Have You Seen My Marbles?

Welcome to everyone joining us for the Year-End Marathon and to everyone looking for a peek behind the curtain at GYWO. Each month volunteers post discussions about writing craft, life, and publishing. This rare public post is to give a taste of the full GYWO experience. We welcome you to interact, comment, and share your own experiences on the topic.



Establishing a Writing Routine

The idealized writing routine looks something like this:

• make a cup of tea or coffee while getting in a creative mindset
• sit down to free write with a fountain pen as a warmup
• light a candle or incense to draw the muse and other creative spirits
• put on the perfect music or silence, as needed
• get comfortable and write 1,000 or 2,000 words in an hour or so

Mmm, sounds nice, doesn't it? That aesthetic set up is absolutely the ideal. It feels more writerly and like it’s what’s missing from our writing lives. If only we could free write with a fountain pen, light a candle, and be blessed by the muse with inspiration to write for an hour. If that, then we could be successful and productive writers.

But writing routines are not that idealized or consistent. Writing routines have to fit around real lives and incorporate personal quirks. Writing routines are not one-size-fits-all and they must be flexible so you can write on days when you’re busy, tired, or just not feeling it.

Writing routines won’t make you write, but they can help you find your way to words.


What Does a Real Writing Routine Look Like?

Probably the best way to figure out what writing routines look like is by examining an actual routine that works for someone. So, mine, heh. Let's talk about my writing routine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the days when I write with a fairly steady schedule.

Three days a week, I meet with 2–3 members of my in-person writing group on Discord for a mid-day write-in.

Prep Time: My writing prep starts about an hour before when I eat lunch, take a break, and let my mind rest and switch tasks. I usually watch a TV show and play a phone game. I make sure to choose a show that won’t adversely affect my writing, specifically by making me want to watch the next episode, flail about it with a friend, or otherwise pull my thoughts away from writing.

I then check-in with the other writers who join me. This is when we confirm attendance or delays to our normal start time. Then I clean up from lunch, make tea, and open my files.

Hopefully I also have time to clean up my file from the previous writing session and get a grip on what I need to work on today, which usually includes rereading the last couple paragraphs in a scene or notes I made about what comes next. If I run out of time, I finish my prep in the first 5–10 minutes of our first sprint.

Writing: I have a desk in my home office where I write. Aside from my laptop and/or iPad (and various desk fidgets), I try to clear my desk except for my tea, phone, project notebook, and a set of colored pens. (Sometimes I clear my desk by setting things out of sight on the floor.)

I set the timer for our first sprint and get to work.

We usually write for three 20-minute sprints, giving about an hour of writing time over an hour-and-a-half period. We report what we worked on, complain about various things (including how mushy our brains are), and share pictures of our cats.

Wrap Up: By the end of the third sprint, I’m usually done writing for the day. If I’m really on a roll, I might continue long enough to finish a conversation, but if it feels like it will take longer than about 10 minutes, I jot some notes about what comes next and trust I’ll be able to pick up where I left off the next day.

At that point, writing time is done and I move on to other things I need to do with my day.


How Do You Make A Routine Happen?

The writing routine I described above happens in a group. Meeting with a group is a great way to establish a writing routine. When you make a plan to meet with others, you are more likely to show up than if you just tell yourself that you’re supposed to write at noon.

You know how I know that? Because the days of the week when I don’t write with other people, I don’t write on a schedule. I do write, but I fit it in wherever makes sense in my day, which means on a very busy day, I’m squeezing in words at the last possible second. (Not my best choice.)

Routines also happen when you take similar steps to get there. The whole “routine” part is that you have a consistent set of actions that lead you to writing. You may not need lunch + break + tea before writing, but a series of steps before writing that can become your pre-writing routine can help you get there.

You know how I know that? Most days if I follow lunch with tea, I sit down to write. My brain has associated mid-day tea with writing, so it’s become an easy way to get my brain to shift into the writing gear. (It’s also a way for me to tell my brain to shift into writing. If I want to write and have been dancing around it, if I make a cup of tea, it’s a short-cut to my brain being able to settle.)

The other Big Secret to a writing routine is figuring out what works for you. While tea and a writing group work best for me, maybe you need something different. Maybe your routine is:

• Make Breakfast + Notebook to Freewrite
• Take Shower + Let Hair Dry + Write 20 Minutes
• Walk to Park + Eat Lunch + Write 15 Minutes
• Pick Up Kids + Fix Snacks + Write While Helping with Homework
• Everyone Else In Bed + Write Until Sleepy

Your routine can be whatever helps you get to writing, so figure out what works for you and is something you can achieve—whether that’s daily or a handful of times a week. Remember, routines can be adjusted for specific days (my MWF routine is different from other days) or you might have a routine for Busy Days that’s different from your routine for Extremely Busy Days. As long as you have your own secret to get you writing, you have a routine.

Think about what you did the last time you sat down to write, is that your writing routine? Do you think something might work better for you?