Writing and You 1: Habits

Don’t shit where you eat.

I’ve been thinking about this phrase a lot, mainly because I keep peeing in the sinks of my apartment almost as often as I do the toilet because it is my inexorable right as a human being to do so. It’s more water conscious and convenient sure but the trade-off is that if you let it sit in the u-bend too long then the sink starts to smell like stale coffee. I should probably be drinking more water than I do coffee. Or at least, less coffee. Like, I’m pretty sure its not normal for my pee to smell like coffee, but I don’t know whether to up my water intake or lower my coffee intake or what.

Oh yeah right, the writing tips thing.

Much like studying, exercise, and healthy eating, writing is something of a habit to build as much as it is a hobby to indulge in. There are patterns you need to develop, or natural habits that you need to nurture in order to write more effectively. Do you find yourself working better when you have music playing in the background, or when your surroundings are as silent as you can make them? Do you work better at home, or in a more public setting? Daytime, or the evening? Where, when, or how you work, there’s no one singular piece of advice to give a burgeoning writer except “Do what works for you.” Find what works and roll with it, and nothing can stop you.

Oh, except maybe one thing: it’s not a good idea to mix the uses of living spaces. It’s fine to write in the living room, dining room, or even your bedroom. But, as an example, it’s not the best idea to write in your bed, because your body may start to change the association of “bed and sleepytime” with “bed and productive time”. You may find it harder to sleep at night, or you may find yourself nodding off when you want to write. In fact, this happens to be a phenomenon supported by a multitude of psychological studies. Granted, those same studies also say that studying in bed won’t have much of an effect on your GPA, but then again if you’re writing on FiMFiction it’s probably safe to assume that you’re out of high school. You might be in community college though, but college is leaps and bounds easier than high school is. I think it has to do with the freedom to choose both your classes and course load whereas in high school most of your classes are chosen for you.

I think I’ve lost my train of thought here.

Anyway, my point here is still the same: don’t eat your shit, you’ll get dysentery.