(2 min read.) Writing consistently isn’t about showing up every day.
It’s about always coming back to the page, no matter how long you’ve been gone, because the page is home.
Your brain wants consistency. On a neurological level, the brain finds inconsistency alarming or aversive (science fact.) So, if you think you’re not a writer and you try to write, your brain may send up alarm signals. “Writing is inconsistent with what we usually do. This is threatening and weird. Don’t do it.”
When you think of yourself as a writer, the brain can experience the opposite of that distress when you write. The phenomenon of your behavior matching your values, identity, and goals is something called COGNITIVE CONSONANCE. It feels great. Writing consistently feels easier when you’ve taught yourself to believe you’re a writer.
You might already be familiar with “cognitive dissonance.” That’s the clinical term for the unpleasant or disorienting feeling of something being at odds with itself. It can happen when we try to reconcile our own conflicting beliefs (like “I’m a feminist” and “I really enjoy super-misogynistic James Bond movies”) and just feel kind of weird about it. On a more intense scale, cognitive dissonance can explain why people sometimes react with anger or denial when they witness or encounter something that deeply challenges their worldview. Cognitive dissonance gets talked about conversationally, used as shorthand for confusion or discomfort, and is referenced in jokes and memes.
Its opposite is “cognitive consonance,” the psychological experience of feeling that one’s actions and beliefs are fully aligned and harmonious. In research and in life, this seems to get a lot less attention than cognitive dissonance. But it is seriously vital to a sense of well-being.
Want good news?
You can build it.
The more often you return to writing, the more your brain will recognize it as an activity that is “in harmony” with who you are.
Create cognitive consonance by writing more often, but more importantly, by always eventually returning to writing when you wander off. Keep coming back, and you’ll eventually learn to experience and perceive writing as a natural part of how you live.
Over time and practice your brain will stop fighting your desire to write, will stop finding it alarming, and will start accepting the page as home.
Consistency doesn’t always look like writing every day. It doesn’t always look like writing the same thing, writing the same way, or writing for the same reason. But the more often you return to writing, the easier it gets for your brain to let you write.
Wander off for a week. Wander off for a decade. Stop writing for a long time, if you need to. Life happens.
Just come home.
Come back.
Consistency doesn’t mean you never leave.
Consistency means always coming back.
xo, megan
Or just go home to the blog.
These (hopefully) really quite helpful creative writing tips offer what I’ve learned as an award-winning author who writes a million words a year, and what I’ve learned about supporting others as a private writing coach.
There’s no one way to write. There’s only your way. I hope some of my tactics and ideas can help you find it.
Yup, I’m a writing coach.
I work with folks at all levels of experience and all levels of income. My writers range from unhoused teens living on the streets to C-suite executives who want to up-level their communication. If you want a private coaching session but can’t afford it, email megan@howtowritesomething.com and ask for scholarship info.
curious/confused?: what does a writing coach do (and not do)
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