We all have routines. From the time we wake up, to the time our heads hit the pillow. Routines keep us on track and help us succeed. As a writer, you’ve probably developed some writing schedules as well. Sharpening those pencils, looking around for that elusive muse. However, because our routines are, well, routine, we might not look beyond the usual. For example, years ago, my son played in the local recreational soccer club. For 10 years, he played soccer. We cheered him on from the sidelines from his bunch-ball eight-year-old days to his fierce, gritty, 18-year-old playing days as he tore up and down the field with his teammates. Sometimes they won. Sometimes they lost.
Then, one season during my son’s senior year, a teen from the local competitive soccer club decided to step away from the travel demands of competitive soccer and joined my son’s rec team. After all these years, I thought I knew what running after the ball looked like. I didn’t. When this teen ran, he shot across the field in a leg-pumping blur. His sole focus? To reach that ball. His determination and drive were astonishing. After all those years on the soccer sidelines, I’d never seen anything like it.
Luckily, you don’t need to race up and down a grassy soccer field to succeed at writing. But is your writing routine reaching its potential? Maybe it’s time to take another look, just like the determined soccer player who showed me what was possible. 
Show Up, Sit Down, Repeat
This might seem obvious, but it’s easy for our good intentions of writing regularly to fall by the wayside when we’re not in the mood, social media beckons, or our muse is out to lunch. I’ve often showed up at my computer without a single idea for a project. But as I’ve sat there and pondered, ideas came and it wasn’t long before I was typing away on a new project.
As you may have discovered, it’s easy not to write. There are a million of other things you can do. If you want to succeed at writing, showing up, sitting down, and buddying up with your keyboard needs to be part of your writing routine. One of my favorite quotes is from Calvin Coolidge: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
Slow Down
After getting an idea, typing away, and crossing the manuscript finish line, you might be tempted to blast your literary treasure off into the editorial cosmos the minute you’ve clicked the save button. It’s a familiar occupational hazard. After all that hard work, you’ve fallen in love with it and you can only imagine editors tripping over themselves to offer you a contract.
But wait!
Why? In the heat of routine writing, authors lose perspective, so stepping back and putting the manuscript aside for a while is key. Give it a day or two—or more! Then, read it again. When you’re reading your manuscript “cold,” you’re reading it just as an editor would when it comes across their desk. There’s no creative passion. No fanfare. Just words.
When you wait and read your manuscript cold, mistakes stand out. Gaps of information. Awkward or non-existent transitions. Leaps in logic or flow. Thankfully, when you wait, you’re the only one who sees the mistakes—not an editor—and you can correct them before you really send it out into the world.
Revise
That’s where revision comes in. It’s often said that writing is revision—and it is. As you get into the routine of revising, you get new ideas, better ideas, and better ways of saying what you want to say. Take the time to revise as many times as it takes until it reads effortlessly without any hiccups. Quality tops speed every time. Don’t send it until you’re satisfied with each word, sentence, and punctuation mark. If you want to succeed, make slowing down and revising part of your routine.
Extra Miles
Successful routines include something else too—going the extra mile. There are many ways authors do this depending on their goals. When I took an online writing workshop many years ago with other beginning writers, we were surprised when our instructor required us to read 100 books of our genre during the course. Wow! That seemed like a lot. They were short books, but still—100 books? It was a first introduction to the idea that serious writers go beyond casual efforts and do the hard work that others don’t. 
Planning to submit a manuscript to a magazine? The same extra-mile effort applies. Read dozens of issues, study their submission policies. If they have a theme list, look ahead. What important events, holidays, or anniversaries will come around in six months to a year? You’ll be a step ahead since magazines plan six months to a year in advance.
What is your writing routine? Is it time to look beyond the usual? If you pump up your routine by showing up, slowing down, revising, and going those extra miles, you’ll be just like that leg-pumping soccer player who shot across the field towards the ball—and succeed.
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