7 Useful Habits Used By Successful Writers

Do you want to make a living as a writer?

Not everyone online does, but writing skills are essential if you’re wanting to develop your own business online.

So, if you want to improve your ability to write, here are a few home truths and a short list of good habits that I hope, help you on your way.

Writing is a solitary pursuit. It can be a bit like long-distance running. To be a writer you can learn an enormous amount from other people, and then you’re on your own. You can get great feedback from other people, and what you decide to release to the world is up to you.

For the 1962 film “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” a subtitle on a poster was "You can play it by rules... or you can play it by ear—what counts is that you play it right for you!” This applies equally well to your writing.

Keep this in mind.

Now… I’m not what I’d call a successful writer yet… but I’m sure that day will come.

Here are seven habits every writer should take seriously. They’re all important, and not presented in any particular order of importance other than the first:

1. Write something every day…

This first point is obvious and simple, even if it's just a paragraph. This is one of the best habits for writers. It's easy to get sidetracked and only write when you have time, but writing regularly will help you build momentum and improve your overall productivity, from ideas through publication.

Try writing at different times of the day, figure out what the best times of day are for you, and use that knowledge to your advantage.

Also, if you’re having trouble writing every day, set yourself a target of just 10 minutes per day to get started. You’ll soon find yourself writing for more than 10 minutes. Then increase the target to 15 minutes. After a few months, you won’t need the challenge.

2. Read something every day

Developing a reading habit, whether it's books or articles, helps us write better and more confidently. Reading also stimulates new ideas. While reading, I make notes. Whether just to remember a learning point or to remind me later of an idea.

3. Look after your health

If you take writing half seriously or simply "get the bug" you’ll probably find yourself sitting at a desk for long hours. So eat well, sleep well, and exercise regularly! Your body will thank you for it later, and it will help you to focus for periods of time without feeling tired or drained.

Exercising regularly doesn’t necessarily mean going to the gym… In this case, it means regularly doing things other than just sitting. Perhaps 5 to 10 minutes each hour standing up, doing some stretches, perhaps a little housework, or just walking about.

Also, if you’ve been focusing on that close-up screen for the last 25 minutes (see point 3), deliberately focus your eyes on longer distances for a few minutes. Our eye muscles need exercise too.

Get outside for at least half an hour each day. Also, if you can, when writing, use a standing desk for some of the time. It all helps.

4. Focus…

Writing elicits intense focus. Consistently good writing requires intense focus. This has already been mentioned and mainly means avoiding distractions and knowing when to take a break. It’s kind of mixed up with looking after your health.

Avoiding distractions is largely about controlling your environment in such a way as to avoid anything that interrupts your focus.

This often means asking for cooperation from others around you. Of course, sometimes emergencies do happen… but most of the time, things can wait until you’re ready to handle them.

When it comes to taking breaks… Studies in the USA and German universities concluded that, on average, students are able to focus intensely on something for 22 minutes. They also found that short breaks lasting only 5 minutes or so led to a recovery of the ability to focus for another stretch.

Writers are perpetual students.

Personally, I use a free Pomodoro timer called Toggl (aka TogglTrack), which can be installed as a Chrome Browser extension and can be set up to show in the browser (of course) and in the main apps that I use. I set it to run for 25 minutes.

When it triggers a break, I do something completely different for 5 minutes or so then settle down for another 25 minutes of focus.

By doing that 6 times during the day, I get 3 hours of intense focus. It makes a real difference in what I get done. Please don’t think of this as time management. I’ve written about my thoughts on time management here. This is about managing priorities and energy levels.

Then there’s the 80/20 (Pareto Principle) to keep in mind… which in this case says that 80% of your work gets done in 20% of your time. The 80/20 figure isn’t scientific, but the principle is sound. For me, it might be 60/40; for you, it might be 90/10. It’s the quality of our focused time on whatever we’re trying to get done that leads to the benefits.

Also, a hidden message in the Pareto Principle is to avoid striving for perfection. If your ideas and energy are slowing down, don’t fight it for long, take a break, do something else, and perhaps stop writing for the day. Know when enough is enough. If later on, more ideas start coming to mind, make notes and start again the next day.

A key factor here is that when focus wanes, so does productivity. It’s time to take a break and do something else.

5. Get organised

Research, ideas, a plan of what to write, or at least knowing how you’ll decide what to write, etc. all need organising to avoid chaos. Keep all the bits and pieces together in one place so that you don't have to waste time looking for them later on down the line during writing, revising, or editing!

Also, find tools that you can use online or offline for gathering and organising information. As I’ve said a few times in posts, I use the Notion app online, and recently I’ve started to experiment with a new app called Xtiles that looks very promising as a writing tool.

6. Develop a writing process

and use it every time… We all have our own ways of doing things. But everyone goes through a similar high-level process from the inception of an idea through publication.

I’m sure my way is not the only way, by any means… Whatever steps you take, they are worth formalising and turning into a repeatable process. Here are the high-level steps I go through for blogging:

• Capturing ideas, keywords and relevant knowledge;
• Formulating ideas:
• Writing a draft;
• Editing copy;
• Adding media;
• Adding internal and external links;
• Publishing (immediately or on a schedule):
• Set up a review schedule.

Some of these steps are more complex than others.

What is most important is that you know what outcome you’re trying to achieve with the process, why you want it, what you’re doing that’s repeatable, and that it works for you.

This is about taking whatever actions help you best towards writing your masterpiece!

7. Write notes

Here, I’m not referring to writing big, awe-inspiring notes. I’ve already covered that enough in point one.

I’m referring to noting down ideas as they occur to you, the writer. I often have a notebook and pen handy and use an app on my iPhone for capturing those ideas that seem to just pop up, any time of day or night, and if not written down, quickly become elusive.

Whatever the idea is, I write it down. Many get discarded later and others are combined to make something different. They then get added to my Notion database if they’re not already there. What is important is to not lose them without a fight!

Conclusion

So there you have it. There are seven habits that can lead to success as a writer.

From these habits, you develop your own style.

In addition, persistence is a key personal skill. As with anything we want to achieve, we need to keep going until we get there.

Now it’s your turn… what works for you, what doesn't, what you've learned (if anything) and will you be doing anything differently in the future? Feel free to make comment. As ever, I look forward to the interactions.
:-)
Richard