Building writing habits for yourself may take a bit of effort, but they’re worth it if they help you crank out great stories. Once you get habits established, writing seems more like second nature. So, what habits can you build to boost your creativity as a writer?
Well, it helps if you already have an overactive imagination. However, there are things you can do to get the ball rolling. And yes, there have been days when I needed a bit of a kickstart to jump into the next story.
Keep in mind, a lot of these habits are things I’ve developed over time. The trick is to find the best ones that work for your situation and commit to yourself as a writer. It could take weeks, even months, to build positive habits.
The real trick is reminding yourself why you’re trying to do it in the first place. I often forget, but I also have a lot on my mind, and I’m getting old.
What Writing Habits Improve Creativity?
Remember, habits only form over time. Leave yourself Post-It notes, alarms on the phone, or even tape them to your bathroom mirror. Do whatever it takes to get into the habit of doing something.
For example, I have several alarms set to remind me to go to the gym and exercise in the morning. The result was a habit that seemed more instinctual than anything.
So, what are some things you can do to get the creative juices going?
1. Establish a Daily Routine or Pattern
Doing something every day at the same time develops a routine that starts to feel natural. Of course, you need to find the right times of day to get those habits going, which means finding the best time for your writing.
Everyone is different, and it may seem difficult at first, especially if you’re working from home with children. Kids are unpredictable and can easily cause mayhem and chaos. The trick is to find a way to work with that chaos.
For me, mornings are the best. I try to get in front of my keyboard at 8 am every morning to write, whether it’s a blog post or the next chapter of my book.
2. Use Music to Inspire Scenes or Stories
I often use music to inspire scenes and stories, as I envision a sort of music video. I know, it sounds a bit odd to some. But essentially, all of my books and stories have a theme song that drives all kinds of ideas.
For instance, the song Sin City by Meredith Brooks inspired the ending chapter of Shadows of Atlantic City. When I hear that song, I can literally see a live-action scene play out to the music. Then, I wrote about what I “saw” in my mind to the music.
In fact, music plays a big part in imagination. I simply take it a few steps further by focusing on my book to the music. And I can attest to some of my greatest scenes coming from a variety of songs, depending on the book.
3. Take Regular Walks
Another habit that I found incredibly useful for writing is taking routine walks throughout the day. Not only does it help you burn calories and relax, but walking is also good for the brain. And if there is one organ you need for stellar writing, it’s that which controls your imagination.
Personally, a 20-minute walk gets all kinds of creativity flowing. It’s a bit more difficult when it’s 103 degrees outside, but getting some steps in the morning or evening just before writing has always been beneficial.
In reality, walking has been influential in all kinds of writing. Whether I’m blogging, coming up with ideas for clients, or needing a scene for a book, my go-to is to rack up the steps while listening to music.
4. Write Short Stories from Plot Generators
A lot of people deal with writer’s block and creativity problems by writing short stories based on prompts or plot generators. Essentially, the backbone for the story is there, ready for you to write. So, crank out a short story to get creativity going.
These short stories can be part of your book or stand-alone tales. You can keep them for yourself or publish them in an anthology on Wattpad. The point is to get into the habit of writing a quick story before working on your primary project.
You don’t even have to finish them to get the creative juices going. Once you feel like you’re in the zone, you can simply move over to your main story. The bottom line is that prompts or plot generators give you the skeleton of a story so your mind doesn’t have to process it as much.
5. Use Scheduled Writing Sprints/Body Doubling
Perhaps one of my favorite habits was setting up the writing sprints on YouTube. Regardless of whether someone watches or not, I got into the habit of going live and writing my book. It was a dedicated time that I set aside that everyone in the house respected.
This process is also called “body doubling.” This is when you and a partner or group are working on similar projects. That way, you don’t feel like you’re trying to do something by yourself, and you can inspire each other to continue.
My writing sprints utilize the Pomodoro Technique, though I didn’t know it at first. I set a timer for 25 minutes to focus on the project I’m working on. Then, I take a 5 to 10-minute break in between each session. The result for myself was writing between 2200 and 2600 words per day in my next book.
6. Dump the Social Scrolling and Write
One of the worst habits I ever created for myself was doomscrolling on social media. Once I removed that from my day, I’ve been far more effective, creative, and less stressed out. I asked, “What’s more important, watching people argue about politics, or working on my book?”
Did you know that people spent almost two and a half hours per day on social media in 2025? In a 2.5-hour stretch of time, I could write well over 3,000 words for a book. Or, I could produce a new writing video on YouTube. Or, I could write an in-depth blog post.
My point is that creating positive habits often means getting rid of bad ones. In this case, social media stifles creativity while making you less productive.
7. Get Enough Sleep Every Night
Getting enough sleep every night influences creativity and cognitive states. Getting into the habit of going to bed and waking up at reasonable times can ultimately improve your lifestyle rather quickly.
In reality, sleep affects your physical body as much as your mental state. It’s probably one of the most important aspects of life that people often don’t consider. And I can attest from personal experience: I am far more alert, happy, and creative after a nice long rest.
Depending on your lifestyle, though, this could probably be one of the more difficult habits to form for writing. It might require a complete overhaul of your day-to-day life and activities. But the end result is going to be a vast improvement, especially if you normally get less than six hours every night.
8. Write Out of Order
When I find myself getting hung up on a scene, I often write the story out of order. I often know where I want something to go, and writing the destination often helps me connect the two points together. For example, I wrote the ending of Kingmaker long before I finished chapter one.
In Fury, I wrote several chapters out of order to help kickstart ideas for connecting them together.
This might work better for those who are plotters. A pantser might have a bit more difficulty, but it’s possible. The idea is to write a scene and then let your imagination start filling in the blanks to connect the chapters. You might have to edit a few things for it to make sense, but it might be a useful practice.
9. Avoid Thoughts of Perfection
One of the greatest habits to form while writing is to get out of the mindset of being perfect. The idea that your first draft needs to be perfect often holds a lot of authors back. No one writes the perfect first draft; so, just write the story to get it out of you.
The editing phase of your story is where the magic really happens. Editing is when you get a chance to polish the story to create something comprehensive and complete. Keep in mind that perfection does not exist.
Getting out of the mindset of perfection could take a lot of effort for some. Just remember that no one is going to read the first draft of your story. You can make all kinds of mistakes and grammatical issues that no one will ever see. Don’t tie your hands behind your back with the idea of perfection.
10. Writing Outside
Being out in nature does a lot for the human psyche and body. It often promotes relaxation while improving overall mood and decreasing blood pressure. However, nature can improve creativity as well.
So, how do we incorporate nature with creating a writing habit? A great way would be to schedule your writing time somewhere outdoors. It could be a park, your favorite space on a hiking trail, in a campsite, or even in a local botanical garden.
The idea is simple: involve nature in your writing process to help build a positive habit.
It Can Take Some Time to Build Good Habits
According to various studies, it could take more than two months to develop a habit. However, it’s important to note that some people had to commit to habit-forming practices for as many as 254 days. So, developing good writing habits isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight.
Speaking from experience, it took about three weeks to develop a habit of going to the gym regularly. This was after setting alarms and often talking myself into going.
But what if one of the above habits improved your writing and creativity? Would you consider it a worthwhile investment? I know I do, which is why I practice some of these on a daily basis.
Perhaps it’s why I rarely face writer’s block for longer than 10 minutes. It’s not even a block at that point, but more of a speed bump. I usually have an idea of where my writing is going, which was something that I pointed out to my instructor in Creative Writing when she asked.
It’s not that I have some kind of superpower outside of being hyperphantasic. I’ve just spent the last decade and a half finding ways to keep me writing.
That’s maybe the most important piece of advice I can give to writers: find methods that work best for you. While I can share the things that worked for me to build strong writing habits since 2012, not all of them will work for everyone.
We all find motivation and inspiration in various ways. Explore the ones that get your creative juices flowing and keep you writing.
What Writing Habits Work Best for You?
It’s hard to say which of these writing habits work best for me. In reality, a lot of them work as a cohesive flow that keeps the words coming out. While sleep is an incredibly useful habit, it’s not something I get on a regular basis.
However, I often listen to music, walk, and write out of order. My chaotic schedule lately disrupted the writing sprints, which I hope to get back into making. And getting rid of spending so much time on social media has been a blessing in a variety of ways…mostly for my levels of stress.
Experiment with a few methods yourself, but understand that it could take several weeks to get the habit formed for writing. It’s not going to be something that changes your life in an instant.
The results, once those habits are formed, will be life-changing on a variety of levels.
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