What I learnt from Lifelong writing habit - The secret to writing everyday, by Chris Fox

I would consider this to be one of the best self help books I have ever read. Very brief with some powerful suggestions and exercises. I have been struggling with starting to write regularly. I used to write content for my clients and sometimes for my blog, but that was just out of a sudden rush of motivation.

Once this wave resided, I was back to the life where I was just dreaming about writing and not doing the actual work. I think I was not ready to go through the whole journey of being a writer, where you face challenges such as writer's block, lack of ideas and motivation, failure in getting the content approved or even just not liking the content you have written yourself.

Being a content writer is my dream life, where I have the freedom to write my content anytime and from anywhere. I want to travel and write content that impacts the lives of people in a positive way. No, doubt, millions of people will be dreaming of this life and very few of them are able to put in the actual work and live this dream life. I wanted to live, but was not ready to put in the actual work.

I struggle with a low attention span and I stay distracted all the time. My business of web development and digital marketing always keeps me on my toes. Generating business, making sure the things are getting done the right way, communicating with the clients, managing the team, all this kept me distracted from my dream life.

I motivated myself and tried to start writing content as a part of my new year resolutions, but most of these resolutions were dead in the first week of January itself. I purchased a couple of courses on Udemy and tried following their approach, but those were not meant for me. These online courses were on do’s and don’t of good writing and how to become a professional writer. I had a different problem and that was to get disciplined and consistent as a writer. This is the first and most important step, if you want to start your journey as a writer.

One day in December 2024, I set up an account on reddit as I had heard that communities on reddit are very good with people posting useful stuff rather than creating unnecessary noise. After setting up the profile, I joined a couple of writers communities and posted a couple of questions such as “New to Writing. Want to get disciplined, any suggestions please?”.

I got a lot of interesting replies and one of them suggested to me this great book “Lifelong writing habit - The secret to writing everyday, by Chris Fox”. The author has shared great suggestions and advice in this book supported with exercises. There were a total of 12 exercises in this book and I loved doing each and every exercise. One thing that got stuck in my mind is that motivation is temporary and you need to form habits, if you want to pursue something for a lifetime.

There are some things that you know, but you only realize them when someone else tells you that on your face. For example, I love running and I have a habit of running at least 5 days a week. The days when I don't run, I feel lazy, down and depressed. I am doing it regularly and for the last 12 years because I have made this a habit.

Another issue that he talks about a lot is figuring out the distractions in your life that stop you from writing and getting rid of these distractions. These can be in the form of your habits such as spending a lot of time on social media, procrastination, multi tasking etc. Some people in your life can be a cause of distraction as well. So try to build a barrier around them. He wants you to build a list of your good and bad habits and list them on a paper. After that, start working on the bad habits and allocate the time you speed on these to something you love and want to pursue for the lifetime.

One interesting exercise he suggests is to write 2-3 paragraphs about your dream life, what you want to achieve and whether this is achievable or not. If it is achievable, just write in 2-3 lines about what you need to do to achieve your dream life. Add some images of your dream home or the places you want to visit while living your dream life. Now, look at this document daily before you start writing. You can also look at this document when you are feeling distracted, just to understand why you are doing what you are doing.

Chris wants you to work on organizing and tracking your work regularly. One of his suggestions is to start writing 1000 words daily and with time, it will become a habit. Create a spreadsheet and add the topic you are going to write about and how many words you have written. Try to go above 1000 words, but not below that. I have started implementing this religiously and enjoying it a lot. Yes, in the beginning it feels like a lot of work, but again if you feel like not doing it, just look at the document with your dream life written on it.

For tracking your work, you can use free tools such as Trello. I use trello as I have been using it for a long time. Chris, suggests some other tools as well, that you can use. It’s up to you. Make sure that you open and update the progress status everyday. Always finish what you have started. Create a reminder for these projects in your Calendar or project management system. Never leave a blog post, article or a scene that you are writing in between. Believe me, leaving work in between to take care of that after sometime will only make it more difficult. Start with smaller blog posts and articles. Once you complete these on time, a momentum will be built that will help you complete more complex and larger projects.

Always surround yourself with positive people, who motivate you and have similar interests and goals. If you are an introvert like me, join online communities, as I did on reddit. Find yourself a mentor, as they can understand your challenges and barriers, because they must have been through all that when they started their writing journey.

Everyone these days listens to e-books and podcasts. You can subscribe to Audible for e-books and spotify for podcasts, Chris also gives you a list of writing and self help related e-books and podcasts he recommends. Include these in your daily schedule, keep 30-45 minutes daily to listen to them each day.

Chris emphasizes the importance of building a routine for your writing habit. Try to follow the same routine everyday. For me, early morning works really well, when my mind is fresh after a good night's sleep. Just to pamper yourself, decide on some rewards that you can give yourself after following the schedule for a specific duration. I have decided to reward myself with a pair of new running shoes, if I stick to the routine of writing 1000 words every day for the first 90 days.

In the end, I would like to say that writing is a lifelong journey. Things that look tough initially will get easier with time and experience. Just keep writing and keep learning.

After completing this book, I have started reading his next book 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. :) You can get these books from Amazon.