Unusual Habits That Make You a More Productive Writer
I want to focus on some habits that will make you a more generative writer. And by this I mean:
Someone who has an abundance of good writing ideas, and
Someone who creates a large quantity and range of interesting work.
Improving your craft over time is important. But so is becoming a more generative writer. In that spirit, here are three generative writing habits that are pretty easy to add to your life. You may even become weirdly addicted to them.
1. Write down Interesting Ideas Right Away When You Have Them
How many good writing ideas do you come up with each day? I bet the true answer is higher than your first guess.
Every human mind is a powerful machine. It is a pattern-recognition machine and a relentless generator of phrases, images, mental movies, and quirky dreams. These things are the standard products of a human brain, whether you are trying to make them or not. You automatically have hundreds of ideas every day.
The problem is that many of us don’t pay attention. We dismiss our thoughts as random noise and nonsense. We ignore ourselves. And the longer we ignore ourselves, the better we become at ignoring ourselves.
The simplest way to have more useable writing ideas is to stop wasting the ideas you already have. Never let a good idea go to waste. Make a habit of jotting down every moderately interesting idea you have, the moment it pops into your mind. If you’re not sure whether it’s a good idea, write it down anyway.
I intentionally said “every moderately interesting idea,” not “every good idea.” Deciding whether an idea is a truly good idea is vexing. It’s too high a standard. It can put you in analysis paralysis mode to wonder if your idea is “good.” Lower the bar and instead write down thoughts that strike you as vaguely, minimally interesting or unusual. Whether the idea will lead anywhere is not important right now. What’s important is recording the idea before it evaporates.
Here’s a practical example. As a humor writer, I need to generate many funny headline (article title) ideas. My rule is to never let an amusing headline idea go to waste. I record an article headline the instant I think of it. These titles pop in my head automatically, throughout the day.
Here are a few article headlines for humor pieces that I wrote down recently over a couple of days:
“Victimless Crime Podcasts”
“That Coffee Is Cheaper If You Make It Yourself”
“How To Prevent Your Friends From Turning You Into An Unpaid Therapist”
“Mankind Contemplates Aliens Throughout History”
“Everything Annoys Me”
Are those headlines great? Not necessarily. I haven’t done anything with them yet, but that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that these ideas are waiting for me on my headline list (which has hundreds of ideas), ready to go if I decide to use one of them.
I use only a tiny fraction of the headlines I come up with. Less than 10% get used. Maybe less than 5%. My goal is to have a treasure trove of ideas at the ready. If my premise list is always stocked with humor ideas, I will never want for a writing idea. This is highly effective in making humor writer’s block a total non-issue.
Where should you write your ideas? It doesn’t matter. Use whatever is simple and quick. I write my ideas in Mac Notes, or I jot them down in my paper journal. The important thing is just to get them down somewhere immediately.
2. Write down Other People’s Good Ideas Immediately When You Hear Them
If recording your own good ideas is the baseline of being generative, recording other people’s ideas, in conversation, is a power-up bonus. You might cringe at this suggestion. I can already hear some responses:
“So, you’re saying I should just steal other people’s ideas?”
“So, you’re saying I should just interrupt the flow of normal conversation, like a dork, to write down a clever idea?”
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Here’s a magic phrase that I’ll gift you:
“Wow, I like that. That’s clever. Do you mind if I write that down and maybe use it?”
When you tell someone their idea or phrasing is clever, the flattery makes them feel powerful. They’ll want you to have their idea. They weren’t going to use it anyway.
I do this most often with friends who are not writers or comedians. These friends utterly do not care whether I take some random thought or phrase of theirs and use it as a writing idea.
There are many contexts where you can happily steal other people’s phrases and ideas, but the simplest place to start is conversation with friends and family.
3. Eavesdrop on Strangers
Yes, we’re getting aggressive, aren’t we? Good. But this is less rude than it sounds. I’m not suggesting that you become a CIA spook, inserting yourself into places where you don’t belong. However, if you do some spying on behalf of your writing career, that’s a sign of your dedication.
Eavesdropping for writing ideas is more about paying attention to the random bits of conversation you would naturally overhear and discard, except now you are not discarding them. Think of all the places you naturally overhear a conversation:
A grocery store checker or barista chats with the person ahead of you in line.
You walk pass two slow-walking nerds on the sidewalk who are blabbing about their respective relationship problems or dog-grooming habits.
You are sitting in a cafe and you overhear two people, obviously on a first date, getting acquainted.
Other examples abound. In these situations, I like to put my antenna out and listen for interesting or unusual turns of phrase, or anything quirky or surprising. Then I write it down like a spy who gets paid for it.
In short, being a more generative writer can easily begin with being a more aggressive listener. Your job is not merely to show up to the blank page. Your job is to show up to the blank page pre-equipped with a list of interesting ideas.
Start by listening more closely to yourself and others. Pay attention, tune your ears to the weird or unusual, and write it down. Your cup will soon overflow.