The Easiest Writing Routine You’ll Ever Find

If you're struggling to get words on the page, here's a routine that's hard to screw up

Image by Sean824.

I’ve seen it hundreds of times.

The novelist tries to write chapter three while worrying about how she’s going to pull off that big twist ending. The comic writer gets lost in issue seven before he’s written issue one. The screenwriter stares at the blank page, worried about the dialect of the gardener we meet at the end of Act Two.

So what do we do? We make excuses and distract ourselves with things that don’t matter.

Anything but writing.

But that’s not happening to you anymore because today, I’m sharing an easy writing routine that’s as close to foolproof as you’ll find.

It’s so simple, in fact, you’ll probably fight it. This guy’s an idiot. No way something that simple is going to work. Screw this, I’m gonna play Call of Duty.

Look, your routine doesn’t need bells and whistles. In fact, simple, boring, and consistent is what brings results.

If you’re struggling to get words on the page, it’s time to get back to basics.

And these five steps are all you need.

1. Take it one scene at a time.

I get it. You have all of these ideas, and damn it, you want to write them all now. You’re overwhelmed by all the things in your head. And the more you have in your head instead of on the page, the more uncertain you become.

But guess what? You’re not writing the whole book today.

Hell, no one writes a book in a day, not even those social media influencers selling you on the idea that writing 12 books a year is how to make a living.

You know what? Fuck those guys.

Today, all you have to do is write one scene.

But what’s a scene? A scene is nothing more than a sequence of actions within a specific setting involving characters engaged in dialogue or some other activity that advances the plot or develops the characters.

That’s it. One scene.

Anyone can write one scene, even you.

2. Decide what your character wants.

Before you sit down to write, determine what your character wants next. A scene isn’t a scene without a character who wants something, so give your character a goal.

With that goal in mind, embody your character for a moment. Imagine what it feels like to want what she wants. Feel that want in your bones. Work through every step it’ll take for her to get from here to there, and then imagine how great it’ll feel to finally acquire that thing.

Maybe she needs to get across town before sunset because, you know, vampires.

Or maybe all she needs is to get eggs from the chicken coop to make breakfast.

It doesn’t really matter. All you need to get started is a character and a want.

3. Determine what’s standing in the character’s way.

Every scene needs conflict.

Now that you know what your character wants, decide who or what is standing in the way. It can be the antagonist, or maybe it’s an internal struggle like self-doubt.

Put yourself in your character’s shoes again.

She desperately needs to get across town before dark, but damn it, the car won’t start. And oh no, she forgot her backpack, which is where she stashed the wooden stakes and garlic!

Or maybe when she goes to pick fresh eggs, her evil step-sisters are standing in her way. But they’d be easy to dispatch, right? All she has to do is grab that axe stuck in that tree stump over there. But wait, how does chopping heads measure up against her decision to be a pacifist?

A scene is just a character striving to attain something she wants, and a roadblock standing in her way. Readers will read your scene to watch her choose her path. And they’ll keep reading to see how her decisions and actions eventually change her into the hero at the end.

But right now, you don’t care about the end of the book, you only care about this one scene.

4. Carve out 15 minutes to write and do it.

Yeah, yeah. I know. You don’t have time to write.

But sorry, that’s bullshit. It’s just 15 minutes.

Trust me, if you’re reading this right now, you have 15 minutes to write the next scene of your story. 

Sure, it might take 20 minutes if you waste time fretting about it, but let’s not argue semantics. You get the idea.

Make time, sit your butt in the chair, and write.

You have the character. You know what she wants. And you have conflict standing in the way. Boom. The scene is practically written already.

All you have to do is write it.

But wait, what about show, don’t tell? What about getting the dialog just right? What about…

You know what? Fuck all that.

Right now, it doesn’t matter how good the writing is. Seriously. This is the first draft, and all first drafts are garbage.

Right now, you’re just telling yourself the story. You’re putting it on the page so you can figure out what it’s really about.

So forget all you’ve learned about what a good book needs.

The only rule you need to worry about is this one: For a book to be read, it must first be written.

5. Repeat every day.

Yep, this fifth step isn’t really a step at all, it’s just repeating all the other steps.

Wake up and remind yourself you’re only writing one scene today. While you’re at it, remind yourself that you did it yesterday, which proves you’re a writer, damn it, and if you did it yesterday, you can do it again today.

Seeing progress is the world’s best motivator, and wouldn’t you know it, you got a scene written yesterday, and that’s progress.

I’m absolutely serious here. That’s all it takes to write a novel, screenplay, or comic script.

One scene a day. That’s seven scenes a week. If a novel has roughly fifty scenes, you need about seven weeks. 

Stop worrying about the scene that takes place ten scenes from now.

Stop worrying about whether you’re good enough to handle that big twist or that complex time travel scene.

Trust me, you are.

And luckily, the more scenes you write, the better you get.

And if you don’t? Fuck it. Write anyway.

Write every day. Learn what it feels like to sit down and write.

Trust the process.