Stephen King’s Writing Routine You Could Implement to Improve Your Writing
We all knew that writers have different routines.
That’s what makes them efficient and effective writers. They publish a lot of books and masterpieces. All of that is because of the consistency and routines that they started a long time ago.
We are a product of what we built years ago. That’s why we are what we are right now.
Stephen King’s
According to Wikipedia, Stephen Edwin King is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science fiction, and fantasy novels.
Described as the “King of Horror”, his books have sold more than 350 million copies as of 2006, and many have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books.
Do you know the famous movie “IT”?
Yeah, he wrote that.
He wrote a lot of books too, but I don’t want to list all the books in this article. Stephen King’s has released over 60 full-length works of fiction and almost 200 short stories.
That’s a lot, isn’t it?
So, let’s jump into his routine.
Waking up
“I wake up. I eat breakfast. I walk about three and a half miles.
I come back, I go out to my little office, where I’ve got a manuscript, and the last page that I was happy with is on top.
I read that, and it’s like getting on a taxiway. I’m able to go through and revise it and put myself — click — back into that world, whatever it is.
I don’t spend the day writing.
I’ll maybe write fresh copy for two hours, and then I’ll go back and revise some of it and print what I like and then turn it off.”
— STEPHEN KING: THE ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW | ROLLING STONE
So, he didn’t skip breakfast.
Some of us like to skip breakfast, but it’s okay because we all have different routines. Then he likes to take a walk.
Walking is beneficial for your health and mind.
From irt.org.au, a morning walk could lower blood pressure, improve blood circulation, and reduce the risk of heart disease. More than that, you can really be more present.
You can feel the wind and the morning sun, which help you sleep easily at night.
Before writing
Stephen King’s prepared a glass of water and a cup of tea.
He takes vitamins, too. Then he turned off all of his phones and the internet until he'd finished his writing session. So, if you can’t do that, you can put it in airplane mode. If you still can’t do that, try to put your phone far away and use extensions from Google Chrome to limit distractions.
I use Google Docs to write right now, and Youtube will always be my number one distraction.
I don’t get distracted by TikTok, Instagram, and other social media because I uninstall them. I don’t really need those social media sites, so I could uninstall them easily. If you have distractions from that, it’s better to put your phone far away from you.
You can put your phone in the other room or maybe ask someone else to hold your phone until you finish writing.
Workspace
Stephen King’s has arranged all the manuscripts and papers that needed to be done.
He was already prepared, not only for the present day but for the future too. Those really help you reduce the friction of writing. We might wander around at our desk and not start writing. Those might occur because we weren’t prepared for what we wanted to write.
You can help yourself in the future by preparing all you need, such as the draft list, or maybe using a bullet journal in order to increase productivity.
Music
Stephen King likes to use the same music on loop.
He said he likes to listen to iconic bands like Metallica and Anthrax. Playing music on loop can really stop your distractions from changing the music. You can still focus on your writing without worrying about what music you want to hear.
The problem is not the music that you need to change; the problem is that humans can’t multitask effectively.
From coschedule.com, studies have found that multitasking reduces your productivity by 40%. If you’re convinced that multitasking makes you super productive, you’re super wrong.
It just means you backtrack a lot, because every time you switch tasks, you have to repeat a bit to find out where you last left off.
Writing
He started writing between 08.00 and 08.30 a.m.
He has a rule for writing, which is 2000 words or 6 pages every single day. This is more like a standard for him, and we can implement it in our lives too.
Standard professional writing based on your own can really help you build an identity in order to make you much more focused and work effectively.
For example, I like to start it small. My standard for professional writing is 750+ words now. Even so, in the future, I want to increase the number of words that I write every day to 1000+ words.If you can’t do 2000 at the start, you can start small, like 300 or 500 words.
By starting small, we can build our habits of writing first, then gradually increase the number of words in the future.
In the Sandy Article, Stephen King says he doesn’t give up on his quota of 2K words or 6 pages daily until there’s an emergency.
If not, then he makes no exceptions, be it his birthday or Christmas. He tries to get a ‘clean’ work of 2000 words each day. ‘Clean’ being an edited and formatted piece of work by King’s standards.”
People have different routines for editing and writing.
Sometimes they don’t do it at the same time, like Simon Sinek, but sometimes they separate it, like Ryan Holiday. He edits for a couple of days, and then he starts writing.
After writing
Stephen King’s finished writing at 11.30–1.30 p.m.
Then he gives himself a reward by reading or watching movies. You can vary your reward, like going to a coffee shop or shopping, but remember that routines are every day.
Don’t give yourself too much reward because you might get addicted to that and not really get addicted to your writing routine.
Try for yourself.
Famous writers have varying writing routines.
People have different personalities, workflows, and goals. That’s why routines would be different for many people. Even so, we can learn from them to improve our writing skills.
Try different routines in order to find something that fits with our workflow.
That’s why I’m going to show you what we can learn from Stephen King’s routines. To implement it, you only need to try it for a couple of days. You can adjust it to your own sleeper type.
For example, if you are a night owl, you might make a routine at night for your writing.
Adjust it yourself
Even if the famous writer’s routine is all in the morning, you can adjust it at night and still do the same. Then, in a couple of days, you can evaluate your writing.
- Is it a fit for you?
- Do you find it more productive to write?
- Do you want to use the same routine or adjust it to your own?
It’s all up to you.
You have a decision to make.
“Learn from the masters, learn from your contemporaries. Always try to update yourself.”
— James Stewart
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