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Authors who proved why having a routine is vital
Are you often feeling fresh when writing?
When 9–5 workers consider having a job as a writer, it seems like a dream come true. An occupation where you can have all the time you want and be able to go anywhere around the world just to get inspiration.
If you’ve been writing for a while though, it isn’t always this dreamy vision. The reality often includes:
- Bleary eyes
- Strained neck
- “Debilitating back pain”
Yet, there is a way you can have a reality close to the vision I described in the opening sentence. And that’s by having the right routine.
Break down your sessions
Concentration is great and all, but not in the ways that these authors did.
In fact, deep work is often essential in order to be in tune with what you’re writing about. Though there’s a fine line between working productively and working painfully, which is something that Herman Melville experienced as he struggled with eye strain and debilitating back pain when writing your favorite “whale book.” You know, Moby Dick?
His wife even said, “this constant working of the brain, & excitement of the imagination, is wearing Herman out… [He is] toiling early & late at his literary labors & hazarding his health.”
If you’re really invested in a novel though, what can you do better?
Well, as I’ve concluded from the book Second Brain, you need ammunition by connecting ideas, letting them incubate, and having a deep well to take from. This seems complex, but it includes the same advice you’ve probably heard from productivity gurus:
- Taking walks
- Time blocking your day
- Having a second brain to jot ideas in
Maybe if people in Melville’s era had better access to these technologies, or in whatever way Melville was lacking, he would have had a clearer frame of mind when writing.
Lay off the caffeine
Did you know that caffeine poisoning is a thing?
Well I didn’t know that until today. As the Literary Hub mentions,
“Honoré de Balzac was famously addicted to coffee, which he loved for what it did for his writing.” He even, “(resorted) to eating cold coffee grounds on an empty stomach for maximum effect”.
If you’re like me, do you relate to the mid-day nausea after having coffee, making you feel like grabbing a snack?
As Balzac very poetically describes the feeling here,
“This coffee falls into your stomach, a sack whose velvety interior is lined with tapestries of suckers and papillae. The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god; it brutalizes these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain.”
While coffee is great to keep awake, if you’re like Balzac who has maybe more than 50 coffees a day, not only will your wallet feel lighter, but it’s an unexpected way to sleep tight.
Even though Coffee keeps us awake and helps us creatively, like our last point, everything needs to be in moderation to be done right.
As I highlight in this article, having coffee after 3 hours will keep you balanced and hopefully A-OK when it comes to your “velvety interior.”
Takeaway
The authors I quoted from the Literary Hub includes many more examples that might be worth a read if you’re curious.
Writing has a way of keeping us addicted. In a way, it’s like its own drug when it comes to putting our thoughts down on the page. But by breaking down your sessions, laying off the coffee, and incorporating other methods best for your situation, you can keep the dream of writing for a living alive n’ well.
All it takes is adding a method to your routine little by little until you find your sweet spot.
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