How to establish (and stick to) a writing routine
There are lots of self-help books out there and psychological theories to tell you how humans form habits and routines. Underpinning all of them is the Big Golden Rule of Routine Building:
You have to actually want to do it.
‘But of course I actually want to do it!’ You say! ‘Why else would I be reading this mediocre blog post!? I want to write!’
That’s fantastic. But why do you want to write?
It’s like running.
Why do you want to run?
Making yourself run 10 kilometres every morning because you want to look like Kendall Jenner will sustain you for a bit. This is called external motivation – you’re motivated by an outside goal (looking fit/ losing weight). But you will ultimately fail unless you have the internal desire to do it.
Running 10kms because of the rush you get from exercise and that feeling of accomplishment afterwards, as well as the long term health benefits of an active lifestyle is going to mean you get up and do it past those first few weeks where you’re high on the adrenaline of your new routine. This is internal motivation and it is the golden juice that runs half marathons and finishes novels. It makes you get up and run even in the dead of winter when your partner is snoring in the warm covers.
It’s the same for writing a novel. If you want to do it, no matter what barriers are in your way (your full-time job, children, general life commitments etc) it doesn’t matter. You find a way.
And once you’ve established that you really (no, really) want it, here are some things that have worked for me to keep that routine:
Treat it like wiping your bum.
I hope most people will agree this is a non-negotiable. Writing is the same. You need to embed it into your day like these routines you have already that you might take for granted like brushing your teeth. Or maybe a non-negotiable for you is a 5am 10km run. Or unpacking the dishwasher before you go to sleep. (Just FYI I do neither of these things!) Your mindset about writing is key. Even when you’re tired. Even when that new show drops on Netflix. Wipe your bum. Write your words.
Exercise
I have never solved a plot problem by staring at my screen but instead by pounding the pavement (meaning walking or jogging). It has to be something repetitive that I don’t think about. The gym, or any form of exercise that requires you NOT to drop a 50kg barbell on your head because you were trying to work out exactly how to execute that plot twist in chapter 32, doesn’t work. This is the cure for what a lot of people refer to as ‘writers block’. Go for a walk (if you’re unable to walk – do something actively repetitive that you don’t need to consciously think about – swing your arms around in circles, do the dishes etc – there are tonnes of YouTube videos for non-weight-bearing exercises that can be done in a bed, on a couch, in a wheelchair etc). Think about your story while you do it.
Listen to Writing Podcasts – but don’t listen when you should be writing – the writing always comes first!
Listening to people talk about writing is one of the things I started to do towards the end of 2019 – which was the year I finished my first manuscript. I found the So You Want to Be a Writer Podcast through the Australian Writers Centre and gorged my way through their back catalogue on the way to and from work, doing the dishes, vacuuming, etc. Listening to other writers who reveal themselves to be ordinary humans, not some golden sky gods, is encouraging. It makes you feel like you might be able to do this because they swear they were just like you once. I believe I would have made a lot more mistakes and may still be focussed on that first ‘bottom drawer’ manuscript if I hadn’t found this podcast. The advice and encouragement was what I needed. It also became part of my routine as I slowly embedded writing into my life.
30 minutes at a time
This is more of an actual technique to get the words down. I used this to study for my exams in high school and university. Set a timer, 20, 30, 40 minutes, whatever you have – and just write. Don’t let yourself get up until that timer goes off.
Set a word count goal that works for YOU
Similar to number four. You need to find out what works for you otherwise this will start to discourage you. When I am working full-time and writing a first draft – my sweet-spot is 500 words a day. I have to write at night (in an ideal world where children woke at reasonable hours and organised themselves and I didn’t have to pay the bills with a day-job – I would write in the morning, but I this didn’t work with my life.) 500 at night is enough that I can see progress in my manuscript but it is not so overwhelming that I start to write crappy words just to fill it in. On the weekends and during the holidays I would be working closer to 1000. I will have some days (rare) where I get upwards of 3000 but this is usually when I am nearing the climax and the momentum of the story is driving me forward – I do not even think about the word count at this point. Start with a small number. Then increase it as you start to embed writing into your routine.
Be busy!
The year I finally finished the manuscript I’d been writing since I was 14 (yes, another reason why it will forever remain in the figurative ‘bottom drawer’) was the busiest year of my life. This, I believe, was ultimately why I got it done. Since that year (2019) I have written three other manuscripts (all over 100k). I was working full-time in a busy, demanding job and I had a one year old who was not the kind of ‘just play over there while mummy does something over here’ kind of kid (still isn’t). My partner was working emergency shifts so when I was home, he wasn’t. And now, my life is the same except my job got busier. I always think back to those long stretches of TIME I had when I was in university or before I had a child – just working casual restaurant jobs and NOT WRITING. I still wanted to write back then – I still had my folder of story ideas and half-started manuscripts. I occasionally Googled “how to actually finish your novel” and when I had a rare burst of inspiration I’d write for a bit.
But I never finished anything because I had no imperative to just Get. It. Done. I had all the time in the world and I wrote pretty much nothing. But now, if I find a ten-minute window or a grandparent offers to give me a few hours on the weekend – I open my laptop and I just start typing. Because I have a deadline, I have a time limit and if I don’t get it done, I won’t get it done. There’s a saying that goes something like “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” And it’s true. It’s true for every workplace I’ve ever been in and it’s true for writing. So…go ahead and overcommit yourself and you’ll get that novel done!
Deadlines
This one fits in with point number 6. You have to give yourself a deadline when you’re starting out and don’t have an external deadline set by a publisher. I’ve learned to give myself deadlines, but I always work better when it’s half-external. The best way to do this? Competitions. There are a whole bunch of fantastic competitions in Australia and abroad for aspiring writers. Some of them run annually and some are biennial. Writers centres will often create lists of upcoming competitions and update them throughout the year. When I was writing The Bone Painter in 2020 I stumbled upon The Affirm Press/ Varuna Mentorship award and so I gave myself the deadline of that competition end date to get my first 10 000 words to an acceptable (definitely not perfect!) standard and to finish the rest of the novel. I never even considered I might win that award but the self-imposed deadline of actually needing a full novel for the mentorship urged me on.
Sacrifice
Everyone hates this one – and it’s not for everyone – but you can definitely establish a routine faster if you sacrifice something. NOT a virgin or a lamb. I mean like TV. For me it was Netflix. I didn’t stop completely – I always gave myself Friday nights as a night off from writing (sometimes I ignored this and still wrote anyway but I always had the option). You might have to sacrifice saying ‘yes’ to every social outing. Be careful with this one. Filling your cup is so important to avoid burnout (but also, and mainly, being out with people gives you story ideas that you’re not going to get hunched over your computer in a position that would make any self-respecting physio have an aneurism)
Again, these were some of the things that helped me. They may not work for everyone and I am aware I am incredibly privileged to have supportive grandparents living close by and a partner who, although he has a demanding full-time job as well, is the biggest supporter of my writing (even though he says he will never read my books because they’re not ‘his thing’). I also have a child who does not have any serious health concerns (growing up in a house with a child who did – I understand this is a factor that makes carving out that time for yourself harder.)
But even if it’s just ten minutes. Just find ten minutes that you guard like a maximum-security prison as your writing time. Start with 10 minutes every day. Get up a bit earlier, turn off the TV. Tell the people around you why this is important to you, you will be surprised at how supportive people can be once you explain why. Make it non-negotiable from the start and this will create the routine. But, you have to want it more than anything. If you don’t, you won’t do it.
