• Read like a writer: You know those geeky people you see at Starbucks who are reading while holding a pen and post-it notes? Sorry to break it to you, but that’s the new you. Yes, as nerdy as that may seem, most writers find it impossible to read without somehow capturing all the ideas that reading generates. Novels while poolside… junk mags while hanging at the cottage… they all count, ideas are everywhere—and not just ideas, sentence structures, punctuation use, layout concepts, and so on, you need to keep compiling any and all.Don’t worry, these days you don’t have to blow your cover as a normal person, you can still look cool by capturing your thoughts on your smart phone while secretly you are still geekily feeding your inner writer (…what? You don’t text or email yourself regularly… oh my, we have lots more work to do…). Of course, these days you can even read electronically with an electronic book, so that’s another good disguise once you figure out its features for highlighting and inserting notes, etcetera.
• See the world like a writer: The obvious can’t be stated enough—ideas, sentence structures and so on are everywhere, which brings us back to the self-texting and emailing. Although you need not turn into Nancy Drew or the rookie detective from the movies who always has one of those miniature spiral notebooks at the ready, you do need to always have a way of capturing ideas no matter where you are. Sound like a pain? Here’s the upside, when you see the world like a writer, even the most mundane situation can be viewed as a hotbed of data. So the next time there is something you are dreading—waiting at the dentist office, heading into yet another Team Beating Meeting (oops, I mean Team Building Meeting), having grumpy Aunt Agnes over for dinner, getting ready for yet another supposed Mr. Right blind date—shift into observational-data-collection-mode. View it as an opportunity to observe, to learn… to write.
• Sleep like a writer: Was that a groan? …you even have to sleep like a writer… yes, you do… in fact, this is an absolute “must do.” Look at it this way, you get your work done while you sleep. And, it’s not just some sort of artsy concept, google it—the unconscious prowess you unleash during sleep is well documented. You know the drill, you know what’s coming next… keep a pen and paper on your nightside table. No, not very romantic, but you might as well be the true you, and if you’re a writer, you get ideas and solve things that you are working on while you sleep.
• Nurture your soul like a writer: Creativity is like happiness, it’s something you decide on ahead of time. If you want to be creative, then be creative. Don’t get brainwashed by that BS that some people are creative people and others aren’t. Everyone is creative, just in different ways—and all ways can be nurtured. Like the power of your unconscious mind, this also isn’t just some flakey concept, so stick that in your browser and get googling …there are more ways to nurture your creativity than there are seriously bad reality TV shows out there. Nurture your soul like a writer by nurturing your creativity—just like learning to ride a bike, make it happen.

So back to that double-edged sword, look at it this way, when you walk the walk and live like a writer, the world is your data oyster… you’re never bored and you always have interesting “work” because there is always something to observe, to learn, to write about. OK, enough psychobabble, let’s write!