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Tobi Ogunnaike's avatar

I love this essay and have noticed similar things. In the past, I too had no routine, I’d wait for the magic of inspiration to strike me and try to craft something decent while the iron was hot. But that meant I didn’t publish often enough. So I didn’t improve quickly enough.

More recently - I’ve felt what you said- my mind is constantly panning for little snippets or stories from daily life that I can note down and use in future essays. Like an app running in the background. The challenge now is keeping track of them and organising them in a good way which is a work in progress!

Currently toying with different formats - alternating between a “notes from my travels” post one week and an essay-style, deeper, more introspective post the other week. The hope is that the structure and commitment make it easier to keep the rhythm

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M.E. Proctor's avatar

So true. When you make a habit of writing, you write all the time even when you don't :). You also manage to crank out way more than you think possible. I do 1 substack post every 2 weeks, clockwork, and I usually don't know what I'll talk about until 3 days before the deadline (I worked as a freelance journalist for a while and deadlines are great!). I also do the "1 story a week" Bradbury thing and that also seems to be flowing better - as long as I don't let one week slip by. Last year, I started slipping in May and I lost the rhythm. To make things even more hair-rising, I'm reworking a book... that will probably push the short stories to the side. Eventually!

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