1. Preparation

I set out a glass of water for myself, set my alarm, and make sure my tea kettle is full. Usually, I even put the teabag in the mug the night before. 

All of this feels like self-care, and it is. 

I am thinking ahead to what will make this process smoother, understanding myself and my own resistance and ensuring my ritual of creative exploring is protected. (I’m also doubling the good vibes by adding the drinking water habit to my routine. Bonus health points!)

Maybe I will get some words in. Maybe I’ll outline a new idea. Maybe I’ll read Rumi, sip my hot Chai tea and watch the darkness outside my window lighten while an idea percolates. The point is: this creative ritual opens the space for more.

2. Play for Creative Payouts

Writing can be serious business—if you’re a journalist covering the local crime beat or an essayist trying to communicate an urgent global crisis. But for most of us, this isn’t going to get us out of bed in the morning. 

Our creative ritual needs to be something we look forward to. 

You might save the world with your writing, but let’s first save your motivation to get in the chair. I am here to remind you that this writing thing is supposed to be fun. You’ll have to trust me that if you’re having fun, you’re more likely to keep coming back for more. There is no guilt or shame in this, only acceptance. 

Leave the drudgery and rules and expectations and disappointments for the day job.

3. Plan Your Creative Space

The space where we write needs to be thought out too. This creative ritual is like making a date with your inner artist. Where does she want to be? 

Try asking yourself, what do I need to do to take that corner of the house for myself? 

You might need to move the kid’s homework desk or insist someone else make space for you. You don’t need to be published or be making millions of dollars to do this. 

It is your inalienable human right to pursue what makes you happy. And if you can’t carve out a physical space to do that in your own home, what hope do you have of taking up enough space to get a book written? 

Take the space. Make it yours. I use plants, trinkets from trips that inspire me, candles, and even the artwork around my desk to make me happy and ready to enact my creative ritual. 

You’d be surprised how quickly those minutes and hours become so life-giving and affirming you can’t imagine what dry, boring life you were living before this practice, this creative ritual.

4. Pick A Reward

We need to celebrate the wins. Every. Small. Win. 

Did you show up for yourself and your writing today? Amazing. For fun, make a list of ways you can celebrate. A hot bath, a movie, a cupcake from that fancy place around the corner. 

You deserve it. It doesn’t have to cost money. In fact, it’s better when it doesn’t.

Let me give you fair warning; you’re going to want to skip the celebration. It’s going to feel silly and selfish and indulgent. It isn’t. It’s an integral part of keeping this creative ritual promise to yourself. 

Don’t believe me? Here is a quick Youtube clip from BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything.

5. Iterate

You’ve got a nice cozy creative ritual established, you look forward to that special time, and that’s usually when the poo hits the fan. It’s okay. Let that poo hit. That’s just a plot twist. 

Even though I write at other times of the day, the early morning is where I have found the most consistency. Do you know why? The poo usually doesn’t hit until the world wakes up. Between 5 and 6 am, the world is usually poo-less. Unless you have a baby in diapers, then all bets are off. 

As I write this, my little one has come out of his room because he’s woken early and wants his mama. Instead of finishing this article before the world woke up, I’m cuddling a toddler back to sleep. What can you do? 

Life doesn’t go according to plan, and neither will your writing life. 

The point is, you keep trying. Keep iterating, keep protecting this life-giving practice not because you think it will make you money (boring!) but because you can know yourself and the world in no better way than to have a consistent creative ritual in your life.

As usual, Elizabeth Gilbert says it best:

A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

Tell us in the comments: How have you built a creative ritual around your writing?

Angela Yeh is an East Coast Canadian native that lives and works in the great state of Texas. Angela is a black belt wanna-be who loves to garden, write about magic, and eat cake. Her debut YA fantasy novel, A Phoenix Rises, is a finalist in the Dante Rossetti Book Awards for Young Adult Fiction. She lives with her husband, two lovely human children, and three cranky fur babies. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram or on her website.

The post #5onFri: Five Ways to Develop a Creative Ritual You’ll Want to Keep appeared first on DIY MFA.

Even the process of carefully hand-writing these stories in a spiral-bound notebook was deeply satisfying—I loved finding just the right words in my growing vocabulary to describe the scenes I imagined.

Writing was a blast!

Middle school Jessie would be thrilled to know that adult Jessie makes a living writing. But I bet she’d be mystified to hear me say that some days it’s kind of a slog. 

Losing the Joy

Sometimes, in my quest to become a more “productive” and “serious” writer, I end up losing the joy. I know I’m not alone—so many of the conversations I have with writer friends revolve around our frustrations with the writing process, rather than the joy we get out of it.

That’s such a shame, especially because so many of the external writing rewards fall into other people’s hands: Will an agent pick this book up? Will readers like it? Will it find an audience?

The only thing you have much control over in the publishing journey is your writing process. And if you’re going to be spending so many days and months and years in the act of writing, why not find some joy in it?

If you’ve been feeling frustrated with your writing more often than not, I encourage you to start experimenting to see where you can tease out more joy. I guarantee when you’re having more fun writing, you’ll start to see improvements in productivity, too!

Experiment with finding space

Writing may seem like a primarily mental act, but we perform it in a physical space—and that space can make the difference between a fun writing day and a frustrating one. 

Having a dedicated workspace is a total luxury, especially in these last few years when many of us (and our partners and families) are working and studying from home instead of in the offices we used to go to before the pandemic. But you can still experiment with manipulating your physical space in order to make that creative energy flow. 

What do you hear while you’re trying to work? If it’s distracting, can you use white noise, music, or noise-canceling headphones to block it out?

What do you see when you look up from your computer or notepad? Is it stacks of unpaid bills, your to-do list, a messy living room? Even if you’re not consciously thinking about those things, your brain is wasting energy blocking them out. Remove distractions from your line of sight, try writing from a coffee shop, or put up a screen to separate you from the chaos around you.

Try a standing desk or a treadmill desk. Try dictating while you walk around the neighborhood. Try writing from the couch, or on the front porch. Even if your writing space only consists of a laptop and the seat you’re sitting in—play with it!

Experiment with ritual

Our willpower is weak, which is why we can easily find ourselves defaulting to a bad habit when we encounter a trigger. For example, I irresistibly want to buy Lindt chocolate whenever I’m in line at the fabric store.

Use that tendency for good by creating writing triggers that can help you get into the creative groove more quickly. 

Ritual is a good way to trigger your brain into writing mode. Light a candle or brew a cup of special tea. Do a short meditation, or go for a walk around the block. Turn on music or white noise (I always write to the same thunderstorm track), then fire up that word processor. 

You can train your brain to associate this ritual with getting down to business—and, eventually, you’ll find yourself eagerly anticipating the work when you encounter the ritual. 

Experiment with how you draft

Everyone has a completely unique style when it comes to how they go from idea to finished draft, but that doesn’t stop most of us from trying to find the “right” way to write. 

When you experiment with how you draft, start by listing your strengths and the things you love most and use those as the basis from which to play with new methods. Let go of all the advice about what you “should” be doing, and begin experimenting with what feels good to you.

Do you love the thrill of the first draft, careening into the darkness in pursuit of plot bunnies? There’s no reason for you to force yourself to become an outliner. But you might find tips and tools in an outliner’s toolbox—like scene beats or writing in an act structure—that work for you.

Maybe you’re like me, and you hate the uncertainty of the first draft, but you love revision. Try writing a zero draft to block out the scene, sketch out the dialogue, and brainstorm setting and costume choices. Then, “revise” the details of that zero draft instead of wrestling with a first draft. 

But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater while you’re experimenting! You know which parts of your process work well—and give you the most joy. 

Experiment with how you count your wins

When is it finally time to celebrate your writing? When you finish the first draft? The fifth? When you land an agent, hit Publish on the ebook retailers, or finally see your book on your local bookstore’s shelf?

The writing and publishing process is a long journey, and it’s too easy to put off celebration. “My book’s not done yet,” you might tell yourself. “I still need to [fill in the blank].”

Experiment with celebrating more milestones. Did you finish writing act 1? Tell a friend! Did you finally figure out a tricky plot snag? Hell yeah! Take yourself out to dinner. Did you have a personal best word count day? You deserve to go fabric shopping—and pick up one of those Lindt chocolates in the check-out line while you’re at it. 

It’s impossible to escape the pressures of the outcome: publication schedules, word count goals, the agent hunt, and the need to produce more work faster. But don’t let those outcome pressures sap the joy of the writing process itself.

After all—if you’re going to be a writer, you’re going to spend a significant portion of your days in the process of writing. 

Why not recapture the joy?

Tell us in the comments: How do you find joy in your writing?

Jessie Kwak has always lived in imaginary lands, from Arrakis and Ankh-Morpork to Earthsea, Tatooine, and now Portland, Oregon. She is the author of gangster sci-fi, supernatural thrillers, and non-fiction for creatives. She’s also a ghostwriter and freelance marketing copywriter. Her latest book is From Big Idea to Book: Create a Writing Practice That Brings You Joy. 
You can learn more about her at www.jessiekwak.com, or follow her on Twitter or Instagram.

The post How to Recapture the Joy in Your Writing appeared first on DIY MFA.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll recognize this typical scene that plays out in my house constantly. My husband comes into the living room and shuts off the TV while I am watching a show.

“What are you doing?” I ask, momentarily thrown off my game.

“You’re clearly not watching TV. You’re on your laptop,” he’ll point out.

This is when I tell him I am doing both. This stuns him. Every time. He does not understand how I can do more than one thing at a time. The truth is, I can’t help it. For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with focus. Whenever I sit down to do anything, read, write, or even watch TV, it isn’t long before I am up and doing something, anything, to keep moving. 

I can relax—don’t get me wrong—but I need to do it while folding laundry and listening to an audio book or watching a music video on Youtube. Call it ADHD (and some people do), but I have had to develop a particular set of skills to get things done despite my less than laser focus.

Here are five ways that help me get my butt in the chair, even when my brain is thinking of eighteen things at once, as I struggle to sit down at all, let alone for an hour or so to write. 

1. Get Excited about Your Writing

What do you love to write? Usually, you write what you love to read. What gets my butt in the chair is writing about dragons and magic spells and world building from scratch. The last two books I read were a murder mystery and a romance. Before that, it was an old Stephen King novel (Tommyknockers) and Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski. 

But the books that captured my heart as a child and are buried in my limbic system from way back are Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, and, of course, Bunnicula. FYI, Watership Down and White Fang round out the favorites. 

The theme is, of course, magic. Well, science and magic, but they are the same in my mind. What I’m doing right now, typing away into this computer, would have seemed like sorcery a century ago.

I wanted to write literary fiction because that’s what “serious” and “important” people write. Right? 

Guess what doesn’t get my butt in the chair? Literary fiction. 

Yep. So, #reality. I write what gets me excited to get in the chair. My main character just got tossed from a dragon and grew wings. I am having so much fun it is ridiculous. If I spend a lifetime doing just this and never make more than a few dollars, I’ve still spent my time engaged in work that makes me excited and happy. I literally can’t lose.

I heard an author say (I think it was Neil Gaiman), “write like you’re going to change the world with your words. Edit like it’s the worst sort of nonsense imaginable.” Or something to that effect. 

Either way…get excited about your writing.

2. Get a Routine

While creativity may love spontaneity, it also loves a solid routine. Doesn’t that sound like the most boring thing ever? But you’re already doing it. Getting up and making coffee is a routine. Watching Netflix and eating chips is a routine. You love routines—let’s get that working for you. 

If you don’t have time to read the rest of this article, please remember this…getting a writing routine that works for you will change your life AND help get your butt in the chair.

Show up, and your inspiration will wax and wane, and then come when you call. But only if you show up for it consistently. 

Here at DIY MFA, we are convinced this is the only “secret” you need to know. The time you spend, the words you write, the scenes you finish, daily or weekly, none of this matters as much as developing the habit of sitting down to write consistently. Do not hurry, do not stop. This is the way.

3. Grow a Ritual

You’ve probably heard of the football player who won’t shave until the playoffs are over or who always puts his right foot first when coming onto the field. Many athletes have a ritual they follow before every game, whether eating a certain meal or sitting in a specific seat on the bus. 

Crystal Dunn, a member of the US Women’s National Soccer Team, is the “team DJ” who picks the music they all listen to before going on the field. We may pass these off as superstition, but following a ritual gives us a sense of control, and it trains our brain to “get ready to win.” Or, in our case, to write.

My ritual involves closing the curtains, turning off the lights, listening to loud epic fantasy music, and lighting a candle. The music helps me focus—as someone who struggles with attention, the silence of an empty room can drive me bananas. I need to have at least half my brain occupied to slow down enough to get the words on the page. I often drink herbal tea to give my hands something to do when thinking of the next scene. The candle, flickering brightly in the dark room in the pre-dawn hours, makes it feel like I’m meditating or doing something special. And, I am. I’m writing. I’m doing magic here.

I do these things every time to train my brain to drop into that flow quicker and longer. I’m using neuroscience to my advantage. 

How do you prepare to write? 

You may need a bright room full of afternoon sunlight, and the cat curled up beside you, and the hum of the air conditioner instead of music. Whatever makes you happy and feels like something special is happening because it is.

4. Get Grateful

Make it special, make it sacred, but for god’s sake, don’t act like the universe owes you 100,000 words of pure gold. If you have a job that pays the bills while you get to create universes and smash characters together, thank your lucky stars. 

We’ve all heard being grateful can help improve your quality of life. I’ve just finished reading No Self, No Problem by Chris Niebauer, and in it, Chris posits that feeling grateful is a right-brain activity – and one that can get you in touch with your creative self more quickly. Feeling grateful is a win-win for writers.

5. Grant Yourself Time to Play

The importance of play cannot be overstated. Play for adults is critical in a world where productivity and efficiency are the new alters we sacrifice our well-being on. Play releases endorphins, improves brain function, and stimulates creativity.

Studies show play improves memory and stimulates growth of the cerebral cortex. Play triggers the release of BDNF, a substance essential for growth of brain cells. When you play with the kids or the grandkids, you don’t just feel younger (and maybe a little silly?). You actually are improving your brain and body health. You can’t get your butt in the chair and write if you can’t remember where you put your glasses.

In the end, discipline doesn’t work for diets, and it doesn’t work for writing habits. You need to be excited to get in that chair and follow your characters (who you love) down a rabbit hole. Your goal is to create a world so vivid and terrifying or lovely that you’d rather live in it than eat cold cereal and walk in the drab sunshine where your body lives.

“Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.”

—Ray Bradbury, WD

Tell us in the comments below: How do you get your butt in the chair?

Angela Yeh hails from Atlantic Canada but lives and works in Texas – after her liberal arts degree, she wandered into Corporate Canada but managed to escape. She is a fantasy author who is gobsmacked she gets to work for and with writers from all over the world at DIYMFA.com. She considers it a personal challenge to find an article or podcast that will answer any question you ask us. Bring it on! She lives with her family, big Texas pine trees, and three cranky fur babies. You can check her out on Instagram or Twitter – @thatpluckygirl.

The post #5onFri: Five Fun Ways to Get Your Butt in the Chair (and Keep It There) appeared first on DIY MFA.