How a Simple Tip From Elvis Will Improve Your Writing
By: Glyn Bawden
Tags: Writing Life, Habits, Improvement, Writing, Routine

There is no question in anyone's mind that Elvis Presley was probably one of the greatest showmen the world has ever seen. But he wasn’t the Elvis we saw on stage all the time. In fact, growing up, he was painfully shy.

On stage though, he knew exactly how to get an audience into the palm of his hand.

But before each of his shows, ‘Elvis the man’ had to transform himself into ‘Elvis the performer’. To do this, he would position his trailer exactly 1000 steps away from the stage and, as he walked towards the stage for a show he would gradually, with each passing step, transform himself into Elvis the Showman, visualising the crowd going wild and the success of the show until by the time he reached the stage, he was completely transformed.

Now, I’m not suggesting for one second that anyone positions themselves 1000 steps away from their laptop and gradually walks towards it visualising great prose pouring out when we sit down. But it’s to illustrate the point that even the greatest have their routines.

Another ‘King’, another routine

Stephen King, author of over 50 novels and one of the world’s most prolific writers has a daily routine. He says;

I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning,” he explained. “I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places…The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.” (Source: Lisa Rogak, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King)

And King is in good company, the 1948 Pulitzer prize-winning poet WH Auden said in 1958:

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition”

There are lists after lists online of writers and other artists who swear by the power of routine;

10 Famous Writers And Their Daily Creative Routines | Thought Catalog

What exactly is it that makes a daily routine so powerful?

Your mind doesn’t know the difference

Our minds are incredibly open to suggestions and if we tell our mind something is happening then, if that suggestion is strong enough, our mind will believe it. Our minds are unable to differentiate between what is real and what is suggested. It’s the reason why many elite sports stars use visualisation techniques to enhance performance.

Setting up the same scenario day after day and producing work whilst in that scenario, that Pavlovian response will begin to trick our minds into believing that whenever we are in that situation, we are going to produce work.

If we work at the same time, in the same place, and with the same routine there is something hypnotic about that preparation.

Even if you are unable to write at the same time every day, you can always have the same routine of preparation.

It is not simply the act of writing that is important but the act of preparing to write. If we have no routine and a haphazard and chaotic approach to working then it is very likely that we will take the line of least resistance and produce nothing because we will always believe that somehow 'The Muse’ wasn’t with us that day, or that we weren’t in a good place.

Look who you’re up against

Writers, artists and performers around the world throughout history have always believed that the production of work, however good, bad or indifferent it is, is what is most important and an equally important factor in that is the need for a routine.

So, do yourself a favour and start working on your routine. After all, look at the list below. They ALL had a writing routine and can’t ALL be wrong;

Stephen King

Haruki Murakami

Kurt Vonnegut

Henry Miller

Maya Angelou

Karen Russell

Barbara Kingsolver

E B White

Hunter S Thompson