How To Find Your Writing Routine And Stick With It
And What To Do If You Can’t Follow Your Own Rules
A lot of articles on Medium are about writing in general and on the platform itself. Writers share their writing routines and advise about what works best for them to create content regularly. Write every day, write for 3 hours in the morning, 2.5 hours in the evening, have one day of editing and one day of writing with no distraction. Publish at 7.13 am, publish at 10.38 pm and not a minute later. Have a work environment that is organised and prevents you from getting disturbed and distracted. Don’t go to the toilet. Only if you have to. Anything that interrupts your writing process is bad.
And while I could give you my writing routine so you can try it out and see if it works for you, I’m not sure if letting emotions get hold of you and control your daily schedule could be considered a writing routine.
However, I will share my attempts to develop one with you.
I started writing on Medium end of December 2021. I was highly motivated and wanted to write every day for the next 30 days. I published two stories within the first two days and then went silent for another month. So much to my intentions.
To get an idea of my writing journey I am sharing what my last two weeks of writing looked like. It might be boring, it might be too much text or repetitive, I might have gotten carried away a bit — you can scroll down or keep on reading:
Week 1: Week Off From Work, Highly Motivated To Write
Monday, 24/01 Woke up at 7:30 am. The day before I had written and published a story after being silent for over a month. Ecstatic about my stats and that there were actual real readers out there who were reading my story I felt highly motivated to write more articles. Started writing a photo essay about Tasmania. The internet was slow and I could not upload photos. Went surfing instead.
Tuesday, 25/01 Woke up at 7 am. Decided to not go to work. Made coffee. Opened my laptop and spent the next few hours on Medium. Asked to become a writer for several publications. Wrote an article and send it to a publication. Tried again to upload photos for my photo essay. Internet was still too slow. Watched a movie and went to bed.
Wednesday, 26/01 Woke up at 8 am. Still highly motivated. Jumped right onto the computer. My article got published. Finally finished the photo essay about Tasmania and sent it to a publication. Wrote another photo essay about nature’s patterns and republished an old article to a publication.
Thursday, 27/01 Woke up at 7:30 am. Made coffee. Sat in the sun. Finally decided to sit in front of the computer for a while. Moved to the bed with my laptop. Sent my photo essay about nature’s patterns to a publication. Had a nap. Woke up. Had another nap. Finished the day ruminating about my life.
Friday, 28/01 Woke up at 9 am. Asked more publications to become a writer for them. Started writing my last article. Wrote random titles for possible articles in the future. Had enough of sitting in front of the laptop and spent the rest of the day in nature.
Saturday, 29/01 Could not sleep at all. Tired. Exhausted. Drained. Spent time with my partner and didn’t worry about Medium. My motivation to keep on writing every day started to decrease.
Sunday, 30/01 Woke up at 8 am. Sent my article to a publication. It got published the same day. Excited about my stats. Full of ideas for future articles. But didn’t get past the titles. Have collected 50 stories in my draft folder, that only contain a title.
Week 2: No Internet, No Sun, No Motivation To Write
Monday, 31/01 Storm. Rain. Dark clouds. No sun. No internet. Had motivation but couldn’t use it. Could write by hand. Motivation didn’t seem big enough.
Tuesday, 01/02 Went to work. Highly motivated to publish an article after work. Still no internet. So no Medium for me. My partner’s birthday was coming up. Started making his present.
Wednesday, 02/02 No internet. No sun. Pouring rain. Felt tired. Felt sick again. Didn’t go to work. Kept on making the present for my partner.
Thursday, 03/02 No internet. Still stormy. Went surfing. Went to the lake. Spent time with my partner.
Friday, 04/02 Internet still patchy or non-existent. Had a phone call with a good friend. Finished all presents for my partner. Read a book and watched the rain.
Saturday, 05/02 My partners birthday.
Sunday, 06/02 Felt extremely tired. Sad. Emotional. Had five naps. Had two cries. Went to bed.
Today
Seems like my motivation to write is back. At least for now. I am however welcoming every distraction that comes my way. I have already watched 6 episodes of Gilmore Girls because there was this unbearable need to rewatch something from my teenage years. And of course, I also had to work in my garden today. And while it seems a bit pointless to water plants while it pours down at the same time, it gives a valuable excuse not to sit down and finish that article.
I am bad with rules. I don’t like them very much and I am bad at sticking to them. I usually thrive more on flexible conditions — do whatever whenever. A deadline, however, is helpful to not get completely carried away in emotions of fear, perfection and procrastination.
When I tried a diet in the past, it would backlash. When I did a lot of training for specific sports that I was doing competitively, I would lose my joy in doing it. I felt trapped inbetween rules and obligations. It led to the opposite that it was trying to achieve. Every time I tried to develop a routine for any of my creative endeavours I failed. It felt forced and not authentic.
Whatever I was doing did not come from the depths of my soul but instead was rooted in external expectations and pressure.
Maybe I’m flakey. Maybe I’m not determined or will-powered enough. At the same time, it feels more authentic to me. Going with my moods. Working with them instead of against them. Taking my time and rest when I need it. Not worrying about what I should do or when I should do it. Maybe this will prevent me from being successful. Successful in the money-making sense.
I haven’t been able to stick to any kind of routine my whole life. I have been optimistic more than just a few times that I would be capable of doing so but in the end, I was always failing. Once I let go of the rules and expectations I set myself, I felt free and less pressured. Things happened naturally. I was creating from my soul and not only from my mind.
Maybe this is actually some kind of routine — one week being highly motivated and able to create something from the heart, the next one the opposite.
My routine is, waking up in the morning, getting completely lost in my emotions and then expressing them in one form or another. As long as fear is not the major emotion that is driving my actions, I am happy to get lost in it.
A routine does not have to be a set of rules written down on a list. A routine can be anything that happens regularly, anything that works for you and your creative process.
Do what feels right to you. Try different ideas, read those articles about successful writing and then take from it whatever works for you. What feels true and authentic to what you would like to share with the world. What you would like to express. And then create and develop your own routine.
If you can’t stick to your writing routine don’t get discouraged. Don’t feel guilty or put yourself down.
Maybe it wasn’t the right routine. Maybe you were not ready for it. Maybe you just have to get used to it and unlearn an old routine. Or maybe, just maybe you are a little bit like me and you need a routine that allows for a big amount of flexibility and freedom. A routine that does not work on a daily basis but rather over a bigger time frame.
Whatever it is. If you have a need to share something with the world, do it. Scream it out. Write it down. Press that publish button. Whenever you feel like it.
If you like my work and want to support me so I can spend more time creating, you can buy me a coffee here.
Franzi is a fine art land- & seascape photographer, writer and crafty girl who spends most of her time in nature capturing moments or writing about anything swirling around in her imaginative head.
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