Writing Dailey

Recently, I had a great fireside conversation about co-hosting a hypothetical Whoopi Goldberg movie night.

This wild, and allow me to repeat, hypothetical idea came from my confession to having not seen Sister Act or Sister Act II: Back in the Habit. In complete transparency, I can’t claim to have seen many Whoopi films—just five: The Pagemaster, Rat Race, The Little Rascals, Corrina, Corrina, and The Lion King—and I’m not feeling particularly inspired to view more.

What this ridiculous conversation did inspire, aside from silent laughing fits, Pinterest searches for Catholic-themed charcuterie boards, and nun name selections, was something that can only be described as trickle-down inspiration, which yielded far more than Bidenomics ever has. That late spring night giggle session gave me the title for this fortieth blog post: Back in the Habit.

Habits, good and bad, we all have them. Some say habits are easy to set and hard to break, but I am of the mindset that starting and stopping are equally challenging in their own ways. In both situations, you’re setting out to alter an aspect of your life—adding or cutting something out of your routine.

Per cursory research, I found articles stating that creating a habit can take seven, 21, 30, or even 66 days. Another reading informed me that it takes 90 days to turn a habit into a permanent lifestyle change. And breaking a habit can require 18 to 254 days. Suffice it to say, whether you’re starting or breaking a habit, buckle up. It’s gonna take some time and, dare I say, the scary ‘E’ word—effort.

So far this year, I’ve been doing my best to commit to a number of new, healthy habits: dry brushing, fascia blasting, stretching, using castor oil on my eyebrows, watering the plants people have given me, remembering to drink water myself, and arguably most importantly, expressing myself through creative writing every single day.

As a freelance writer, I do write every. single. day. It’s what I do, and what I enjoy doing. It’s a career that allows me to use my degree. It challenges me. However, as a freelance writer, the act and art of writing, to an extent, morph into a job, and as a creative individual, I require a regular, creative outlet. Enter my newest habit: the daily creative writing session.

Every morning, once I am fully awake and mostly functional, I curl up on the couch before starting any of the day’s work, and I write. I add details, ideas, dialogue, descriptions, and sometimes full scenes to a note on my phone. Some days, I spend just ten minutes writing. Other mornings, I get wrapped up in the sentences as they fly out from the tips of my fingers, and an hour or more can go by before I realize it. This dedicated creative outlet makes me feel like a better person and prepares me for a day of work writing.

I embarked on creating this habit for a couple of reasons—to unstopper my stagnant and stifled feelings as an artist and to make actual progress on my novel. I wanted to put forth effort into an endeavor I hold immense passion for, and I wanted to get back on the wagon I had fallen off of. Hence, I got back into a pre-existing habit that I had neglected for a time.

And with June 30 marking the third anniversary of my having completed the first draft of my novel, this reinstated habit is getting me closer to my ultimate goal—a polished tale I can be proud of. Three years have just about gone by, and I have made progress and a lot of changes to the story. With each passing day and the conclusion of each creative writing session, I am one step closer to embarking on my fourth draft. What I’m doing now is the pre-work, the leg work, the behind-the-scenes zhuzhing.

This motivating habit, inspired partly by a dear friend and Jerry Seinfeld’s write-a-joke-a-day lifestyle—called the “Seinfeld Strategy”—has been life-altering. By engaging in a form of creative expression every day, which is holistically different from my work as a freelance writer, I feel like a more functional person and writer. This habit, like the others mentioned earlier, requires effort, and I’m 41 days into this creative habit, almost halfway to making it a permanent facet of my daily routine.

By June 30, 2025, I will have, barring all obstacles, completed the fourth draft of this ever-evolving fantasy story, book one of a duology. In the meantime, though, I will keep curling up on the couch to put forth the necessary efforts each day, find a store that carries index cards (it’s been a more arduous search than you might imagine), potentially invest in a novel assistance program like Novel Factory, and make sense of the LONG and ever-growing novel note in my phone that is 100% not in any constructive or chronological order.

So, thanks to a comedian’s method and a chat amongst friends, this blog post exists, appropriately titled and spreading the good word of commitment, effort, and healthy habit building. If you’re building or breaking habits, stay the course; effort is worth its weight in gold, and I promise you’ll feel better for having done the work.

Coming up next:

July – A Tale of Two Book Clubs