Making habits
An afternoon or three ago, I needed to fix some plot problems in a novel I’m drafting. The ideas weren’t coming. So like any writer who desires to be productive, I turned off my computer and stuck AirPods in my ears and stretched out on my favorite couch.
Then I stared at the ceiling as if the story hung from it like a chandelier. It didn’t.
Habits.
I wrote once about my process for drafting a novella: I got on my computer around seven p.m. almost every night for months, and I wrote—no matter how I felt about it. After a few days of sitting there and getting words on the page, I didn’t have to force myself to create. The story came.
But that was a few months ago.
I spent half an afternoon the other day reading about how other writers write. (Like any writer, I love to be wise with my time and spend most of it writing—I mean, reading.) The most surprising thing was how most of them got up early to work on their craft. They didn’t worry about breakfast or coffee. They were tired, yes, but their brains were rested and full of ideas.
They had habits. They stuck to those habits. And out of those habits, they were able to finish what they started.
Seven a.m.
In the writing club my siblings and I started, I often say to spend more time putting words on the page than thinking about putting words on the page. In other words, if we really want to accomplish something, we have to do the thing that’ll make that thing happen.
If you want to write a novel, write often.
If you want to create and finish anything, create and work at it often. Even if it forces you to give up your evenings or wake up early.
Creativity doesn’t reliably come when you stare at the ceiling. Most of the time, it comes when you show up to the page first.
So, like any writer, I need to change my habits. From here on out, I’m trying (notice I said trying) to build a new habit of waking up at seven a.m. to write.
It’s hard. It hasn’t happened every day. I sometimes just take pictures.
But the words come then. Not perfectly. But in steady trickles, and sometimes wild downpours.
It’s small. An hour or two every day doesn’t feel like a ton. But it’s something that, if done consistently, can lead to incredible outcomes—if you keep at it.
So. Habits. Make ‘em. See what you can create out of the consistency they’ll give. I bet creativity will surprise you by showing up when you do.