It’s my second week of writing 100 words daily on this blog. At first, I didn’t really trust myself on this. I have tried a month of 6-word story and three months of daily poetry on Instagram. Before I started with this daily blog post, I did a month of the daily tweet ( 280 characters) on Twitter.

But a blog post requires bigger word count for it to make sense. So, today I will share three tips on how to develop a daily writing habit. These tips are written for you to start  and stay consistent.

Start small

Start with 6 words. Start with one stanza. Start with 280 characters and increase it to 50, 100, 500 and 1000 words. The secret to changing a habit is by starting incredibly small. The bigger the goal seems, the less likely you are going to do it because the resistance is bigger.

Though I always end up with 300-500 words, setting it to 100 makes it looks easier to me and I know if there will be a day when I might slack, (wake up late or super busy) it’s not hard to produce a 100 words blog post and I will still find time and just get it done.

Set a time, pick a writing space

We can go to work every single day without fail because we know where to go and when to start i.e KLCC every weekday – starts at 8 am – ends at 5 pm, and there we go being there no matter how our mood and situation is for the day. Treat it the same with writing, or any other habits that you want to develop whether it’s exercising, reading etc.

I set 5:00 am in the morning the very moment I wake up for writing. I’ll have a glass of water and straight away go to a low desk in my living room. It doesn’t have to be 5:00 am for everyone, just pick a time whether it’s your lunch hour, 6:00 pm before you head home or 9 pm before you go to sleep but show up every day and every single day – be consistent. It’s going to be hard but it gets easier. Repetition is the key to mastery.

‘Write’ the day before

Think about what you want to write the day before. Write it down on your phone, your journal or a piece of paper. Have a list of writing ideas, go through it and decide a specific topic to write for the next day. Once you decide, the thinking and writing process already start in your subconscious mind and words will flow easily the moment you hit the keyboard.

I visualize myself writing before I go to sleep, very vividly..

the time,

the space

and the topic

and believe I will do it.

If you’re like me, trying to develop a daily writing habit, I hope this post will inspire you to start and stay consistent with your intention. Thanks for reading and talk to you later.