Writing Is a Habit

1. Practice writing every day. Writing has to become like brushing your teeth. Develop the habit by doing it at the same time every day, ideally first thing in the morning. It’s like paying yourself first since you’re putting your creative goals front and center and leaving the rest of your day for work and other obligations. Further, if you start writing before you interact with people and media, it’s easier to connect with your inner self.
2. Build writing muscle skills. Forcing words out onto a piece of paper or a computer screen can be painful when you first start. It’s the same as if you woke up one morning and decided to run a marathon and just showed up at the starting line. Chances are that you wouldn’t get very far. Practice by writing morning pages, as suggested by a number of creative coaches, namely Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way and Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones. Sit down and spill out whatever comes to mind as fast as you can. This writing isn’t for anyone else’s eyes. It’s to develop your writing skills and getting in touch with that inner part of your being. (BTW, this exercise is useful if you’re going through a difficult period in your life since it gives you an outlet for your thoughts and emotions.) This is uncensored writing. You should write faster than you can think about what’s going onto the page. If you start focusing on the right word to use or decide I don’t like the way I phrased that, you’re on the wrong track.
3. Prepare to write. To maximize your writing effectiveness, gather ideas and other elements of your writing. It’s much easier to crank out a good column if you start with an outline or a set of ideas. Find what works for you. Maybe it’s just a title or it could be a full outline. Whatever your focus, find a way to gather germs of ideas wherever you are, whether it’s on your smartphone or in an old fashioned notebook.