In a world where everyone writes from blog posts and social media posts to self-published novels, it’s essential to learn the art of writing.

As a writer, I’ve realized that I’ve built this false perception that everyone achieves success from day one.

The truth is that writers write every day. They catch ideas like catching butterflies. Inspiration arrives on some days while dullness arrives on other days. 

Ideas are elusive. They must be pursued.

Writing well, and finding your voice, takes hours. It takes volumes of work and practice.

Novelists understand the challenge of writing 200+ pages to complete a story. They understand because they treat it as their profession, not as a hobby. We as writers also have to understand that challenge.

2 Steps to Writing Creatively

If we want to write a novel or become a better writer, we can follow these simple steps that helped novelists:

1. Track your progress, and make it quantifiable (track daily word count, hours worked per day, and pages written). 

2. Create short-term goals. focus on what to write that day instead of what you’ll write in one year.

Writing is more than motivation. It’s a process. You have to create trackable progress that helps you achieve long-term success.

A Creative Method Used By Famous Novelists Read More »

How This Simple Trick Unlocks the Creative Process

There are many ways to spur the creative process. 

Go on walks. Let your mind wander. Get proper sleep. Read endlessly. These methods allow the mind to wander freely, to explore ideas. 

But sometimes the only way to get your mind working is to take something away instead of giving it more freedom. A simple trick of constraint can spring the brain into action.

Research suggests that constraints help spur the creative process. You’ll create work even if it’s not the most inspirational. Even if it’s junk.

Let’s take a look at how constraints have helped others spur the creative process.

Victor Hugo Gave His Clothes to His Servants

In 1830, in order to finish the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo did something drastic. 

To avoid his love of going out, which caused procrastination, he ordered his servants to lock his clothes away. Without his clothes and no idea where to find them, Hugo had no choice other than to work. He completed his novel weeks before the deadline.

Constraints give you no choice but to be creative. Imagine being stuck on an island with limited resources. To survive, you have to use what you have. You can’t wait to see what inspiration comes to you.

Hugo locked himself in his study because he knew that was the ideal place to write and finish his novel. Sure, he could have completed it elsewhere, but it may have taken twice as long. 

Finding your creativity is about giving yourself constraints so you can accomplish your best work. It forces action.

Eugene Schwartz’s 33-Minute Rule

Famous copywriter Eugene Schwartz is recognized as one of the best direct response copywriters. He wrote headlines like:

“How Modern Chinese Medicine Helps Both Men and Women
Burn Disease Out of Your Body Lying Flat on Your Back,
Using Nothing More Than the Palm of Your Hand!”

“Do You Have the Courage To Earn Half A Million Dollars A Year?”

While he used a lot of copywriting techniques, he had one essential rule – 33-minute rule. 

It required sitting at his desk for 33 minutes and 33 seconds and write. When the timer stopped, he would take a 5-minute break. Then the process starts over again.

Schwartz didn’t wait for creativity. He gave himself a deadline to be creative, to put something on paper even if it was awful. Similar to Victor Hugo, Schwartz put constraints on himself to write only at his desk with a pen and paper. No distractions.

Like Schwartz, we have to recognize that it’s better to produce something instead of holding ourselves to a standard of perfection. We can’t expect creativity if we aren’t willing to do any work.

How to Create Pressure to Unlock Your Creativity

“Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

– Thomas Edison

Creativity is about putting in the work. 

Thomas Edison knew inventing the lightbulb required repetition after repetition of hard work. When a journalist asked Edison how it felt to fail 1000 times, he responded “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

We often believe that inventors, influencers, and creatives succeeded instantly. So we want success instantly without all the hard work. Creativity is something we often expect to come to us naturally when it’s almost always a process. 

We have to grasp it, search for it. Work for it. Put constraints ourselves so we can create something. 

The Latin root word for “creativity” is “creare.” It means to create or make. If we want to be creative, it starts with creating something. Put constraints on yourself to create something without concerning yourself with the outcome. 

Focus on the process and start something. And repeat that process.

How This Simple Trick Unlocks the Creative Process Read More »