If you’re like me, you think about writing on the daily. You might promise to set aside each day to write. You might make that a new year’s resolution.

And like me, you might fail to show up most days.

But why? Why do we let all these wonderful ideas and stories build up in our heads only for us to find every reason possible not to write them down?

Recognize what holds you back

There are so many reasons why writing is hard and writing consistently is even harder. You might know what those reasons are, but have you explored why those reasons get in the way?

Writing is complex, ideas are simple

Writing involves bringing rules and structure to the whimsical, free-floating thoughts and ideas in your head. You constantly have to balance those ideas with the boundaries of language.

And that right there is hard work.

I had a professor once tell me that language is only an approximation of meaning. We express ourselves, our thoughts, our feelings with words that we universally agree to mean a certain thing. Sad, for instance. We associate that word with tears, pain, low mood. But that doesn’t always accurately describe what we hold inside.

So, those story ideas, characters, settings, and feelings we’re trying to express? We have to search for the right words to convey what we’re picturing in our heads. And sometimes, you have to search for hours to find the right ones. Even then, you might get it wrong. You might have to eventually re-write to help us understand where your characters are or why we should care about them.

That all makes the task at hand – verbalizing the abstract – daunting and overwhelming.

And that brings me to my next point.

Writing desires perfection

Ideation is fun. It’s light-hearted. You’re not really committed to anything.

But as soon as you start writing ideas down, they become concrete. Real. And even though rationally, we know that words can be molded and changed into new words, we still think that the words we write down today are the final, unmovable, perfect iteration of what our story could be.

I worry often about getting the story “wrong” or “messing up” my brilliant idea. I enter what some might call “writer’s block.” I have a great idea, maybe a couple of cool characters, and some action or conflict the story is based around. But I’m so focused on getting the story right and coming up with the perfect ending that I can’t get started at all.

As I’m sure you know, striving for perfection isn’t fun. At all. But somehow we convince ourselves that our writing has to be great or it’s not worth doing at all.

But real stories show up when we leave room for mistakes, for exploration.

We – and I mean mostly I – have to move away from this idea that everything we write should be brilliant and worth publishing someday. Because the reality is not every line we ever write is going to be smart or beautiful or meaningful. Some writing might just fall flat. And that’s okay. Practice over perfection.

So how do we overcome these challenges to get to the good stuff?

Your better writing habit starts with these 3 easy steps

I’m one of those people who has a bad habit of writing only when I’m feeling creatively motivated. The problem is motivation is fleeting. And if you wait for motivation, you’ll be waiting for a very long time. 

Here are some realistic things I’ve started doing that have helped me stay consistent.

1. Prioritize routine over motivation.

I’m not waiting around anymore for the motivation to hit. Instead, I’m focusing on showing up – whether that’s brainstorming blog ideas, responding to a journal prompt, or practicing writing descriptions. This is the hardest part.

It doesn’t matter if I write anything good at all. If it sucks, who cares? I can always start over. What matters is carving out some time each day to write freely.

So… no more waiting on that little spark of creative energy to your fingers to work. Show up, every day, even if it’s only for five minutes.

2. Set easy goals

As I’ve mentioned before, our sometimes lofty goals can get in the way of building a daily practice. For example, I have a hard time working on projects or starting stories that don’t contribute to a grander plan, like filling in a short story collection or knocking out a story on my backlog.

The thing is, big goals are great. But it’s much easier to show up when you set realistic expectations for yourself. Not everything you work on is going to wind up in a magazine one day. It’s okay to just write for yourself.

If your goal is to build a consistent writing habit, start small. Challenge yourself with a ridiculously low word count. Like 20 words. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to accomplish a goal like that.

3. Celebrate little wins.

Not every writing session needs to be an hours-long marathon of creative genius. I know this. You know this. But it’s hard to talk ourselves out of this one.

However, to build a consistent writing habit, we have to start somewhere. It’s okay if one day the writing session is ten minutes and you only get a few sentences out. There will be other days where the creative juices are flowing so naturally that you bust out an entire short story in a day.

Reward yourself for showing up. Seriously, give yourself a treat – a chocolate, a special drink, an extra ten minutes of scrolling on your phone. Whatever helps keep you going.

Question of the day:
What’s one thing you’ll start doing today to help change your writing habit?