How to Build Your Writing Muscles
Train your brain to boost your writing skills and productivity
Writing can be hard work. Sometimes the words easily flow onto the page; other times, it can feel as if we’re slogging through mud. Despite the challenges, we tap away at the keyboard and hope that what we produce is brilliant or at least, passable.
We can’t rely on inspiration or motivation; they are fickle friends. Sometimes they’re with us; other times, they’re nowhere to be found. We can wait a long time for them to show up. While we wait, we may lose any momentum we have built up with our readers.
The solution: Make writing easier with a daily writing habit.
A daily writing habit leads to greater productivity and creativity
“Writing is the art of applying the ass to the seat.” Dorothy Parker
Julia Cameron popularized the concept of writing every day as a tool for improvement. However, the idea was first introduced in the 1930s by Dorothea Brande in her book, Becoming a Writer. You can download a free PDF of Brande’s book Becoming a Writer at Salem State University.
If you haven’t read either author, the process of establishing a daily writing habit conditions your brain to go to work at a specified time each day. It boosts your productivity and creativity.
A daily writing habit is especially important if you’re a part-time writer, or you have family responsibilities that prevent you from blocking off large chunks of time to write. It can motivate you to free up pockets of time for writing.
The many benefits of a daily writing habit
We live our lives by habit, automatically acting and reacting without conscious effort. By saving time and reducing the amount of decisions we have to make, we free up our brains to tackle new problems and process incoming information.
Some habit are good; some are not so good. Some make us more resourceful; others sap our abilities. The one thing both good and bad habits have in common: They are performed automatically.
The habit of writing daily is a good because it makes us more resourceful writers and makes the act of writing automatic. Instead of thinking about writing, we write.
The benefits from a daily writing habit are many:
- Your first drafts improve and need less editing.
- Your writing time is more productive and efficient.
- You enter flow states faster, which makes the writing easier.
- Themes may emerge that take your writing into new, fruitful topics and niches.
- Your self-esteem gets a boost through the exercise of self-discipline.
- Your confidence as a writer increases as your output improves.
“When you do something every day, you don’t notice any difference at that moment. You think, ‘Where are the benefits?’ But when you keep doing it for a long time, the positive effects compound. Writing every day will demonstrate the power of compounding like very few other things can.” Darius Foroux
How to create a daily writing habit
You don’t have to write for publication; journaling counts. It’s the physical action of writing that we want to establish as a habit.
According to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, the key to habit forming is to identify a trigger.
Before I became a full-time entrepreneur and writer, I was a communication officer for a bank. Every day at 8 a.m., I sat at my desk, booted up my computer, and either wrote or edited something.
Every day for 8 years.
This writing routine became so ingrained that it conditioned my brain to shift automatically into writing mode at whatever time I have scheduled for writing — whether it is 8 a.m., noon , or 8 p.m. At the appointed time, I boot up my laptop and automatically switch into writing mode for 3 to 4 hours, 5 days a week.
I was blessed with a job that forced me to build a daily writing habit.
If you haven’t established daily writing or if your writing time is constrained, start small. You may find the thought of writing for several hours daunting, so start with 30-minute intervals.
- Schedule between 1 and 3 30-minute intervals each day, based on your situation. Make it easy. The smaller the step, the less resistance you will feel about taking it.
- Put the intervals on your calendar just as if they were appointments with a client.
- Set a notification with a unique sound that you associate with your writing interval. This is your trigger to start writing.
- Set a timer at the start of the interval.
- Stop writing when the timer goes off at the end and take a break. This will prevent burnout, help you to recharge, and keep you motivated.
At first, you may feel resistance when your writing interval time comes up. It will take discipline to sit and write, so reward yourself when you complete each interval.
If the resistance wins, try lowering the length of time for each interval or schedule fewer intervals. The path to least resistance is made up of small, easy steps
You will soon discover that 30-minute intervals aren’t long enough; you’ll want to stay with the writing. Now is the time to build longer intervals.
According to Dr. Robert Maurer in his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way:
“Once you’ve experienced the joy of taking the first step, you can decide whether it’s appropriate to take another. You’ll know you’re ready when your current step becomes automatic, effortless, and even pleasurable. But don’t let anyone pressure you… If you ever feel yourself dreading the activity or making excuses for not performing it, it’s time to cut back on the size of the step.”
Becoming a better writer
A few short writing intervals each day is all you need to strengthen the writing habit and improve your output in both quantity and quality. It’s amazing how much you can do when you add up your writing intervals over the course of a week.
Commit to a daily writing habit, stick to it until it’s automatic, and see how much the quantity and quality of your writing improve.
“Writing is like breathing, it’s possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.” Julia Cameron
