Geniuses Don't Need Inspiration, They Follow a Routine

Build a daily habit that brings the muse to you

🏷️ Categories: Literature, Writing, Creativity, Deliberate practice, Habits.

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The idea that inspiration comes spontaneously is a myth.

It's easy to fall into this trap, especially when watching great artists whose output seems inexhaustible. When I started writing, I thought that this privilege to create endlessly was exclusive to a few, but after reading the book Daily rituals, by Mason Currey, where he analyzes the routine of more than 100 artists, I understood everything.

The key is to work every day, without waiting for the perfect moment (because it doesn't exist).

If you want to unlock your creativity, don't chase inspiration.

Create a routine that makes it come to you.

Kafka's demanding routine

Kafka's routine would be impossible for many people to follow, but it worked for him.

Kafka wrote dark settings and twisted plots, but he had a structured routine that made him prolific. In fact, Kafka wasn't just a writer, he worked full time at the Bohemian Kingdom's Industrial Accident Insurance Institute. Still, he had time to write impressive works (Brod, 1960).

How did he do it?

Kafka works as an insurance agent in the morning. When he returned home after lunch, he would take a nap until 7 p.m. Then he would spend time with his family. Then he would spend time with his family and, finally, he would write in the evening, sometimes until 6 a.m. If he stayed up too late, he would catch up on his writing.

If he stayed up too late, he would catch up on sleep with a long nap.

Despite his strange routine (which few of us could maintain), he stuck strictly to it. It didn't matter if he felt inspired or not; at 10 or 11 p.m., Kafka would sit down to write. The commitment to a fixed schedule and his great self-demand made him so prolific.

It didn't matter if the muse arrived, what mattered was that it was time to write.

Picasso's Sleepless Nights

When we think of Picasso, the image of an eccentric artist who constantly challenged the norms comes to mind. His daily routine reflected that same attitude. Although his life was full of chaos and change, there was something constant in his process.

Total dedication to his work, day in and day out.

Picasso was not a morning man; he was like Kafka. He slept until 11 a.m. and began his workday at 3 p.m., working until 2 a.m. During that time, he experimented without rest, without rest, without rest, without rest, without rest. During that time, he experimented without rest, creating multiple works at the same time and without limiting himself to a single pictorial style, as we have already seen.

His routine would be very strange, but he always maintained it.

There was no time for doubt or waiting. He had to work. This is the key: to reserve a space of time that does not depend on chance, that is the time to work.

Asimov did not stop, never

He wrote more than 500 books, some 9000 letters and hundreds of magazine articles.

Did he wait for inspiration to strike?

He was so prolific because of a clue he shared in an interview. According to him, he never stopped because of a creative block. If one project wasn't moving forward, he'd move on to another.

Standing still was not an option.

He always wrote at the same time, early in the morning, without waiting for the perfect moment or the muse. As he said, it was from the constant habit of writing every day at the same time that in the end the ideas came as he wrote. He had trained his ability to write.

Hemingway's mornings

Ernest Hemingway is another perfect example. He had a peculiar routine.

Like Asimov, he got up early in the morning to write. As he himself said, “as soon as the sun came up”. In an interview he explained that he would start around 6 AM and write until noon. For him, the key was the discipline to start each day, no matter how he felt.

Inspiration would come as he worked.

Murakami beats the race at dawn

Haruki Murakami, one of the most admired contemporary writers, is the same way.

He has a rigorous routine. He gets up at 4 a.m. and writes for five hours. Then he does sports, such as running or swimming. This routine, which he follows with relentless discipline, is key to the creative process. He has mentioned it in interviews: his routine makes him extremely prolific and he writes for hours (Wray, 2004).

Note the detail: the routine.

The repetition of the routine is essential to bring out the full potential.

Don't chase inspiration, attract it with your routine.

• It doesn't matter if you spend nights writing and sleep in the afternoons like Kafka.

• It doesn't matter if you spend nights painting and sleep in the morning as Picasso.

• It doesn't matter if you spend your mornings writing like Asimov or Hemingway.

• It doesn't matter if you spend the dawn in front of the paper like Murakami.

The only thing that matters is having a routine and sticking to it.

“When I start writing, I don't have a plan. I just wait for the story to come. I don't choose what kind of story it is or what's going to happen. I just wait. Basically, I can't choose.” — Haruki Murakami

This is the common aspect of great minds. None wait for inspiration. Inspiration comes in the midst of routine, when discipline has set them in motion.

The big problem with waiting for inspiration to come is that it simply doesn't come.

If you don't have a schedule for writing, exercising, or developing any other habit, then you will rely solely on motivation. And motivation is unstable. Establish your routine and dedicate yourself to it. It is your friend, you will live with it for a long time.

Get along well.

✍️ Your turn: What's your writing routine?

💭 Quote of the Day: “Here's the other secret that real artists know and aspiring writers don't. When we sit down each day to do our work, the power is concentrated around us. Ideas emerge. They accumulate.” Steven Pressfield, The War of Art.

See you next time! 👋

References 📚

1. Asimov, I. (1985). Asimov’s interview with Charlie Rose [Vídeo]. YouTube.

2. Brod, M. (1960). Franz Kafka, a biography. Schocken Books.

3. Currey, M. (2013). Daily rituals: How Great Minds Make Time, Find Inspiration, and Get to Work. Pan Macmillan.

4. Ernest Hemingway, The Art of Fiction. (1958). The Paris Review. URL

5. Wray, J. (2004). The Art of Fiction - Haruki Murakami. The Paris Review. URL