I get a lot of writing done in the early morning. I start most days around 7:30 A.M., at my desk where I review emails and the general state of the online world.
Then, as I finish my first cup of coffee, I’m ready to get down to the business of writing. Here I can lose myself for hours if I’m not careful. Right now it’s approaching 10:30 A.M.. I haven’t slowed down, but I know I need to move and stretch. So I’ll head downstairs, pour myself a second cup of coffee, and spend a few minutes seeing what the world looks like without a screen mediating the experience (I’ll step outside or look through the windows).
Coffee is not my writing fuel. What fuels my writing is the writing I did yesterday. I’m energized by the act of writing and the momentum that it creates. I’m not saying that a cup of good, black coffee isn’t helpful, but it’s only energy, not action.
Each writer needs to find their own process for writing, but I strongly recommend against creating too narrow an experience in which you can write. Don’t fall prey to the “I can only write when…” trap. Fuel your writing with experience, with curiosity, and with the act of writing itself. Remove the “I can only writes” and write all of the time. Write in your notebook. Scribble on 3X5 cards. Jot things down on your phone.
Make writing your default. It’s what you do. That’s when you’ll know that you’re a writer and how you’ll know—you’re a writer because writing is what you do.
That’s all the fuel that you’ll need.
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Randy MurrayNo Fuel Required—Write Without Boundaries by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
