Anyone can become a better writer.
The first step is simply writing more, and fortunately, you won’t need to rely on writing motivation.
In reality, writing regularly doesn’t require inspiration nor compulsion.
You won’t even need to rearrange your life to accommodate lengthy writing slots. Very few of us can afford to do that, anyway.
So, what, exactly, do you need to write more?
In this article, I’m sharing the strategies I used to write regularly. These techniques are based on proven human behavior, and you can start using them right away.
1. Reject the Romance of Writing Motivation
Back in 2018, I was a freelance writer with the worst kind of writing habits.
My mistake was this: I was waiting for writing motivation.
Everything changed when I developed writing habits.
I stopped waiting for motivation and established a simple daily writing routine, one I followed rigorously for months.
That decision marked the start of the ascent; finally, I got the kind of writing jobs and bylines I yearned for.
Waiting for a wave of inspiration might be the right approach for some people, but it didn’t work for me.
In The Practice: Shipping Creative Work, Seth Godin, points to this quote from Bob Dylan:
“It’s like a ghost writing a song like that. It gives you the song and it goes away, it goes away. You don’t know what it means. Expect the ghost picked me to write the song.”
This kind of thinking is problematic, and Godin’s not buying it.
“This is nonsense,” writes Godin. “There is no ghost. Dylan is either fooling us or fooling himself.”
Godin rejects the myth of inspiration and replaces it with unwavering commitment: a decision to show up and do the work.
“We don’t ship because we’re creative. We’re creative because we ship the work.”
Of course, motivating yourself to write isn’t easy.
Writing is incredibly hard, so it’s no wonder we push it aside in favour of easier endeavours.
I know I did.
Practice is the solvent we’re after. A regular routine removes the friction of getting started. It turns writing into an activity you simply sit down to do at a predetermined time.
In On Writing Well, William Zinsser, lifelong writer, author and Yale writing instructor, explains:
“You learn to write by writing…the only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis.”
Once you develop regular practice, you’ll start to see a reliable, and comforting, pattern emerge, suggests Zinsser:
“All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem. It may be a problem of approach or attitude, tone or style. Whatever it is, it has to be confronted and solved.
“Sometimes you will despair of finding the right solution—or any solution. You’ll think, ‘If I live to be ninety I’ll never get out of this mess.’ I’ve often thought it myself. But when I finally do solve the problem it’s because I’m like a surgeon removing his 500th appendix; I’ve been there before.”
The more time you spend writing and developing your ideas, you’ll craft something worth writing—and reading.
2. Don’t let Motivational P0rn Ruin Your Writing Efforts
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
– Proverb, origin unknown.
Could it get any more cliche? At the end of 2020, I was telling everyone I’d start exercising in the new year. Turns out that was a mistake. And it’s one you need to avoid if you want to increase your writing output.
It’s a phenomenon Piers Steel, procrastination expert, likes to call “motivational pr0nography”.
Here’s how Steel explains it on the Scott Young blog:
“If I’m telling other people, ‘Yeah I’m going to start exercising,’ I’ve actually done myself motivational damage. Because it’s vague and non-specific and I get a certain satisfaction or virtue by saying it.
“And that actually satisfies my need to exercise somewhat. You might sort of think of this as motivational pr0nography, where the image or verbal takes the place of the real.”
This is backed up by some research. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran’s paper When Intentions Go Public found when people shared goals they felt a “premature sense of completeness regarding the identity goal”.
Instead, one of the best ways to stay the course is get into the specifics. Creating a concrete plan you can stick to is the surest way to write more.
And Gollwitzer suggests using implementation intentions.
An implementation intention details when, where, and how you will practice the action that will help you reach your goal:
‘‘If situation Y occurs, then I will initiate goal ‐ directed behavior X !’’
This is a technique I have used with great success.
So, how do we apply this writing?
Start with small, specific habits.
Embarking on a new habit is daunting. Small actions increase the likelihood of forming lasting habits. I first learned about the concept of small habits in Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, a behaviour scientist at Stanford University.
Fogg’s habit formation advice is based on neuroscience, and it challenged everything I thought I knew about writing.
We can’t always rely on willpower. It’s fleeting. Motivation is “slippery” and impossible to sustain. Starting small gives you the best chance at lasting change because tiny habits are easy to perform and repeat.
“Behavior change is not as complicated as most people think. It’s systematic,” said Fogg.
In his book, Fogg uses an example of flossing.
He suggests tying your new habit to an existing behaviour, a trigger he calls an anchor moment.
Fogg provides an easy way to solve this with the ABC formula:
- A is for Anchor moment: something you do everyday
- B is for New behavior: the habit you want to form
- C is Celebration: congratulate yourself
This is the formula, or implementation intention, he uses:
Every morning after I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.
This is far simpler than the idea of going from not flossing to suddenly following a regimen of flossing all your teeth right away.
This is how I used it:
Every morning after I have coffee, I will write for 45 minutes.
Some mornings, I only wrote for 5 minutes because my kids woke up earlier, but I stuck to that habit for four months.
3. Find Your Daily Writing When
You have a secret clock that determines your energy levels throughout the day.
And understanding your unique rhythm helps you better plan your writing slot.
I learned about this Daniel Pink’s book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.
“We’re smarter, faster, dimmer, slower, more creative, and less creative in some parts of the day than others,” writes Pink.
Pink explains the basic stages we go through:
- Peak: starting the day off strong
- Trough: slight energy dip during the afternoon
- Recovery: improvement in mood during the early evening
“Human beings don’t experience a day in precisely the same way. Each of us has a “chronotype” — a personal pattern of circadian rhythms that influences our physiology and psychology.”
Some of us might be more alert during the day, while others may be night owls.
Here’s Steel, procrastination expert, again:
“Your energy level really determines how well you can pay attention to things…If you can just reorganize your day to do your hardest work when you have the most energy, you’ll find you’re accomplishing more than your competitors and you’ll have more time off.”
You can find you chronotype here: Automated Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (AutoMEQ)
I realised that I am most alert earlier in the day. After 3pm, I can’t really do cognitively demanding work, like editing articles. I might be able to brainstorm blog ideas or do first drafts, though.
This has allowed me to better align my writing tasks with my energy levels.
Pink published a daily planner here.
Writing is an art. It’s a craft. But it’s also an activity you can plan and perform routinely. This doesn’t make it any less powerful.
Make the decision to set and defend your writing slot.
Remember, you don’t need hours a day. You might not have that time. Start small. Committing to five minutes a day is all you need to kickstart a writing habit that changes your life.
For more, check out this post: 4 tips for Content Development Even When you Have no Time
Featured image credit: Image courtesy of Reshot
