Train Your Writing Muscles with This Simple but Efficient Technique
The only way to get any writing done is to sit down and write. Pretty simple stuff, right? Except it’s not easy to do this especially if you’re still grappling with building a consistent writing habit.
Writing is like a muscle. To strengthen it, you must train it consistently. Having a strong writing muscle makes it easier to write every day. It becomes a habit. Your identity.
I used to struggle with this in the past. I would conjure all kinds of mental tricks just to motivate myself but to no avail. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy writing, that’s the crazy part. But somehow, something inside me always rebelled against the idea of writing, even when I wanted to do it.
On days I actually managed to drag myself to my computer, I would wrestle with my thoughts for hours before I could write more than 200 words.
To be fair, I wasn’t that good of a typist at the time. But that wasn’t the problem. My inability to let the words flow freely from my mind was the real problem.
I’m willing to bet that some people have this issue too.
You want to write. But it’s difficult to get in the flow of writing because you aren’t used to it. Your mind and body freeze as you stare at the blinking cursor of doom on your screen. And the worst part? The guilt of not doing what you love overwhelms you, further plunging you into the depths of depression.
That’s what hell feels like and I’m no stranger to that feeling.
Fortunately, I got through it with one simple technique — a form of workout, if you will, to train your writing muscles.
You probably already know this technique so it might sound anticlimactic, but believe me, it works wonders in forging you into a more disciplined writer.
Free writing. That’s what it is.
By harnessing this power, struggling to write will become a thing of the past. It will even help you unlock a higher plane of consciousness, thereby immersing yourself in a flow state whenever you sit down to write.
What’s free writing?
It’s exactly as the name suggests. Writing freely. It’s also called mind dumping.
With free writing, you literally don’t have to think about what you’re writing. You simply write whatever comes into your mind. Anything and everything.
Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry if it’s the dumbest shit you’ve ever thought of. Just write it. Whatever it is. Dump everything on your mind on a page.
To give you clarity, choose a topic first. Say, the Roman Empire. Then write whatever comes into your mind about this topic. Even if your mind strays from the topic — because it will — keep writing.
Perfection isn’t the goal here. Getting the words out is.
After a lot of resistance, it will become second nature to you.
Steps to writing freely and building your writing muscle
1. Find the ideal time for writing
Different writers are productive at different times of the day. Some write first thing in the morning, others prefer much later in the day, while others are night owls. I’ve tried all three.
I prefer to do different types of writing at different times of the day. I usually write my articles and newsletters early in the morning. I edit in the afternoon. And I’m a night owl when it comes to writing fiction.
I didn’t plan this. It’s just a pattern I realized about myself. Although I do all these at different times of the day, my most ideal time for writing or editing anything is early in the morning, long before the world wakes.
My mind feels most awake and energized at this time. Writing melds with my thoughts, or is it the other way around? I cannot tell. All I know is that it feels most natural to me around this time.
I edit in the afternoon because writing from scratch at this time feels like a chore. It takes so long to get into it, and I hate that feeling.
Knowing how rebellious my spirit is, I don’t even try to fight it. Instead, I work with my nature to get the best results. So, I stick with mornings.
For most people, working early in the morning is the best time. It will probably work for you too, so try it out and see how it goes.
Remember that feeling discomfort when doing something new is not necessarily a bad thing.
It’s normal. Eventually, you’ll get used to it. But if after more than a month of doing it still makes you hate yourself, then maybe writing in the morning is not for you.
You’re trying to train your writing muscles to build a solid writing habit. So you might as well find the time that works best for you.
2. Prepare your writing space
I’ve learned the hard way that there’s no such thing as willpower. Or that if it exists, it can never compete against your environment.
If you want to become more self-disciplined at anything, optimize your environment rather than powering through forcefully.
The former will naturally motivate you to do what you want to do while the latter will turn you into a shell of yourself.
Writing is hard for you not because you lack motivation or willpower but because you haven’t made your environment conducive for that.
You write in your bedroom or TV room. Your phone is always around you, notifications going off every millisecond. You’ve opened an endless number of tabs on your computer. Do you think you can write anything with all these distractions around you?
Your cluttered environment is fueling your writing struggles. Do something about it.
Eliminate all distractions.
Can’t focus in a noisy place? Find somewhere quiet in your house to write or get some noise-canceling headphones if you can. If you prefer the outdoors, go to a local cafe, library, or wherever your spirits feels most welcome.
Your phone is your biggest distraction. Keep it away from you when you’re writing. Either leave it in a different room or turn off all notifications. Or you can go hardcore and throw it in the ocean… okay, I’m just kidding… Am I?
Stay away from that damn phone. Seriously. That little device is holding you back from so much greatness.
Avoid going through your phone first thing in the morning. Do that and kiss the rest of your day goodbye. Yes, I speak from experience. I’ve lost count of the number of times I blew a whole day on Twitter. I couldn’t stop scrolling until late into the night, brain-dead and paralyzed.
Serious question, what kind of sorcery is social media? It’s freaking scary.
Your willpower is not as strong as you think it is. Without the right environment to guide you, you’ll fail every time. This is a fact. Trust me, bro.
One of the best things about creating a conducive writing space is that your brain immediately associates it with writing. So the moment you’re there, you automatically want to write. It will take some time for your brain to make this correlation. But once it happens, it’s hard to break that habit.
3. Write freely
Now that you’ve prepared your time and space, you’re ready to write.
Come up with a topic — any topic of your choosing. Ideally, it should be something you’re already passionate about; something you never seem to shut up about. That should give you more material.
Once you come up with the topic, write the first thing that pops up in your mind, then the next thing, and the next.
Keep writing. Don’t stop to do anything. This is the key to free writing.
Don’t stop to think about your next word.
Don’t stop to read your work.
Don’t stop to edit anything.
Don’t fucking stop.
Just keep writing. No matter how dumb it is, don’t stop.
It’s going to be incredibly uncomfortable, but don’t stop writing.
I repeat, don’t stop.
Don’t st- * Jeez, they get it. Shut up. *
4. Start small
When people try to build a habit, they start by going all in. Hardcore. Ambitious goals. When building a writing habit, for example, they tell themselves they’re going to write 2000 words a day.
Some even go a step further by setting a goal of writing a whole-ass novel.
Sure, it’s great to have these goals. But they’re too challenging, unreasonable even, for someone who can barely write 500 words a day without wanting to gouge their eyes out.
You start from somewhere before getting somewhere else. That’s an African adage… No, it’s not. It’s fucking common sense.
Go at a pace that will keep your sanity intact.
Instead of aiming for 1000 words a day, start with 100. With free writing though, I recommend you focus on time rather than word count.
Set a timer for five minutes. Just five minutes. And write freely in that time.
It doesn’t matter how many words you get out or how bad it is.
When you do this daily for about a week or so, you’ll see that your stamina improves. Before you know it, you’re writing thousands of words in a day.
And even more amazing is that you’ll use less time to write so many words. At my topmost productivity, I can write about 3000 words in one hour at a sitting. But I didn’t start writing this quickly from the get-go.
It’s taken a lot of time and practice to get this far. Previously, I could barely sit for five minutes to write anything. And even when I did, I barely wrote a sentence. I was also pretty slow at typing. That was how much of a toil it was.
But starting small and practicing a lot made things better.
If you put these things in place, I know it will make you a more disciplined writer in no time.
Now go forth and write.
Don’t stop.
I made a guide to help you build a solid writing habit in only 30 days. Download it for free.
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