Every day. Do it every day. This is the number one piece of advice for writers, artists. Every day. (An hour every day, less if you can’t handle that, and maybe start smaller like 5mins).
Every day. There will be days when your grandma dies, days when it’s been raining for 3 days straight, Days where you might have to tie yourself to the desk, days when people are literally dragging you away. Things will happen, you will go on holidays, WRITE EVERY DAY. Every day. Every day. Every day.
Feel uncreative? Do it anyway. You can still produce great work by generating what you think creativity would look like. Every day! Every day. Cannot emphasise enough—every day. (And yes this works for me)
Other than that—have a workspace (future article of mine one day) - a setup that is designed to enable you to work. If this means a bottle of water nearby—that. If it means headphones, extra lighting, 16 pencils all lined up square. A pentagram with candles at the corners. Whatever it is; work out what’s stopping you from working, and remove those things. Then work out what’s enabling you to work and increase them until you have the most fruitful workspace possible. I can’t tell you all the answers to how to make a perfect workspace, but if you sit down with a pen and paper and work through whatever you can think of this should take you well on your way.
Once you are on your way, notice things that distract you and later come back and remove them. Keep tab-closing habits, phone on the other side of the room habits, cup-of-tea-making habits, whatever it takes. Make a good system and a good workspace, then repeat.
And write every day. (probably in the morning is better, probably first thing is better)
Cal Newport on “Write Every Day”. If it’s not your main job, you’re going to end up having no write days, and if you’re committed to a hard schedule a missed day is going to translate into “welp, couldn’t make the cut then, better quit for good”.
In my experience as a writer with a day job, I’ve found it’s crucial to avoid rigid writing schedules.
Which is fine. That’s his experience. You can listen to him and his experience or you can not. Anecdata is anecdata. There’s a reason why every list of writing advice and every famous writer says to write every day.
The point is that I commit to plans that I know can succeed
If you only ever do that; you will be doing yourself a disservice. You don’t need to know the full plan before setting off. And it’s often a waste of time to not start and pivot. Imagine having to know every word of a book before you start writing it down on paper. That’s a ridiculous concept.
in counter point—if you set out to write every day—yes you will fail. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to do it, and do really really well in the process. If you fail you don’t have to quit for good. If you iterate and try again you can diagnose that failure mode and try again. Try harder. Try smarter.
I’d be very curious to hear any creativity tips that have worked for LWers in any fields (writing, drawing, music, etc.)
Every day. Do it every day. This is the number one piece of advice for writers, artists. Every day. (An hour every day, less if you can’t handle that, and maybe start smaller like 5mins).
Every day. There will be days when your grandma dies, days when it’s been raining for 3 days straight, Days where you might have to tie yourself to the desk, days when people are literally dragging you away. Things will happen, you will go on holidays, WRITE EVERY DAY. Every day. Every day. Every day.
Feel uncreative? Do it anyway. You can still produce great work by generating what you think creativity would look like. Every day! Every day. Cannot emphasise enough—every day. (And yes this works for me)
Other than that—have a workspace (future article of mine one day) - a setup that is designed to enable you to work. If this means a bottle of water nearby—that. If it means headphones, extra lighting, 16 pencils all lined up square. A pentagram with candles at the corners. Whatever it is; work out what’s stopping you from working, and remove those things. Then work out what’s enabling you to work and increase them until you have the most fruitful workspace possible. I can’t tell you all the answers to how to make a perfect workspace, but if you sit down with a pen and paper and work through whatever you can think of this should take you well on your way.
Once you are on your way, notice things that distract you and later come back and remove them. Keep tab-closing habits, phone on the other side of the room habits, cup-of-tea-making habits, whatever it takes. Make a good system and a good workspace, then repeat.
And write every day. (probably in the morning is better, probably first thing is better)
It’s similar for exercise. And probably any other activity you deeply care about.
Cal Newport on “Write Every Day”. If it’s not your main job, you’re going to end up having no write days, and if you’re committed to a hard schedule a missed day is going to translate into “welp, couldn’t make the cut then, better quit for good”.
Disagree with his opinion.
He suggests the biggest problem with write every day is:
Yea, and? That doesn’t have to cause failure. We know things like You don’t have to fail with abandon.. Also iteration cycles
He also says:
Which is fine. That’s his experience. You can listen to him and his experience or you can not. Anecdata is anecdata. There’s a reason why every list of writing advice and every famous writer says to write every day.
If you only ever do that; you will be doing yourself a disservice. You don’t need to know the full plan before setting off. And it’s often a waste of time to not start and pivot. Imagine having to know every word of a book before you start writing it down on paper. That’s a ridiculous concept.
in counter point—if you set out to write every day—yes you will fail. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to do it, and do really really well in the process. If you fail you don’t have to quit for good. If you iterate and try again you can diagnose that failure mode and try again. Try harder. Try smarter.
This has hugely impacted my whole life https://vimeo.com/89936101