In my early 30s my big ambition was to write a novel.
I’d discovered the joys of reading quite late – around 15 – but ended up studying English Literature at uni and doing a Masters in Shakespeare.
After seven years as a journalist writing mostly short news items, my strangled inner novelist was ready to burst out.
I took creative writing classes @writers_studio in Bronte and embarked on a four year journey to write a novel.
It was hard work, much harder than I'd thought. The story arcs, the characterisation, the endless re-writes. But the hardest part was regularly putting pen to paper.
If I waited for inspiration to strike, it would have taken forever. To produce a novel takes a lot more consistency. It meant writing even when I didn’t feel like it.
So I made a daily habit out of it. I’d get up at 4.30am and write for an hour before having to be at work for 7am.
The above quote hung over my desk to keep me on track.
I didn’t feel like it most days and I often wrote crap, but that’s part of the process. Hemingway once said to F Scott Fitzgerald: I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.
I scrapped my first idea but eventually completed a first draft of my second idea – many drafts of shit before I’d have had something publishable.
But by then I’d discovered meditation and realised I’d rather channel my extra-curricular energies into teaching.
I’d learned a valuable lesson about habits. As a meditation dabbler, I’d do it only when I felt like it.
But so much changed when I turned it into a daily habit. They don’t all feel great and I definitely don’t feel like doing them all, but they all make a difference – and it’s so much easier when it’s non negotiable.
My colleague Light Watkins calls it "feeding the baby" – something you’ll make time for no matter what mood you’re in.
Inspiration is a result of the process – not a prerequisite.