Why & How to Create a Writing Habit

Get back on track despite the storms in your life.

Photo by Michelle Holloway

A book that is repeatedly recommended to me is Atomic Habits by James Clear. I’ve now read it twice.

The word atomic refers to small and the word habits means movements that a person makes daily. The book’s premise is its subtitle—Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. Small habits extrapolate to amazing results later on.

In the book Clear considers habits from many angles—

• how hard bad ones are to break

• how difficult good ones are to form

• what happens when you do form good habits

• how much progress can be made from small, daily, incremental effort.

I want to talk to you about one particular habit for writers.

I’m always telling the writers with whom I work to write every day, at the same time if possible. Plenty of writing teachers these days are saying the opposite. They tell you to do what you can, write when you can—that writing every day at the same time is incompatible with the lives most of us lead.

For the purpose of you moving more quickly and determinedly and solidly into your vision for your writing life, I’m going to stick with my suggestion to write every day. Writing daily trains you in the habit of writing. Writing isn’t something you do once in awhile—no, writing is something you do every day. Therefore, you are a writer.

If you do something every day, and if you apply yourself passionately while doing it, and you silence your inner critics while doing it, you can get wherever it is that you want to go.

The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible.

Clear outlines four ways to create a good habit. I’m going to break this down for writers.

How to Create a Good Writing Habit

1. Make it obvious.

If you’re trying to learn to play the guitar, you’d want to leave your guitar visible in your living space so that it’s easy to pick up. You see it many times a day. As Clear puts it, motivation is less important than environment.

How can you make your writing practice more obvious? Leave your journal and writing materials laying out in your home. If you write on the computer and your computer is already in an obvious place, make sure the file you’re working on is saved on your Desktop, front and center. Move other files away from it.

According to Clear, the two most common cues for performing a habit are TIME and LOCATION. He suggests that you set an intention like this:

I will write at (TIME) in (LOCATION).

Habit stacking can also be helpful. This is a strategy in which you combine the habit of writing with a habit you already do.

After I (CURRENT HABIT) I will write. For example, after I pour my first cup of coffee, I will write.

2. Make it attractive.

Let’s say you’d prefer to scroll on social media rather than write. You could use social media as a reward for writing. This intention would look like this:

After I write for 10 minutes, I will give myself 10 minutes to look at social media.

After I write, I will allow myself to check the weather.

Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings.

3. Make it easy.

The important point here is that the amount of time you spend writing is NOT AS IMPORTANT as the number of times you have performed it. Therefore, make your goal small, meaning very attainable. For example, your goal may be to simply open the book file on your computer. Or write one sentence. Or write for 5 minutes. Or to open the file and sit with it for 5 minutes.

The aim here is least effort. “Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.”

For years I wanted a daily yoga practice, but spending an hour daily practicing yoga was never going to work for me. About two years ago I set myself the goal of practicing yoga 15 minutes a day. The yoga mat is nearby. I often practice in pajamas. I follow yoga with a minute of meditation, then my mantras. The practice is the reward.

4. Make it satisfying.

We repeat activities that are satisfying to us. At the end of a writing session, you can look back and say, “I wrote a page.” Or, “I wrote today.” Habit-tracking helps you feel satisfied with your progress, although you’d want to only do this with your most important habits.

Here are some ideas:

• Every time you write, put $1 in a jar toward a new hat you want. Or toward a trip.

• Every time you write, move a marble into a special jar.

• Every time you write, put a big check-mark on your wall calendar.

• Secure an accountability partner. Every time you write, text your partner “Done!”

Tip: If you skip a day, get back on track as quickly as possible. Try not to skip more than two days in a row.

If the idea of forming a habit out of writing works for you, then I too recommend

Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear.

You may also want to subscribe to his weekly email newsletter.

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Let Metaphor: A Workshop for Writers

Focus on an underserved literary device. Learn to make, find, and attract metaphors. Leave with handouts, a list of your self-created metaphors, and tricks to find the right ones. 2-hour workshop taught by Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.

Nov. 2, 2024

10-12:22 a.m. Eastern US/Canada Time

$22

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Want to Try the Short Form?

for Memoir & Essay—Micro | Flash | Short | Tiny | Brief

Nov. 17, 2024

12-3 p.m. Eastern US/Canada Time

$55

I have scheduled a 3-hour workshop for flash nonfiction (essay and memoir) for Sunday, Nov. 17 from 12-3 pm Eastern US Time. Tuition is $55.

Flash is a potent and highly publishable form that you’ll fall in love with, if you haven’t already. I highly recommend getting good at this form.

Registration is at my website, here.

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Note

Deepest sympathy to those who have been affected by Hurricane Helene, and may your recovery be swift and strong.

We have power again at our farm in southern Georgia. Even without power, I wrote by hand in my journal every day, sometimes by candlelight.

We still don’t have wifi, but I’m able to use the library and the Archives in town. I had to cancel one week of course sessions, but we’re back on track now. I’m holding sessions this week, thankfully.

I apologize to all who were delayed because of me. If I owe you information of any kind that hasn’t been forthcoming, please know that I hope to be catching up soon.

I’m wishing you all the best with your writing. I hope your stories are coming out close to the way you imagined them.

Janisse