One of the things I often discuss with writers – whether that’s on an author coaching call or while running a Sunday Write Club for The Literary Consultancy’s Being A Writer programme – is what a writing habit can actually look like.
When we re-frame creativity to encompass more than just word count in order to build a sustainable writing habit, surprising insights can be unlocked… We begin to loosen up our steely grip on productivity. As we start to relax into our work-in-progress, we allow outside influences to embellish and enhance our prose or poetry. We widen our participation in writing as an act of being a member of a community, rather than a tortured poet in a garret.
Ten ways to build a writing habit beyond word count:
Here’s a bite-sized list of ways which I have witnessed writers re-frame writing, myself included:
1. Writing while walking: going for a walk and dictating ideas or passages verbally into your mobile phone.
2. Sitting in a public place and tuning in to strangers’ conversations. But rather than listening to the contents of what they are saying, listening to how they are speaking in order to finesse your understanding of how people dialogue in real life.
3. Taking a brilliant book back to bed at 1.00pm on a Monday afternoon to read a passage closely to understand how a writer created a certain effect. But what drink will you take with you? Stephen King says, in On Writing: “Reading in bed can be heaven, assuming you can get just the right amount of light on the page and aren’t prone to spilling your coffee or cognac on the sheets.”
4. Ending a writing session and realising you’ve deleted more than you’ve written, but the quality of the writing is ten times better than it was before.
5. Supporting your writing community by attending an open mic purely to listen to your fellow poets, performers and authors.
6. Changing the font of your work-in-progress then printing it out to spread across your bedroom floor, then staring at it until you can figure out how to shake up a chapter, end a stanza or complete a section of your current draft.
7. Applying for residencies, submitting to call-outs and competitions then celebrating when you receive a rejection because you actually put your work out there. You had skin in the game. Then, you apply again the following year, and get long-listed.
8. You rise before your household at 6am to shoe-horn in a 25-minute writing sprint in the half-light.
9. Sleeping deeply – and being open to what your dreams reveal. You have a notebook and pen by your bedside exactly for this reason.
10. Booking yourself on to a writer’s retreat at the Writers’ Cabin. Dedicating three days to your creative practice and encompassing writing to include walks in the Welsh countryside, attending book events in the Dyfi Valley, enjoying long sleeps in the Cabin’s double bed and rounding your retreat off with a sunset sauna.
