Routine, writing, and making notes
Every serious writer knows they should follow a routine.
For the most part, it makes sense.
After all, creativity is a habit. Same time, same place. You’re more likely to do the work.
Yet, the perfect routine may get backfired. You will find creativity and order are sometimes at odds.
Same time, same place, but nothing happens. You aren’t prepared to create. The muse hasn't knocked on your door yet. You're simply too bored to put anything down on paper.
In those moments, it’s foolish to plough on. For creativity has turned into the stubborn child crying her heart out for ice-cream when her parents say no. Unless you surrender and stop writing. The pain persists.
So you have two choices:
- Be the strict parents and say no,
- Give in and buy your child an ice-cream.
If you say no
The child will come to the fact it cannot have the ice-cream and stop crying. There’s a lot of struggle but you will hit the word count eventually.
This is what I suggest you do if the daily writing habit is important to you.
Though you can make it less of a pain by switching things up.
For example, if you mostly write in the morning, you should try writing at night.
If you listen to Baroque while writing, switch to Bossa Nova.
If you usually write a certain type font, choose a new one. If you often write in long paragraphs, try 2-3 sentence paragraphs.
If you always write in full sentences, write in snippets.
And if you become so sick of the act of writing, go and do something else. Go shopping. Watch movies. Talk to someone. Take a walk. Read a book. Then go back to writing with a fresher mind.
The key is disruption
You need to break the rule to rekindle the fire of creativity.
If switching things up doesn’t do the trick, it’s better to give in and call it a day.
Don’t worry. You’re not a loser or anything. It only means you lack materials to write. It happens to all writers. Especially when life becomes stagnant and your energy is low.
In such times, instead of ploughing on, you should sharpen the knife. You should make notes.
The serendity of making notes
Making notes doesn’t take as much as energy as writing an entire post. Most notes are short, and consist of a few sentences. All you need to do is to read something or reflect on the event happening during the day, and write about it in your own words. Or you could just write down whatever in your head.
The act will feed you creative mind. But you also prepare yourself for the next writing task.
Most of the time you can’t write, it’s not because of the lack of skills, but rather lack of materials to write. The obvious answer is to find materials.
But you don’t have to if you develop the habit of taking and stocking notes over time, in a system.
When the stock of notes is full, writing is no longer a pain.