The Write Road: Two Little "Pills" for Consistency

"No try... do." ~ Jedi Master Yoda from Star Wars, talking to Luke Skywalker.

As you may know (or not), my wife Mary had two organ transplant surgeries last year. We’ve passed the 9-month mark and are heading into the 1-year anniversary celebration in a few weeks.

Immediately after the surgery, they put her on a huge regimen of medications, mostly in pill or capsule form. This was quite a change for her as most of her life she’d not taken many meds, save for the two years before her surgery.

(I, on the other hand, have taken handfuls of pills and supplements and shots for many years, fighting the good fight against diabetes.)

During the first six months, weekly lab work was required to get the balance right, and to gauge the effects the various and sundry meds where having on her physiology.

Eventually, some would be halted based on her blood chemistry.

Over time, further dosage adjustments were made to some, both up and down, to try to maintain optimal levels in a less than optimal situation.

Consistency was the watchword, and we were instructed to stay within no more than 30 minutes of the appointed time. 9 AM and 9 PM were the key time slots.

And we kept them religiously.

No matter where we were, or what we were doing.

Still do.

The huge collection of medications has finally boiled down to…

two little pills.

(And the blood work to once monthly.)

The two anti-rejection drugs that keep her body from attacking and killing the new organs that so graciously gave her life back to her are basically all that’s left.

(The body’s kind of weird that way, right?)

Two little pills that she will take for the rest of her life so there is “a rest of her life.”

And yes, she takes them religiously, at 9 AM and 9 PM, like clockwork.

No matter where we are or what we’re doing.

Consistently.

“So Steve,” you’re asking, “What does this have to do with writing?”

A lot. And quite possibly… everything.

If your writer’s life is to survive and thrive, that is.

Two little pills to keep you consistent

Last week I attended a virtual writers’ “Bootcamp.”

So much information was presented that it will take some time to digest it all. Thankfully, along with my notes (which honestly, are somewhat sparse by design) I have access to the recordings and slides and other aspects of the presentations.

Whew!

What I look for in these conferences more than tactics or strategies are key concepts.

Concepts that apply to me, that speak to me, that motivate me. That’s what I write down.

And I do that for each speaker. I can go back to the recordings for strategic planning and ideas.

But inspiration strikes once, and at any given moment. If I don’t capture it…

it’s gone.

So, amongst all the ideas, the strategies, the charts and graphs and illustrations, one key concept spoke directly to me.

Consistency.

You’ll never succeed with a hit and miss mentality for working. Show up every day, plant your butt in a chair, and get to work.

And the two little pills that now fill my copywriter’s pillbox are outlined below.

Pills to be taken consistently… every day.

Here’s what I learned.

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The first pill is writing

No surprise, right?

After all, it was a copywriter’s conference and you’d expect writing to be front and center. Or at least be in the mix somewhere.

It was. But the person who “spoke” to me the most on this was Ann Handley.

And the word that stood out most was consistency.

You might be thinking, “Well… I try to write every day!”

No try… do. Thanks again, Master Yoda.

Ann’s process is to write every day, seven days a week. (Hey… I’m writing this on a Sunday, so…).

She aims for 1,000 words a sitting, although that’s not set in stone. Sometimes she writes more, sometimes less.

But the key idea is… she writes.

Here’s something else I found interesting. She separates her business writing from her personal writing. Ann’s in the middle of drafting another book, and that’s done in the early morning, before starting on business work.

She not only separates the time, but also location. While her work tasks are done in the office, she writes out behind her house in a “writing shed” designed for that.

Shades of E. B. White, right?

Look, I’m not saying you need to be that drastic. You may not have a second writing station to work with. But…

Do write every day.

And keep business and personal writing separated by time if nothing else.

Most of my personal writing is kept for the weekend. That may change… but for now, that’s the schedule.

My writing business takes precedence during the week. Most of it is writing for clients. But it may include writing for my website and LinkedIn profile.

I’ve done some updates to both in the past two weeks.

Almost all of my writing is done on the Baby Grand in my office.

But the Road Warrior (my trusty laptop) travels with me to far off lands like the living room or the bench under the oak in the side yard.

Great for personal writng tasks.

And it will be my companion when I trek off to Austin in October.

So the first little pill is writing.

The more you write, the better you’ll be. It’s by writing you’ll develop your personal tone and voice. And be sure to write everything with a critical eye…

even notes on the fridge, LOL.

But there’s another important pill to take.

And it affects your creativity just as much as actual writing.

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The second pill is, of course…

Reading.

You knew that was coming too, didn’t you.

But interestingly, for some it’s a pill not always taken regularly… sometimes not at all.

Even more seriously, it’s often lacking the right ingredients.

Thinking back to the copywriter’s bootcamp I attended, the last presenter was Bob Bly, often called America’s copywriter.

In the Q&A chat, I asked the question “What should we, as copywriters, be reading? Should we read more than books about copywriting, marketing, and business in general?”

I knew the answer already. We’ve emailed back and forth before, and I’ve even had the privilege of talking over a meal or two with him in person.

So, I was positive what his answer would be… just needed to hear it again for reinforcement. In a word…

Everything.

Sure, you should read books on copywriting, writing in general, marketing, business building and a host of other topics related to your craft.

But also read other forms of writing, fiction and non fiction alike. Even graphic novels (comic books) and children’s stories.

Yeah… storybooks for kids.

E.B. White, one half of the team that created Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, also penned the classics Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Charlotte’s Web.

I have them all in my library, ready to inspire and direct me.

To help me develop my own tone and voice.

Here’s a partial list of my library collection:

• The Copywriter’s Handbook, 4th edition by Bob Bly

• As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

• Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric by Ward Farnsworth

• Farnsworth’s Classical English Metaphor (same guy as previous)

• The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

• Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte

• Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

• Everybody Writes (first and second edition by Ann Handley)

• On Writing by Stephen King

• The Stand by Stephen King

• Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

• And a host of others, too numerous to mention!

So my advice to you is to read widely and read often. Make it a daily habit and reap the benefits.

By the way, one of the big bennies of reading is beating the blank page blues.

I know a lot of people now who use some form of AI chat to break through writer’s block. And that’s okay… occasionally.

Don’t get hooked on it.

And some people use AI to write their first draft. Do you?

I’ve done that, but the results seem less than stellar… and it takes a lot of work to make it write… I mean… right.

According to Ann Handley in her most recent newsletter:

The first draft is the thinking draft. That's where you need to be fully present. On board. Just you and your glorious ideas.

Otherwise, you undermine yourself. You shortchange your growth and creativity. You put the ROBOTs first. You put yourself second.

The first draft is the thinking draft. (Said twice for emphasis.) Protect the part of you that truly makes your content, your writing, your voice your own.

Why? Because otherwise and over time, your skills will atrophy. You will doubt yourself more. You will build a dependency.

One thing I do when that ogre rears its ugly head is read. What I read may or may not be related to my writing.

Even so, filling my brain with words seems to unclog my mind and let the ideas flow again.

One more thing before we go.

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What’s your fave… paper or plastic

Or rather, paper or digital.

I’m talking for either writing or reading… or both.

I get it.

There’s nothing like the physical pages of a book to make us smile. The smell of the book adds another sensory wonder to the reading.

I use both for writing and for reading.

My bookshelves have a lot of physical books. But I also use the Kindle app on my computer, my laptop, and my phone.

No matter where I’m at, I have something to read by my side… or in my pocket.

319 somethings, to exact.

And you would NOT believe some of the places I’ve read (including the shower. But only once. Water and phones don’t mix.)

Another value to digital book apps, like Kindle, is that adding a quote to your Word doc is simpler, automatically adding attribution.

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Fulghum, Robert. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things (p. 2). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

See how easy that was? Took about 2 seconds.

Cool.

The same goes for writing. Probably 99.9987 percent of what I write for clients is digital. Maybe more, LOL.

But there are times when nothing works better than putting a physical pen or pencil to actual paper. Again from Ann’s newsletter.

Dear pen/paper crowd: You are my people. Amazing that even a tiny 5% of us put pencil to paper as a quietly powerful way to focus. It's a dead-simple escape from the digital chaos and relentless pings that define our work lives.

Science shows that writing things down longhand helps us remember them better.

I find that it helps us anchor onto ideas better, too. Ideas take root in my mind better. They cling to the bedrock and manage to grow no matter what chaos is whirling around them. My brain continues to work on it long after I put the pencil down.

Now I have to confess. The “pen and paper” I use is of the digital variety. With an e-ink tablet and stylus, I still write things out manually.

And sometimes, I can even read my own writing.

And with no outside distractions to keep me from thinking and dreaming and creating, I’m often more productive.

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Let’s bring this home, shall we?

Two little pills—writing and reading—are the panacea for what ails you when the words just won’t flow. Or the ideas fail to show their shining faces.

Take a good dose of them every day…

And a writer thou shalt be.

Consistently.

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Until next time!

Steve M