5 Ways to Create a Writing Habit | #NaNoWriMo2020

we're sisters best friends and authors on a mission to help you stoke your creative fire and live the life of your dreams we believe that purpose fuels passion and that creativity is your secret weapon for mass construction there's never been a better time to bless the world with your dream realized you're listening to the kate and abby show what's up guys welcome back to the kate and abby show this is episode 25. super stoked to have you back here with us again it is preptober otherwise known as october but known as preptober to most writers who are participating in nanowrimo which is national novel writing month for those of you who don't know what that is or have been living under a rock it's national novel writing month next month in november which means october is for a lot of writers all about prepping to write a novel in the month of november so if you fall into this category and you're prepping a novel for november to write in november then our podcast today is for you okay it's going to be all about finding time to write but also about making a habit of writing a daily habit and what are the things that we can do what are the steps that we can take to implement a habit in our lives that we will stick to and keep coming back to consistently okay so we're gonna talk about that today um and all of the methods that we personally find very helpful all the techniques that we find helpful to create and keep with a habit of writing whether it sounds good daily or weekly but in the case of nanowrimo it's going to be daily if you're doing that so let's start by talking about something that we kicked off our entire uh show with way back when uh the first episode ever one of my favorite topics yeah was about digital minimalism so that might come as a surprise to some people who are like wait what does that have to do with making a habit of writing but it's really at the center of everything it is in today's world in today's digital era it is a big part of our lives it is like why don't you kick off talking about how digital minimalism helps you in your writing life so digital minimalism helps me in every area of my life i practice minimalism in every area of my life not just digital minimalism but digital minimalism alone is enough to help you just get leaps and bounds ahead of where you would be if you are constantly distracted by technology um and not just technology alone but the demands that are placed on you via technology so emails phone calls text messages notifications from social media etc etc etc and i think that as entrepreneurs small business owners writers anyone who's involved with you know needing to use technology for work or for their business then that can be sometimes hard because you need to have a phone you need to have these things so that you you can be available for communication but i think it's also important to set boundaries for ourselves so that we're not having our sacred time being constantly invaded upon and what do i mean by sacred time i mean that your time writing is sacred and your creativity your creative time your your designated time to be creative should be just that it should be a designated time to be creative in which you don't allow phones and social media and all these things that are highly distracting to just butt in whatever they want to to grab your attention whenever they want to i talked about this recently in a video i uploaded called life without a phone and i i talked about how several years back i remember i used to always have my phone right next to me while i was writing and every time i go off i would pick it up and look at it and looking back now i'm like i can't even fathom writing like that because i don't ever do that now um i i rarely have my phone next to me and if it's in the same room as me it's on mute or it's turned off um typically it's turned off for weeks at a time until i actually need it for traveling because it's i think it's safe to go if you're going out you should have a way to communicate with someone but other than that i i don't live with the phone and i won't go into that too much because you can go watch the video but for your writing time you shouldn't have a phone you you shouldn't have those constant notifications butting in and interrupting your time because you really can't multitask that's been kind of scientifically proven that you're not giving it your full focus so if you you're looking at your phone looking at your phone writing your book you're dividing your focus now right yeah and i know that you have you're a great example of you don't completely not use a phone like i do you still use a phone but you have a lot of good boundaries set in place for yourself so what is like the opposite end of that spectrum it's if you're not going to completely not have a phone or not use a phone at all but you want to have a phone you want to have it available or you need to so how do you handle that yeah i think you pretty much said it that it's about setting boundaries um for sure whether that's actual app limiters which you can do um on your phone to limit your use of a certain app if you know that you get super distracted on instagram or youtube or something you can limit your time in those apps and the app will shut off after a certain amount of time which um it will help you to stay off of that app and also when you go in that app you'll be thinking about how okay i have a limited amount of time here what do i really want to spend my time looking at like do i want to just be scrolling my feed or do i want to take some time to maybe answer comments on my posts or do something more meaningful with that time um same with like youtube if you're watching a youtube video like is this really the video that you would watch if you could only watch one so setting boundaries like that and limiting your time um that you spend getting distracted i think can really be beneficial and one of the things that i do is i do always have my phone on and i'm always using it every day for work stuff um but i usually don't have it next to me so that's one of the things about um the digital minimalism for me is taking making sure that you are very mindful about what you're inviting into your writing space so the phone is one of those things that just does not get invited to the writing space if i need to use it when i'm writing um i i never need to use it when i'm writing but if i need to use it like if i need to stop writing and go use it for some reason like go and call somebody or check some kind of message it's nearby it's in another room but it's not right next to me it's not within arm's length of me and i think that that is really important to just be mindful of what you're inviting into your writing space because that can really help you to build a healthy habit around your writing yeah like what you put in your space which actually kind of leads us into one of the other things that we're going to discuss about creating a habit for writing is making a designated space for writing which is one of those things that really encourages you to actually sit down every day and write if you have a designated space to write in rather than just oh i write anywhere i write everywhere you know right which i know you have a space you've made a space to write you made a video recently about that right i did yeah um about making a cozy writing nook yeah check that one out yeah that was good that was a fun video i got a lot of great feedback on because i think a lot of people a lot of writers are wondering like how do i make an inviting space that is going to ignite my creativity and make me want to write not just like oh you know sit down at the kitchen table right exactly and maybe you're you're maybe your parent or maybe you live with your family and there's a lot of chaos maybe you share a living space and it's just kind of like i feel like this isn't really my own i think a lot of parents listening can i know we both got message from a lot of moms and dads who are like you know i have to leave my house so i can get some work done so i think it's important to make a space that's like it's your own yeah for sure and that's just like one of the things that is really essential with creating a habit is making it attractive to you something that you want to go and do and so what are the things that you can do to make it attractive and um this is actually perfect time to mention this book which i love so much i actually want to reread it which is atomic habits by james clear and this is just a great book filled with all kinds of awesome advice on how to create great habits that you can really manage very easily and stick to and the thing that he talks about that i find really interesting in this book is how he talks about the four laws of behavior change which are making it the first law is making it obvious the thing you want to do the second law is making it attractive the third law is making it easy and the fourth law is making it satisfying and i feel like those things can apply to literally anything you want to do but especially writing when you think about it in the in the realm of writing like what will get me to sit down and write well how can you make it more attractive how can you make it easy how can you make it obvious and how can you make it satisfying those are things that i've asked myself and one of the things that kind of dawned on me during this whole whole explanati exploration of uh building healthy habits is really what your brain wants to take the path the path of least resistance that's kind of your default everybody's brain has that default it doesn't matter how hard working you are i talk about this on my channel all the time the pain versus pain thing for your characters is that your brain will always be like what's the least painful option and that's the root of all procrastination right so when you want to procrastinate on something it's because that isn't really a pressing thing right now and it's more attractive to not do the thing than it is to do the thing so how can we reverse that how can we make it more attractive to sit down and write every day and less attractive to not do that in fact painful to not do that or harder to not do that so i think that we can use these laws of behavior change to build this habit of writing every day in a way that's constructive and doesn't feel like we're forcing ourselves to do it but we actually want to do it so making the writing space the designated writing space i think is a big part of that because if you have a special place to go even if it's just a corner of a room that you you know are repurposing into a little office like making a special place that you go every time you sit down to write and making that the only place that you write even um can really help to just lay down that path in your brain of this is what i'm doing every day i'm going and writing in this place and space and i'm making it attractive right so that it's actually appealing to me to go sit down and right there you know exactly yeah i think that's a huge um component of it because if you have a space that you really don't like being in or it's just uncomfortable or it's kind of just like you're not feeling it you're not going to be like i can't wait to go sit down there and write yeah you're not going to want to if it's especially for me um personally um i love minimal spaces so much and i'm so used to them now that clutter really bothers me so if i sit down in a cluttered space i find that i'm way less inspired and i just don't really want to work in it so i i try to take a few minutes every morning before i sit down to write to declutter the space and just tidy make it like super appealing be thoughtful and mindful of what you're bringing into the space i usually um on like a typical morning before i get into my writing or even my work um it can apply to that as well i like turn on my salt lamp put some oil in my diffuser i'm thoughtful going about what type of oil and what kind of energy i want to be bringing into space if it's something more lively if it's something more calming i bring like you know some objects that i find calming or peaceful into the space so i really like curate it and make it like you know i want it to look like something that i would see in like you know a yoga magazine or something you know and something inviting that makes me like oh i can't wait to sit down there and write so that's i think really important even though it sounds like it's just a minor um aesthetic detail it really plays a big role in whether or not you're going to want to spend time in that space writing your book right yeah yeah and that's like one of the things is um taking bringing things into your space that spark creativity right um whether that is you know even just an oil diffuser salt lamp or um even things that visually inspire you for the story that you're writing like an aesthetic board a vision board um something like that uh and also digital spaces like in your scrivener um customizing your scrivener to be more appealing to what you're writing which by the way um there's gonna be some cool stuff about scrivener on my channel very soon hint hint but just very cool stuff i've had a sneak preview it's gonna be awesome making things that are um just creating this space in your mind even that is inviting more creativity sparking more creativity um and also a big part of keeping a habit or making a writing habit is of course finding the time to do that finding the time every day to write so let's say you have the space you have the motivation you have the energy you have all the appealing attractive things that make you want to go and write but you feel like you don't ever have the time to write how do you find the time to write that's the big question and one of the one of the answers to that is first of all it's the wrong question you will never find time to write underscore defined you will never find it you have to make it okay it's not going to fall out of the sky into your lap so how do you make time to write how do you make time to write um i make time to write by prioritizing it above other things i would say would be the simplest answer i try to identify anything that i'm doing that is useless especially we often do things that aren't even good they're not even good for us we're like doing these stupid things that it's like you know okay i'm wasting time looking at a click bait article why am i doing this this isn't going to help me i don't need to know these five foods that most doctors rip their hair out over i don't need to do so identify small things that added on those no i think maybe one time it really depends if it's like really nerdy health article i might click on it if it looks super spammy i'm gonna be like uh yeah yeah so but like you know it represents right wasted time yeah yeah you know or the youtube i think i feel like youtube is a slippery slope for a lot of people that it's like yeah you go down this rabbit hole like oh that sounds like an interesting video and it's like not even something that you would be interested in at any other time of the day except when you're trying to procrastinate doing something else that's very true that is one that sometimes proves to be a distraction for me because even though i don't use social media at all everyone's always like you say you don't use social media how come you're on social media it's like i i use i use it like a third-party app on my computer to post things but i do go on youtube sometimes because there's some like teaching channels that i love to watch and learn from and i think that if we can use social media in a constructive way to learn new things and be inspired that's great but but there's a time and place but there's a time and place for that yes and like when you're you're like oh there's a little lull and i'm making a cup of coffee and oh look so and so just uploaded a shiny new video it's only 12 minutes long i was literally about to say 12 minutes that is crazy i was literally going to say 12 minutes wow that's so good oh man we're on the same wavelength wow so then it's like that one that's like oh i want to see that other one she referenced that video which i should really watch too and then before you know what a half an hour has gone by this is exactly what i hope people do on my channel by the way yeah exactly although your passion to do it might actually uh help encourage someone to get back on writing that's true that's true i've had a lot of people comment and say that they're inspired to write after watching my videos so so that's that's good that's good on you so yeah i think that identify the things that okay i'm procrastinating detach look at what you're doing and is it a waste of time can it be done later yeah then then then stop doing that thing and then there's your writing time yeah and actually like in that same vein you can do this with literally everything and even your interactions with people and it can sound a little bit brutally honest sometimes but you don't don't even care about what they think of you ask yourself this question about everything you do especially like learning something on youtube or even researching something for your book asking yourself do i need to know this right now yeah usually the answer is no i even say this in interactions with people if somebody's telling me too much information i'm like do i need to know this right now and then i'll usually be like well no you don't now this isn't like in this isn't in like you know personal conversations that i'm just chilling and having fun with somebody obviously that would be pretty the entire day rude i was out at the grocery store and you weren't going to know this right now no bye no i don't do that i don't do it like that i'm talking about like business stuff okay so like work related stuff someone's just like info dumping on me telling me about like you know all these different things going on i'll be like okay do i need to know this right now right and the answer is usually no because if you don't filter that at all you get overwhelmed right and same with like youtube videos so you might be watching something that's like really educational and good like about you know how to do something that you normally do in your life um or how to make five different flavors of overnight oats yeah sure but you're not making overnight oats right now so do you need to know this right now no no you can save it for later that night when you maybe are gonna make some overnight oats for the next morning right yeah like so that makes more sense to do it that way and it's also just i feel like it makes you live more in the present because you're not like getting distracted on a bunch of different topics you're like okay i'm writing right now i don't need to know other things right now exactly you know yeah exactly and that's 100 the best writing moods that i get in when i like really get in like get on a roll with writing it's like nothing else exists and nothing else matters yeah so kind of like creating that beforehand of like eliminating other things other things don't need to exist right now and nothing else matters right and then maybe you'll get into that really good state of flow where you're writing you're on a roll and nothing else exists right like that deep that place of deep focus yeah um it's funny because overnight oats was on my mind as you were talking because i was thinking about how another thing and i think a lot of people will will be able to relate to this i find that making meals takes up a huge amount of my time um when i don't have anything prepped for food and i get up and i'm hungry now i have to like figure out what i'm gonna make myself for breakfast go about like making my morning smoothie or whatever else i'm gonna have or oh what am i gonna have for lunch usually that involves a bunch of things um it's very time consuming that's like at least an hour and a half of my day so if you can meal prep and do that like batch it meal prep ahead of time that's what i was thinking overnight oh it's because i when i want to get my morning going quick i make overnight oats the night before so i don't have to think about breakfast at all all i do is grab my jar oh here's my breakfast now i can go right now like well what am i gonna make for breakfast and then i have to clean everything and especially if you have a family or a spouse or someone else that you're cooking for and then you have to consider all that so if you can prep those things ahead of time then that's like probably at least an hour of your day that's now freed up right yeah no that's that's a great thought meal prep is definitely something that will save you a ton of time and yeah i think just prioritizing your writing and especially during like a challenge like nanowrimo like treat it like a job make take it seriously and realize that you know for this month or for this period of time you've decided to prioritize your writing and make it really important to and um it's okay to put other things off to the back burner for now and tell people that right now i'm focusing on writing this book or meeting this challenge or at least writing this many words this month right um and yeah just show up for yourself yeah 100 so yeah i think that like pretty much covers it it does like we're trying to keep it minimal here yeah with a minimalist theme minimalist making here's a few things yeah it's really just really just a few things and you don't have to do like there's so little involved with you actually doing something here it's mostly mental it's mostly a mental game um it's a mindset and the more you can simplify the better because then that's that's that's helping to aid you in not procrastinating and just like stacking all these things in front of writing which can often happen yeah and a lot of times you think that you're just preparing and um prepping for your writing but really it's it's become procrastination because you've been preparing for so long and it's kind of like superfluous at some point so so you want to just do the bare essentials okay exactly just as much as you need to do and then sit down and start writing yeah so yeah hopefully those are some habits that will help you or tips that will help you to build better habits that you can stick to remember make it attractive make it easy make it obvious make it satisfying that's another thing reward yourself for a good writing day or even just sitting down and writing anything reward yourself with something that you love to do whether it's i postponed watching that video on youtube yeah or it's some other way that you like to treat yourself to something that is good for you and nourishing and satisfying so definitely keep that in mind as well um that's something that i do for writing but i also like to try to make the writing process as appealing as possible so as attractive as you can make that the more attractive the better the more things you can pair with it that are really enjoyable like making a nice cozy writing nook making a cup of tea lighting a candle doing things that are really relaxing and fun make it more fun right because it creates that association in your mind yeah it's like oh writing i associate with a cozy cup of tea by the window with a nice smelling candle so even now when you smell that candle when it's not burning you're going to think oh i want to write exactly because you're associating those two things now if you make writing like kind of a miserable task where you're like i have to do this and you're at your kitchen table and your kids are like running around yelling and you're like oh like that's not gonna you're not gonna want to do that again so make it something that as soon as you think you're writing you're like like the what is it the glade commercial yeah i think it is yeah everyone's like oh the candle this is all the candles you want to be like those those what is it that uh lint chocolate yeah like the lady bites the truffle and it's just like oh she goes paradise yeah paradise for like a minute that's what you want your writing time to be you want to be a lint truffle yeah so make it that exactly you can for sure but yeah so those are our best tips for keeping a writing habit this november or if you're preparing for nanowrimo um or even riding before nanowrimo anytime place that's how to keep a good habit of writing our best tips for it yep so if you enjoyed this episode share it with a writer buddy especially one who is going to embark on nanowrimo this year and um also if you're on just listening to the podcast on spotify or something like that check out the youtube version the video version which is on kate's youtube channel which is youtube.comkms and check out my channel which is youtube.com abbyemens and if you are interested in supporting the show and getting behind the scenes content check out our patreon patreon.com the kate and abby show and you can support us there but as always a great way to support us is to just share the podcast with a friend so yeah that's it for us until next week rock on and stay stoked

Channel: K.A. Emmons

Views: 5,154

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Id: 17LSU2CXneo

Length: 27min 6sec (1626 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 05 2020