WRITING|CREATIVE WRITING|CREATIVITY

How I Built a Writing Habit Into a Busy Life

Make every second, minute, and hour of the day count

For many years my get-up time has been 6am. At the crack of dawn, I’m out of bed and on the floor, ready to start my workout. After that, it’s showertime, breakfast and (these days) a cycle commute. This routine has been the same for more than two decades, but one element has been added in recent years: writing, or at least knocking up a draft that will later on become an article.

Think small and you’ll get big

Unless you’re writing for a specific publication with strict rules, there should be no limit as to the number of words your first write-up will run to. 300? 500? 1200? Who cares? I’ll tell you what I care about. Has your writing got soul? Is your post being written from the heart? Show me passion and I, reader, will reciprocate with interest in your work.

Do some research, though. Even personal stories benefit from some thorough, source-based analysis. I’ve always favoured the combination of both an informal and formal approach to writing. Be silly and serious at the same time. It’s your blank page after all.

Improv is good, but improv and planning are heaven

I’ve got three notebooks that I keep close to me at all times. One is a stay-at-home one, the other one travels with me in one of my bicycle panniers, and the third one is full of quotes from the books I read. The first two have dozens of phrases I come up with whilst daydreaming or riffing on the various uses a particular word has. It’s almost like improvising on the piano or sax in a jazz band.

Ah, but there comes a time when these disparate items must be put in order. That’s where the planning comes in. Say that I want to describe an autumn day. How many different ways are there to describe the colour red? What if you combine it with orange and yellow? What does a sunrise in November look like? And a sunset? I note down phrase after phrase, until I have a “shortlist” of only three. Then, I choose the winner.

Most writers would like to be thought of as spontaneous beings, and I count myself amongst them. But, in reality, there’s some serious planning going into all our pieces. Let’s just all own up to that, shall we?

The morning light is my kind of light

I mentioned before that as soon as I wake up I hit the floor and start my workout. I also switch my desktop computer on and wait for it to warm up whilst exercising my muscles and doing my stretches. By the time I come back to my room from the shower, ideas are buzzing. I’ve got an east-facing window, so the sun is already flooding my bedroom. Before I go downstairs to make my breakfast I scribble a few words or phrases down. That’s how I came up with the opening of “Virus”, a Covid-inspired story that was long-listed in a short-story competition in 2022.

We didn’t just make love. We also made each other laugh.

I’m proud of that sentence. The whole narrative unfolds from those eleven words.

Early mornings, rising sun.

Perhaps you’re not a morning person. That’s fine. We’re all different. Mid-afternoon or late evening. It’s your call. Just make sure your juices are flowing.

Treat your writing as if it were a series. Create episodes

I started my long-running Living in a Multilingual World column many years ago, on my blog A Cuban In London. At some point I decided to name the subheaders after the famous Friends catchphrase “the one where/with…” It was a lightbulb moment. The outings are lighthearted in tone and knowledge-driven in content. I’m passionate about languages and my enthusiasm shows in the way I treat the subject.

From that early experience, I developed other series, such as The Omnivore (food),, Diary of a Cycling Instructor (self-explanatory) and Shooting London (a photography-led regular section that focuses on what I like best about my adopted city).

What this approach means is that I rarely run out of ideas. I’ve usually got something up my sleeve. It also allows me a multiple-angle perspective on issues that are close to home.

No draft is too bad. No article is too good

An article is just the better draft that gets chosen either by you or an editor. It’s the same with a book. You and your editor pick the better draft. I’ve got a Google document full of drafts that go back three or four years. I occasionally rummage through them looking for ideas I can nick from myself. Oh, yes, did I mention that self-stealing is a must for a writer? Go on, cannibalise yourself. We’ll look away.

The biggest advantage of keeping a stash of drafts is that you never know when you’re going to get an e-mail or a call from a magazine or newspaper wanting a piece on a topic you know like the back of your hand. Do you need to wreck your brains figuring out what to write? No, it’s already written. You just need to tweak it.

These are some of my tips. I’m sure that most of you, fellow writers, will add to my list in the comments below. After all, that’s what makes Medium the beautiful community it is. We’re all in this (writing thing) together.

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