(bright music) - [Abby] What's up my friend? Abby here, and welcome back
to Writer's Life Wednesdays. Today, I thought I would share something a little different with
you in honor of NaNoWriMo, but also, because I get a
lot of writers asking me, Abby, what does your
writing routine look like? And I've never made a video about it, so in this video, I'm going to take you through my writing routines
and what they look like. I say routines, because
I actually have three, a morning writing routine,
an afternoon writing routine, and a nighttime writing routine. Since I obviously can't
write all day long, I have to choose a window of time that's going to work best for me. At first glance, it
might look like I don't have a writing routine because
I don't write every day, and certainly not at
the same time every day, but if you look closely, there actually is a method to my madness. I like to schedule my writing
time one day in advance, so I'll sit down at the end
of the day and ask myself, when am I going to have the opportunity to write undisturbed tomorrow? I reflect upon my priorities, and if I'm working on a
project that's time-sensitive, that project will take priority in my day. This sounds bad, but I
never consider writing a priority project. It's extremely important to me, obviously, but there has never been a
serious consequence tomorrow if I don't write today, and that's how I determine
what I work on first. I ask myself, will there be
any consequences tomorrow if I don't get this thing done today? If I don't have a priority project, or if I'm just ahead of schedule on my projects that have deadlines, I will make time for
writing in the morning. Obviously, I could just
write for an hour or two on pretty much any given morning, and then have a hard stop and
go work on my other projects, but I don't like to have a
predetermined cutoff time when it comes to writing, because if I'm on a roll and I'm in that deep trance-like state, I don't want anything to disrupt me, not to mention I find it really hard to transition from my fictional
world to the real world. So if I carve out time
in the morning to write, I want to make sure that
I have the opportunity to write literally all
morning undisturbed. (bright music) On a writing morning,
I'll be very intentional about what information
I take in first thing. I usually wake up between
seven and 8:00 AM, do some really quick skincare, and get moving with a little
bit of qigong or stretching. Then I go downstairs for my
first essential cup of tea and my non-negotiable
quality time with my family. That usually lasts about an
hour, then I get to work. If I'm writing, I will go
straight to my computer, and the first thing I
do is turn on Downtime, which is a feature in Mac that limits your use of applications. I obviously don't use it as downtime, I use it as writing time, so I'll set the limiter for something like 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and only allow Scrivener and Spotify to
work during these hours. This is one of my secret
weapons for staying focused. Sometimes I want to pop open the internet just for a second to look something up, but then my limiter will remind me that I'm not supposed to
be using the internet. If I really need to look something up, I'll unlock the app for one minute and do my search lightning
fast, then get back to writing. My other must haves for writing are my noise canceling headphones,
my instrumental playlist, and of course, lots of tea. Around mid morning, I'll usually pause to make myself something special, like a chai latte or a London fog. If I can avoid all distractions
and get in the zone, I'll usually be able to
write around 3000 words. It really depends on the writing project and how much source material
I prepared ahead of time. As I talked about in my recent
video on writing faster, it really helps if I have source material, like entire conversations
written ahead of time so that I can just write
the scene around it or embellish rough ideas and make them fit smoothly into my narrative. (keyboard clacking) (piano music) If I don't have time to
write in the morning, I'll opt for the afternoon. Sometimes there are just
too many other projects demanding my attention and I can't escape into a fictional world
however much I might want to. If that's the case, I'll
plan my work for the day so that I can be finished with
everything by three o'clock. That's when I shift from my
productive boss lady mindset to my creative artist mindset. This shift isn't easy, so I
have to take physical steps to redirect my focus. The first thing I do
is get rid of my phone. For me, shifting to creativity is all about blocking out the real world and stepping into my fictional world. I find that movement also really helps me to break free from the work mode, so I'll take a little time to either do a refreshing yoga practice or dance to some of my favorite music. I also like to physically
change my location. So if I've been working in my dining room, I'll move upstairs to my
bedroom and vice versa. I really love being in
my cozy writing nook because it's nice and quiet, plus I have my aesthetic board, my cute little plants, my oil diffuser. It all sets a really lovely
atmosphere for being creative. I can usually write
about 2000 to 3000 words in four hours if I'm not interrupted, and again, I mitigate those interruptions by first letting everyone
know that I'm writing and I need to be left alone, and then making sure I
don't distract myself with the internet. Another thing that really
helps me to stay in the zone is listening to ambient soundscapes. One of my favorite websites
is ambient-mixer.com, which has a huge catalog of
soundscapes for every genre. I usually take a soundscape template, and then make it my own by
mixing in new sound effects and creating the perfect atmosphere to match the scene I'm working on. Paired with some instrumental music that matches the emotion
of the scene I'm writing, it creates such an immersive
writing experience. If I'm writing in the afternoon,
I don't set a cutoff time. I just write until it's
time to go make dinner or take my dog out for a walk. Unless I'm really in the zone, I typically don't write for
more than four hours at a time. I find that's when my
mental clarity starts to go, so I like to stop before
I'm too burnt out. (groovy music) I'll be honest, some
days, I don't get to write in the morning or the afternoon, I'm just too busy working
on other projects, and the day slips away before I know it, but that doesn't mean I can't
get any writing time in. Actually, sometimes I
prefer to write at night. My work is over for the day
and my mind is too exhausted to get distracted on
business related things, but sometimes, creativity
flourishes in fatigue. When I'm not 100% alert, my inner critic just
kind of takes a back seat and I can write without
taking myself too seriously. Granted, sometimes, I
write way messier at night, but I try to listen to my creativity. A lot of times I get
into a really creative head space at night. The high energy of the
day has mellowed down, and the world is quiet. There are no distractions
and no interruptions, especially after everyone
else goes to bed. Sometimes, I'll stay up
till one or two o'clock in the morning writing if
I have the energy for it, I write in bed so that when I'm too tired to keep my eyes open a moment longer, I can just close the
laptop and go to sleep. I certainly don't do this every night, only the nights when I feel like writing and my head is too full
of ideas to go to sleep. I know I'll be lying awake
thinking about my story anyways, so I figure it's smarter to just write while I feel inspired. Okay, boom, that's it. Those are my three go-to writing routines. And like I said before, I will alternate between these routines depending on what I
have going on that day, and also, depending on how much energy and inspiration I have. I hope you enjoyed this peek
into my daily writing life. If you did, hit that Like button,
(buttons clicking) and also be sure to
subscribe to this channel for more videos like this one. Also, comment below and tell me what your writing routine looks like. I'd love to hear all about it. Until next week, my friend,
happy writing and rock on. (upbeat music)
