Judy Reeves’s 10 Daily Habits That Make You A Great Writer
Samuel Kimu
Email Marketer For DTC Brands I Grant Writer For Non-Profits I Consultant I Speaker
Judy Reeves is an American writer, teacher, and writing practice expert.
Her books include:
Her latest book is Wild Women, Wild Voices: Writing from Your Authentic Wildness.
Judy Reeves’s 10 Daily Habits That Make You A Great Writer
1. Eat Healthfully
Give your body what it wants so it can support you. Eat healthfully for stamina, good health, and the sensory experience of it.
Avoid excess Caffeine, Alcohol, and Sugar.
2. Be Physical
If you’re sitting at your desk all hours of the day and night, your whole body could petrify that way. Move it - stretch, exercise, work out. It roils the blood and feeds the brain.
You're in touch with the earth when you walk, run, bicycle, or swim.
3. Laugh Out Loud
You take big breaths when you laugh out loud. Laughing helps rid the body of toxins. So lighten up.
Take a break from work to look at cartoons; tell a joke; share with friends and play with your puppy, your child, or your neighbor’s child.
Find something funny in the world and let loose belly laughs. Create a playground for the Muse.
4. Read A Lot
Read as much as you can of the best writers.
Read on two levels: one as a reader and one as a writer. Study how other writers use language, and how they construct a piece.
Notice what you love about certain writers. Try reading aloud (especially poetry) before you write.
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5. Cross-Fertilize Your Writing Art
Experience other art forms like music, photography, dance, painting, sculpture, film, and theatre.
Keep open books of art in your writing space, a basketful of postcard art to leaf through.
If music distracts you while you write, listen at other times when you can absorb the music and it is not just a background sound.
Visit a museum; walk in a sculpture garden. Let other art evoke your own.
6. Practice Spirituality
Take time every day to consciously go to that place you revere for prayer, meditation, or simply be mindful and present in the present.
Make time for whatever you do that keeps you in touch with your spiritual self.
7. Pay Attention
Notice the quality of light, the heft of air, the color of the sky, faces, clouds, flowers, garbage, graffiti - all of it. Slow down and pay attention.
Stop during your walks and examine a leaf. Read the writing in shop windows. Observe people getting on a bus, the bus driver, and the stink of the bus exhaust.
8. Give Back
Do something good or kind for someone or the planet.
Speak to someone you don’t know, smile, help a friend or a stranger, plant a flower, reuse a paper bag, wrap a gift with newspaper, walk instead of driving.
Be generous with whatever you have to give.
9. Connect with Another Writer
Meet a writing friend for coffee, write a letter to a writer whose work you admire, call your writer friend, attend a poetry reading, attend a book signing, participate in a workshop, write with someone, attend a writers’ chat room, join an online writers’ group, respond to a blog, email a poem to a friend.
10. Write
Sometimes, someplace, every day, honor your writer-self and spend some time writing.
Hone your craft!