4 Writing Habits And Why They Work!
Every year I make a laundry list of New Year’s resolutions even though I will only stick to (maybe?) three of them and then feel bad about it because I love to ruin my life with my own hubris! Can I get a YEHAW if you feel the same??
*A silence emptier than my bank account fills the room*
Anyway, here are some spicy writing resolutions that I’ve actually stuck to and have made me more focused and reliant on habit rather than willy nilly inspiration. So let’s start off with an easy one, shall we?
1. Put your phone across the room when you write.
This was my writing resolution for 2016 and it has completely changed the game and now its second nature to not even look at/ think about my phone when I write. This is my idiot proof way of squashing my excuses, distractions, and inability to stop switching between apps until I feel alive and validated again.
WARNING: this does cause Grandma Syndrome. Your friends will give up on texting you, but will invite you to Thirsty Thursdays via voicemail.
2. Do not write in your bed!
This was my resolution for 2017 and now having done it for two years it has really helped me separate work from relaxation. Writing isn’t my full time job. I would love it to be someday, but in order to do that I have to grind when I get home from work.
However I used to have a habit of over doing it an slipping into a toxic “you have to work 24/7 for your dream or else your life is a failure” mentality and it would be hard for me to shut off at night and just got to bed when there was no line between work and relaxation and for me, that line needed to be my bed.
· I also do a thing called “Hypnotize thyself.” I know, stay with me…
I know a lot of people like to get in the writing mood by lighting a candle, making a sacrifice, listening to their curated fantasy novel playlist while topless bae feeds them grapes. But that doesn’t work to me. If I put some bops on I’m going to sing and dance along to the bops.
So its standard that whenever I write I put on indie folky music because it feels very indie darling movie trailer/ hoity toity Netflix Original and that shit will always put me in the mood to write, so find your thing!
3. Make appointments for people to read, critique, and possibly edit your work!
This was my resolution for last year and although it was scary, it was incredibly helpful and I could feel myself becoming better because it allowed me to realistically see how people interpreted my work.
I recommend this because it helped me stick to concrete writing deadlines when I knew someone was expected to receive my work on a certain day, It helped to point out big picture issues, It helped me create the most polished piece of writing I’ve ever made, It allowed me to see my work for what it truly is and not just what I see in my head, and I learned that if multiple people tell me a section or character isn’t working I should listen and fix it.
4. Make what you love and make it a lot!
This is my resolution for this year and the idea is to Make It And Move On! Put your work online and then make another one and then another one because making things helps you make better things.
This year my goal is to push past my fear of failure and inadequacy and make 12 sketches/ shorts to put on my YouTube channel (where you can also find video versions of everything I write here) so that I can strengthen my filmmaking/ screenwriting and hopefully create a portfolio to make the long form art I want to create in the future so wish me luck!
Alright guys, that’s all that I have for you today! I hope that you found my niche musings to be helpful. If you want to check out my writing, you can click here and I will see all of you lovely people in my next time. Happy writing!
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