A piece of writing advice you’ve probably heard is to make writing a habit. There’s a reason for that. We humans respond well to habits. Once we’ve developed them, habits are the well-worn road, the known quantity. Habits trigger our brain to do the same thing because, hey, we’ve done this so many times before, we know it’s safe. So writing every day, at the same time, in the same place, maybe wearing your ‘creativity pants’ (mine look a lot like pajamas), trains your brain that when I do A, it is time for you to do B, B being write the damn book.

But for all their usefulness, habits can be a double-edged sword. Habits can lead to ruts. Ruts can crush creativity. And before you know it, you’re writing the same stel things over and over, making the same mistakes, or worse – staring at a blank page. If this has happened to you, it’s time to mix things up. Write somewhere new. Change the time you write (or add another block of writing time to your daily writing time). Even do the unthinkable – put on pants!

Whether you need to create a new writing habit or breathe life into a stale old one, Continue reading →