Instill daily habits of creativity: Impress yourself in November

Are you up for a challenge? Do you want to flex your creative habit muscles and be super impressed with yourself for years to come? Are you up for proving to yourself that you can actually write a novel in a month around your normal schedule? November 1st is the start date for NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month Sign up here!. This is a fantastic free to enter ‘let’s each write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days’ worldwide endeavour. I first did it in 2008, having no clue what I was writing about apart from a vague idea of starting a story about an accapella group, I was in one such harmony group at the time. I wrote those 1667 words a day (1667 words a day for 30 days is 50,000 words) and continued beyond the end of November to finish it at 65,000 words.

Whether you are writing a novel, a screenplay or an album this daily application of self discipline in working on a project are vital to success. In fact I will go as far as to say that without forcing yourself to be self disciplined to indulge in the creativity drug of your choice be it writing, acting, singing or making art, then you will never be truly successful. Sure you may have moments of great victories, but a consistent work ethic will give you a creative life of joy, a constant improving of your skills, a habit that come rain or shine, bad press, good press or no press keeps you working on your craft no matter what.

All creatives fight with the constant need for output and the struggle as to whether their art is any good. An instilled habit of consistent daily output allows us to get our dramas onto the page, the canvas or the screen as opposed to becoming those stereotypical creatives who live life large, have too many affairs and generally die unhappy and broke 🙂 That still may happen but a daily creative habit ensures that at least you have a large output of work, as opposed to being a wannabe author or actress who just talked about their dreams.

In Twyla Tharp’s wonderful book ‘The Creative Habit’ she talks of a life time of getting up early to the gym and then the dance studio. She is an incredibly successful choreographer and she focuses on the important of daily training and output. The truth is dancers tend to be far more disciplined that us actors or writers but we all need that focus.

So I would encourage everyone to do NaNoWriMo whatever their art form as it really reaches that part of you, the making of art, no matter what. You will absolutely find time for those 1667 words a day, I remember one year reading of a NaNoWriMo’er finishes her novel in hospital after giving birth. 310,000 people did it in 2013 starting off as painters and nurses and ended up at the end of November with the right to call themselves novelists.
I promise you will hit December 1st feeling great about yourself and you can even set January aside to edit!

There is also a lovely community on the web and off line. They have organised coffee shop write ins and kick offs, some of which I have attended in the past. Wandering into the chosen Starbucks or Costa Coffee shop in Central London and seeing many people all head down in their laptops is surreal but wonderful to see, creatives all focused on carving out time in their normal schedule to write for between 30 to 60 minutes a day.

My first NaNoWriMo novel is now on its fifth draft and I think it may indeed be a TV series rather than a novel. My second novel I think probably a feature film script … All I have for this years is a title. The rest of the work: the editing, getting it published or self published etc is yet to come but without a draft one you can do nothing.

It would be lovely to hear from any of my readers if you are also doing NaNoWriMo!