The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most
Today’s post allowed me to take a beat and reflect on the two simple habits that have helped me and my creative life most in recent years. Are they similar to your best creative habits? Let’s discuss!
August Theme: The Creative Life
Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?
Week 2: Creative Habits
What I wrote below is based on the following reflective writing prompt included in Saturday’s Writing Prompts for Building the Creative Habits You Want post.
Prompt: The Habit That Helps You Most
What writing habit has helped you most?
Why did I choose it?
I chose this prompt because I think it’s a good idea to reflect on my habits and routines every once in a while, to make sure they’re still working for me and the creative life I want— especially because they seem to be working for me… which is now suddenly starting to make me feel a bit paranoid. Because what do you mean I have finally figured out the writing habits I need to live the creative life I’ve always wanted? Really?!
I must confess, reflecting on my writing habits is also easy for me to do because I really only have two main habits that sustain my writing practice, which I have also been writing about for years now.
I read every day.
I write every day.
That’s it. Those are the two habits that sustain my writing practice and creative life and always work for me. Though unpacking how they work and why they work might be useful, which is what I’ll be reflecting on in the remainder of today’s post.
My Response: How and Why I Read and Write Every Day
Because I’ve been writing about my writing habits in bits and pieces for years now, I thought it would be a good idea to comb through some things I’ve written, then compile and consolidate them here, to then reflect and revise as needed.
First, I want to mention that I would not be able to write every day if I did not read every day. Yes, every day. Whether I read an entire book or a few pages, I make it a point to read every single day, no matter what, though I average about an hour or two of reading per day. Why? Because if I don’t read every day, I can’t write every day, as my creative well inevitably dries up, which inevitably affects the quality of my writing and creative life overall.
According to Stephen King, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” And I wholeheartedly agree.
Reading every day helps beat writer’s block, as it offers an endless well of ideas and feelings to flesh out in your own writing. It also allows you to study and pick up on the techniques other writers use, whether you do so consciously or subconsciously, which will help you figure out how you want to write what you want to write, what only you can write.
Reading every day has positive side effects that exceed beating writer’s block, as it also makes you feel calmer and more relaxed in general, which I outlined in Ten Positive Side Effects of Reading Every Day. In that post, I also outlined how reading every day leads to greater empathy, higher levels of focus and concentration, a broader scope of knowledge, a heightened sense of creativity and creative intentionality, and then some.
And in Six Ways to Read More to Write More and 5 Simple Ways to Read More, I outlined how scheduling reading time, diversifying your reading material, enjoying what you read, and learning how to be prepared to read anywhere and everywhere can keep you reading every day, so you can continue to experience all the positive side effects it offers.
Reflecting on those posts, I wouldn’t amend much, as I still believe reading is a critical habit to keep if you want to sustain an enriching creative life, as well as stay sane in this always-on, confusing world. Books offer so much, on both personal and professional levels, for everyone, and I honestly don’t see how you can have an enriching creative life without making reading a consistent, if not daily, habit.
I also know that reading every day is the one core habit that has kept me writing, no matter what, every single day, and that I would struggle to write every day if I didn’t read every day. The two are linked in my creative practice and there cannot be one habit without the other, for me anyway.
Which brings me to why I’m adamant about writing every single day, no matter what, and insistent on maintaining that habit.
In 5 Major Benefits of Keeping a Daily Writing Routine, I detail how writing every day has helped me maintain a strong writing momentum, achievable writing goals, consistent creativity, enjoyable writing sessions, and more written work overall.
But I wasn’t truly aware of how far-reaching those benefits were until I started writing more posts reflecting on my daily writing habit, and how critical it is to understand that Writing is a verb. (an inherently human action, something that someone does intentionally). And that if we start looking at writing itself as exercise (an action we do intentionally) for our minds, bodies, and souls, we will not make excuses or procrastinate when our creative muscles begin to atrophy, or when we encounter writer’s block. Instead, we will insist on continuing the practice of writing so that we can routinely enter the state of flow when writing, which will allow us to better and more authentically express ourselves via our writing, so that we can intentionally connect with ourselves and others.
Bottom line, writing anyway, every day, especially when it’s hard, allows me to take concrete action to understand myself and the world a little better, in smaller more manageable bits at a time that help alleviate stress so that I can heal and hope with some intention. And that’s something worth doing every day to me, something worth devoting my life to even, especially now, when the world seems like a hot, jumbled mess.
Reflecting on some of the posts I’ve written over the years, it’s easier for me to see how, when, and most importantly why I started seeing my daily reading and writing habits less like chores to do or goals to achieve and more like deliberate routine actions I take every day to live the life I want to live— a creative life that is meaningful, purposeful, and authentic to me. And now, as a result, just as I need sleep and food and oxygen to live, I need to read and write to live, which makes me think of the following quote:
“If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” — Ray Bradbury
Join the Conversation
What’s your response to the question I answered in today’s post, or any of the other prompts in this week’s Writing Prompts for Building the Creative Habits You Want post?
Leave a comment or join the Drafters Workshop chat or Dialoguers chat, where we’ll be discussing how to build and sustain the creative lives we truly want throughout August.
Whether you leave a comment or join one of the chats to share your responses, ask questions, or connect with other writers and support their work, we can’t wait to see what you contribute!
Please don’t forget to like and share this post with your network so others can see it too. Thanks in advance. I hope to see you in the comments or chat threads sometime soon!
Continue Exploring August’s Theme, The Creative Life
This Week: Creative Habits
Writing Prompts for Building the Creative Habits You Want
Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv
Should writers have quantifiable creative habits?
Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
ICYM Week 1: Making Space
Writing Prompts for Making Space in Your Creative Life
A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library
Do writers need to protect creative time like an appointment?
Reading Notes: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
My Ideal Yet Practical Creative Life Scenario
How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life
The Creative Life as Play and Work
Consider going more in depth with this month’s theme with The Creative Life Writing Collection
Every prompt, draft, and dialogue begins a conversation, but some of those conversations deserve more of our time and attention.
If today’s post sparked an idea or practice you want to explore further, The Creative Life Writing Collection offers a guided month of prompts, craft exploration and techniques, reflection, and customized reading recommendations for writers who want to go deeper.
And if you want to explore past themes, paid subscribers also have access to the full archive, including previous writing prompts, discussions, and reading lists, as well as full access to the community chat and Daily Drafters Exclusives writing collections.