My Writing Routine
This is my writing routine — I write when I feel like it or when I need to. That’s it. Pretty boring.
I know it’s common for autistic people to need routine in their lives, but that’s not the case for me. I do, however, need to know what is happening and when so that I can plan for it. I freak out if things are sprung on me. But in terms of routine, it’s more stressful to structure my day than not. I think that’s because I’ll put pressure on myself to stick to that structure, and if I wander off down some side road I beat myself up about it. Because I’m at home most of the time, it’s up to me to impose order on my day, and I’m not particularly good at it.
That said, I love deadlines and I work well to them. A deadline is a clear goal with a clear reward — in other words, heaven for my autistic brain. The only downside is that I can go too far with it. When I was a uni student, I’d put in too much work on assignments, and go beyond what was necessary. I’d also hate myself if I didn’t get top marks. With creative writing, I can get deeply lost in a project to the point where little else matters. So it’s about finding a balance, as always.
A lot of writers will commit to writing every day, or to writing a certain number of words. This isn’t me. Some days I write, some days I don’t, but as long as I’m always working to improve my writing then I’m happy.
It might sound odd, but so much of creative writing isn’t actually writing. It’s thinking about writing, or even just thinking. It’s letting ideas marinate in your mind without actually putting those ideas to paper. It can take a long time, and that’s hard to accept, especially if you want to achieve everything instantly (and I do). Plus, we live in a world which tells us we’re wasting time if we’re not actively doing something, and whatever that thing is, it needs to be tangible.
It can be easy to forget that the way we order time is artificial. We may watch the sun rise and set and be aware of the passing of the days, but our lives are arranged around entirely made up concepts. I like to remind myself of that every so often, because it takes away some of the pressure. There will always be deadlines that I have to meet, and I will meet them, but how I meet them is up to me. I’m not a lesser person if I don’t live to a strict schedule, and I’m not a lesser writer if I don’t write every day. All that matters is that I keep moving forward.
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
