After three weeks of sharing business tips from my new book The Writer’s Career Guide: How to Build a Sustainable Creative Life on Your Terms, you might be wondering: “But when do I actually write?”
That’s exactly what this post (and Chapter Seven of the book!) is about – building sustainable practices that support both your creativity and your career. Because all the business plans and marketing strategies in the world won’t matter if you burn out, lose your creative spark, or start to hate the very thing you once loved.
Let’s start by challenging one of the most common – and most damaging – pieces of writing advice out there and talk about what you should do instead if you want long-term, sustainable, abundant success as a creative.
Why “Write Every Day” Is Bad Advice
Once, I polled my audience on Facebook to ask them for their best piece of writing advice. Here’s the kind of bad advice people spewed back to me:
- “Touch your keyboard daily.”
- “Never let a day go by without writing.”
- “Write three pages every morning before breakfast.”
This advice, while well-intentioned, sets most writers up for failure. It makes us believe that to be a “real” writer, you must write every single day. That’s very much not the reality of the writers I know.
It also wasn’t the reality of the people giving that advice! When I followed up to ask, not a single person wrote every day – and most of them rarely wrote at all. They were regurgitating the bad advice they’d been given, advice that had paralyzed them in their own writing by valuing perfection (every day, not matter what) over progress.
We’ve been told our whole lives that repetitive habits are the key to a healthy, wealthy, and happy life. Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day to reduce decision fatigue. Michael Phelps eats the same pre-race meal. Stephen King reportedly writes thirty pages daily without fail. You can do it too! And if you don’t, then your just not disciplined enough for success.
But here’s what that advice ignores: these rigid routines often reek of privilege and don’t account for those of us who are neurodiverse, managing chronic illness, caring for family members, working multiple jobs, and/or navigating systemic barriers. (Not a coincidence it’s usually straight white, athletic, cis men with money or access to it touting the benefits of strict routines.)
And even if you had all the time, money, and privilege in the world, would you really want to do the same thing every single day? My creative ADHD heart dies a little every time I think about such a restrictive lifestyle.
The truth is rigidity kills creativity in most of us. Strict writing routines set you up to fail by:
- Punishing you if you miss a day
- Killing creativity by forcing sameness
- Ignoring your natural rhythms
This assembly-line approach to creativity comes straight from industrialization and capitalism. Yes, you can produce books like McDonald’s produces hamburgers, but is that really the creative life you want?
Instead of rigid routines, I encourage you instead to lean into building creative rituals.
The Power of Rituals
Unlike routines, rituals are acts of intention and connection. They spark creativity rather than forcing productivity. Think of the difference between grabbing the same coffee at the same cafe at the same time each morning (routine) versus sipping a specific tea while you journal, whatever time you get to it, and wherever you happen to be (ritual).
Rituals differ from routines in that they:
- Are an act of spiritual connection.
- Spark creative ideas.
- Have ease, simplicity, and joy in doing it.
- Are based in abundance instead of rigidity.
Think of training your brain like training a puppy. Taking the same walk down the same path every single day might work great at first, but the minute your dog sees a squirrel all bets are off.
For your brain – especially if it’s an ADHD brain like mine – the world is full of squirrels. Routines make you feel like you’ve failed if you got distracted, the shame or change of pace making it hard to come back to the task at hand. Rituals are built to remind you why you love being creative and support your brain in tapping into that part of yourself.
Rituals also allow you the flexibility to chase squirrels and see where they take you. My novel Because Fat Girl was a squirrel – an idea that kept distracting me while I was working on another book. If I had been strict and “disciplined” I would have finished the depressing book I was trying to write at the time, instead of the joyful book I ended up needing to write – and tens of thousands of people (and more every day!) needed to read.
Some examples of writing rituals I love that boost your creativity and feel flexible and abundant:
- Lighting a candle before opening your laptop.
- Taking yourself on weekly creative dates.
- Walking in nature with a voice recorder.
- Reading in your favorite café.
- Visiting museums with your journal.
- Creating a cozy nook that you go to when it’s time to be creative.
- Doing a quick meditation or movement exercise before you begin writing.
Notice how these activities fill your creative bucket rather than depleting it. They center presence and joy rather than productivity. Most importantly, they’re sustainable because they’re flexible, easy and enjoyable.
Rituals should refill your creative bucket, not add to your to-do list.
When you’re creatively exhausted, you need to focus on input, not output. Instead of forcing yourself to produce more, more, more, ask yourself:
- What fills my creative well?
- When do I feel most inspired?
- What environments spark my creativity?
- How can I make this process more enjoyable?
- What would make me excited to write?
You can use rituals to train your brain to be creative too!
A few months ago, I realized whenever I smell coffee, I want to write. I’m a tea drinker, and the only time I’m around coffee is when I go to a café to write. That means for decades I was inadvertently training my brain to associate the smell of coffee with writing.
Recently, I started making coffee at home to test this theory, and sure enough, I make a small moka pot of coffee and instantly want to write. Sometimes I don’t even drink it, just smell it! The same thing happens with journaling and peppermint tea, my morning ritual for years. It doesn’t matter where I am or what time of day it is, I can smell coffee and want to write, or sip peppermint tea and want to journal.
That’s the power of rituals.
So let go of the concept of a strict routine and lean into abundant rituals that make you feel creative.
For more help on how to make money as a writer without burning out or sacrificing your values, grab a copy of my book The Writer’s Career Guide: How to Build a Sustainable Creative Life on Your Terms today.
