Forming Good Writing Habits…Lent and Beyond!

By Debby Giusti

Throughout these forty days of Lent, Christians around the world are practicing acts of faith to draw closer to the Lord. The three primary ways of turning back to Him and putting God and neighbor first are through prayer, fasting and alms giving.

Prayer helps us foster a personal relationship with the Lord. From Sunday services to private prayer, spending time with Him deepens that relationship.

Fasting, while traditionally from food, entails doing without anything that brings pleasure. We can fast from TV or Facebook. Even from coffee at Starbucks. The idea is to focus less on self and more on God and neighbor. Emptying ourselves provides added room for the Lord. Hunger helps us form a spiritual solidarity with the poor. We relate to their suffering, and hopefully, take action to alleviate or mitigate their need, which leads to the third leg of the Christian tripod.

Alms giving encompasses our financial donations but includes the many ways we share our time, talent and treasure and any acts of mercy done out of Christian love of neighbor. Feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, comforting the grieving or teaching the illiterate to read are all as important as our monetary tithe and are included in the alms of self that we offer first to Christ and then to our brothers and sisters.

           

While the spiritual blessings of a Lent well-lived are huge, another benefit should be noted as well. Any action repeated for an extended period of time weaves its way into the fabric of our lives. Thus, the way we live Lent can become part of our daily routine that continues on even after our Easter celebrations. In other words, Lent helps us form good habits for the right reason.

How can we apply that habit formation to the writing life?

If you’re like me, you have a few things you’d like to incorporate into your writing routine. Let’s see how we can use the model of our Lenten practices to discipline our writing careers.

We’ll start with repetition. The former school of thought claimed habits were established after 21 days of repetition. We now know more goes into the mix.

In his article, “5 Scientific Ways to Build Habits That Stick,” Gregory Ciotti, author of Sparring Mind, talks about setting “micro quotas and macro goals,” The first step is to incorporate something small into our lives. Once that small step becomes routine, we expand the “quota” by adding the next step in the process that, eventually, takes us to the desired outcome. The small steps, when joined together over time, lead to the goal, or formed habit.

If our desired endpoint is to write 1,000 words a day, we might start by sitting at our computer at a specific time each day. At first, we’re not focused on the 1,000 word/day goal, rather just the step of coming to our computer and sitting there, whether we complete a sentence or write a page.

According to Charles Duhigg, in his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, habits make up about 40% of what we do each day. He identifies three parts of what he calls The Habit Loop: a cue or trigger, the routine or action, and the reward. 

Not only can The Habit Loop be used by individuals, but also by businesses, which Duhigg illustrates with the story of the first successful toothpaste. In the early 1900s, the manufacturer of Pepsodent hired Claude Hopkins, a savvy advertising executive, to convince Americans to brush their teeth, something that wasn’t routinely done in that era. 

Hopkins used the three-step method in his ad campaign. The morning film, or plaque, on teeth was the cue or trigger. Brushing with Pepsodent was the desired action that removed the film, and the fresh, clean mouth that resulted was the reward. Three weeks after his first newspaper ad appeared in print, Pepsodent sales soared. More and more people started to brush their teeth, and eventually, brushing teeth became an established habit for most Americans.

Writer James Clear publishes a weekly online newsletter focused on creating habits that increase performance and productivity. He also offers a free handbook on his website, entitled, “Transform Your Habits, The Science of How to Stick to Good Habits and Break Bad Ones.”

Like Duhigg, Clear breaks down habit formation into three steps he calls The Three R’s.

Reminder – the trigger that starts the action

Routine – the action itself

Reward – the benefit derived from the action

To come up with an effective reminder, or trigger, Clear says to “link a new habit with a current behavior.” If we want to write 1000 words/day, we need a trigger. Perhaps we could pair sitting at our computer with drinking our first cup of coffee in the morning. We pour a cup of coffee—a process that’s already a routine in most of our lives—and head immediately to our office or work area to drink our coffee while sitting at our computer. The coffee is the trigger that moves us to the computer.

But we want to do more than just sit at our computer, we want to write a specific word count. Okay. Let’s take another look at our habit formation process.

We’ve established that if we want to form a habit of writing 1,000 words/day, we’ll start by sitting at our computer each day after we pour our first cup of coffee. Since I like timers, let’s set our initial “quota” in 15-minute writing increments that grow to 20 and then 30-minute periods. At the end of the writing session, we count our words. Perhaps we’re writing a page, or approximately 250 words, every 30 minutes. Gradually, we increase our output by increasing the number of 30-minute sessions until we’ve mastered four sessions each morning. That gives us two hours of writing time that should produce approximately 1,000 words.  

Let’s review the steps: Our morning coffee is the cue or trigger and writing each day is the repeated routine, but we still need the third step—the reward.

What can we give ourselves that is pleasurable and encourages us to repeat the process? Breakfast perhaps? Or a second cup of coffee. Maybe it’s showering and getting dressed for the day ahead. Perhaps it’s using a chart to graph the pages written. The gratification could be as simple as seeing our word count grow into a finished manuscript. Rewards don’t need to be big, but they should signal a successful completion of the task.

Going back to our Lenten habits…

Christ tells us to follow Him. He spent 40 days fasting in the desert. Lent is the cue that triggers us to do the same with our daily routines of prayer, fasting and charitable giving. Our reward is a closer walk with the Lord and the satisfaction that comes on Easter morn.

           

The steps to form a habit—Trigger, Repetition, Reward—seem easy at first glance, but in reality, we know it takes hard work and determination to make our goals--and our dreams come true.

What new writing habits or Lenten practices would you like to incorporate into your life? What trigger, repetition and reward will you use to form a new habit? Share your thoughts to be entered in a drawing for a copy of my February release, PLAIN DANGER. I’ll also include an adult coloring book.

Wishing you a blessed Lent!

Debby Giusti

www.DebbyGiusti.com

PLAIN DANGER

By Debby Giusti

DANGEROUS INHERITANCE 

When Carrie York arrives at the house she inherited from her father in an Amish community, she's shocked to discover a soldier's body on the property. Her neighbor, army special agent Tyler Zimmerman, starts investigating the murder, and Carrie fears it's related to her father's mysterious death. Tyler doesn't trust the pretty speechwriter or the suspicious timing of her arrival—especially since her boss is responsible for his father's death. But when someone attacks Carrie, Tyler insists on protecting her. With his help, will Carrie be able to hold on to her inheritance and her life? 

Order your copy HERE!

For my Georgia friends:

I’ll be signing PLAIN DANGER on Thursday, February 18, from 4 to 6:30 PM, at Books-A-Million, The Avenues, Peachtree City. Proceeds from the signing benefit ExceptionalOPS, a Fayette County nonprofit organization that creates Exceptional Opportunities for children and adults with developmental disabilities to help them lead productive lives. The event is open to the public.