Writing Routine

Writing Routine - Theodore Meyer

The Routine: One Small Step at a Time

For many years, while still working as a lawyer, my writing routine was the same: work at least one hour a day on my novel.

As it turns out, one hour a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year is the equivalent of nine forty-hour workweeks (plus five hours). In other words, it’s a meaningful amount of time.

Most of The Thread was written using this schedule. The hour could be spent on research, outlining, writing a chapter, or proofreading. Ultimately, the particular task mattered less. The important part was that I consistently put in sixty minutes a day of completely focused work dedicated to moving the book forward.

Complete Focus

What do I mean by complete focus? I mean setting a timer, putting your phone on Do Not Disturb, and focusing only on the task at hand. Being familiar with the legal field’s fixation on billable hours that accrue in ten- or fifteen-minute increments helped, but the concept is straightforward. If I needed to stand up and get a drink, I stopped the clock until I was back at my desk and refocused. If I needed to go to the bathroom, I turned off the timer until I returned. I even kept a spreadsheet where I logged my hours. While I appreciate that might be a bit much for some people, it kept me accountable and, like an exercise log, felt good to look at after the fact.

Of course, life inevitably took over at times or I needed time away from the book to reset. That was fine. I just made sure to make up the hours missed, and I never let the deficit get too high.

Timing

Time of day has a meaningful impact on the quality of my creative work. For me, early mornings and late afternoons are best. Perhaps it’s the liminal light of sunrise and sunset that sparks something in me—I’m not sure—but I’m most productive then. By contrast, my least productive time is around noon. Indeed, I’ve always experienced an energetic and creative lull in the middle of the day. Knowing that, I try to schedule more mundane tasks during those hours.

Dipping Into the Stream

I think of creativity as a constantly flowing stream I can dip into. Sometimes I have a delicate fine mesh that picks up the tiniest flecks of gold, other times it’s a wider and stronger net that snags a whole log. Things big and small are always tumbling along. Occasionally an idea sticks around, like a trout holding in an eddy, almost demanding my attention. Any of them could be great, or all of them could be garbage. I never know what I’m going to catch. The important part is that I keep dipping in.

If after a year I’ve made three hundred sixty-five attempts, I know I’ll have more worthwhile ideas than if I’d only dipped in twenty times because I was waiting for inspiration or suffering from writer’s block. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t always feel like sitting down and putting in the time. Creative endeavors can be maddening and dispiriting. But like working out, once I’ve started moving, it’s usually not that bad. Indeed, it’s often great and I’m always glad I did it.

Consistency, for me, has always been the hardest part.

Writing a novel was daunting. But taking it on in small increments, only focusing on my next step rather than the distant goal, made it not only manageable but enjoyable.