The Secret To A Great Writing Routine

You vs your subconscious

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Hello Team CCC! How are you? I hope you’re all well/happy/managing/as good as one can be as we all bumble towards the end of a year.

This week I’m going to be taking Read Yourself Happy around the bookshops of London, which I’m very excited about! You can preorder here - or get your signed dedicated copy from The Margate Bookshop here (fill in the info form at the check out - they deliver across the UK.)

We’ve got a gorgeous new episode of You’re Booked with superstar author Amanda Prowse - click here (or click on the image below!) to listen to Amanda and binge the backlist.

Now for some writing routine tips and tricks, to be ingested with a whole bucket of salt…

Your Subconscious’s Guide To A Perfect And Productive Writing Routine

-       No matter what happens, always be smartly dressed and at your desk by 8AM. Make sure you’ve eaten a nutritious breakfast, so you’re ready to get creative!

Unless you woke up worrying at 4AM, and only managed to drift back to precious, precious sleep at around 7.54. Unless one of your kids was sick in the night. Unless the hour of 8AM otherwise requires you to be at the school gates, or the vet, or your day job. Unless you’re a neurodivergent scatterbrain who is both simultaneously desperate for order to be imposed on life and furious about order being imposed on life.

-       Remove all distractions. No phone, internet off, no other screens. Have you thought about writing by hand?

Unless the idea of being alone with your thoughts, and just the contents of your brain makes the inside of your skin so itchy that you think about removing it with scissors. Unless you have any responsibilities to other humans, or animals, and there’s a possibility that you might need to urgently respond to someone, in the event of an emergency. Unless you’ve got a book out on submission, and you don’t think you can live without checking your email every one and a half seconds.

-       Cherish this time. You’re doing what you love! Aren’t you lucky? Doesn’t it feel wonderful to have all this peace and quiet?

Unless you’re consumed with fear. Unless you feel like a big fraud. Unless you’ve finally got everyone to leave you alone to get on with it, and you hate it. You’re lonely. Unless you like to feel needed. Unless you have any faint, slight, vague underlying issues with self-esteem and co-dependency.

-       Aim to make solid progress with your manuscript. A chapter, or another thousand words. Drive things forward! Keep the pace up! If you’re bored, your reader will be bored, too!

Or you could write a sentence and then delete it. Write ‘I am a fish’ five times, and then hit the backspace key and watch it slide off your screen, letter by letter. Write ‘I can’t’ and ‘I HATE THIS’ and delete it more slowly, this time. Think about writing some kind of flashback scene.

-       Here’s a great prompt – what is your character’s motivation? If you’re not writing fiction, what’s yours? What do you want to tell your reader?

What reader? Anyway, I can only think of one thing, and it ends in ‘off’.

-       It’s important to take breaks! Drink lots of water, and make sure you spend time away from your screens and get some fresh air. Go outside! Run a quick 5K! If you can’t get out and run, owing to a lack of safe, clean spaces, or any mobility issues, don’t worry! Just buy a Peloton!

 You’re hilarious. OK, I’ll just try one thing, and then I’ll take a break. Because it would be really interesting to see what happened with L, 20 years ago. Who she was then, as opposed to who she is now. Maybe this won’t make it into the next draft, maybe this is just for me. But let’s say, B finds her on the floor, crying. L is on the carpet, her face is wet, the fibres are scraping her, burning her. L is in shock, it’s as though she’s drugged, her baby daughter feels so warm in her arms, and she feels strong enough to do anything – but the next moment, it’s as though the solid ground has dissolved beneath her, and she’s fallen through empty air. And B knows what to do. B is going to run her a bath, and put her to bed, and take care of things. And L is going to let herself be taken care of. L is about to learn that she must fall apart to get strong again.

-       Firstly, mount the Peloton! Do you have your hydrating electrolyte sachet? If not, don’t worry. You can get a pack of 10 for just £79.99…

Do you mind? I’m a bit busy.

-       The secret to a good writing routine is knowing when to stop, so you can return to the work the next day.

…I wonder what’s going on with M, and those old school friends, or frenemies…

-       Don’t forget, use short sentences, but don’t be afraid to challenge your reader! Have a pint of whisky, like Hemingway! Go in a cryogenic chamber at 4AM, like Mark Wahlberg!

… … …

-       What stationery are you using? Have you got a special pen? Have you thought about your author photo lately?

That feels good. I’m tired now, but nice tired. More words than I thought. I’ll leave it there.

-       FINE! We’ll do it your way. Again.

We will. Same time tomorrow?

-       Sure. See you three hours after you said you’d turn up.