The Discipline to Make Art Takes Conscious Work
Whatever the art, consistency is a matter of discipline.
I’ve been writing fiction since I was 9 years old. Over time, my work has been both consistent and sporadic.
For almost 2 decades, I wrote sporadically. Some of that was also a product of being in school or working a more traditional job. I love being a storyteller, and while I’ve also been an actor and a DJ on some radio stations (mostly while in HS and college), writing has always been where I turn to explore my imagination and philosophies.
Consistency hasn’t come easily. I recognized this as I worked on my Source Chronicles fantasy series. At the time, I was also working a traditional job, but knew I needed to be more consistent.
As my first-ever New Year’s Action, I decided I would absolutely write a blog post every Wednesday. This was the start of my Pathwalking philosophy, and I haven’t missed a week since (for the mathematically inclined, it’s been 766 weeks and counting).
Despite these steps, I still lacked consistency. Everything I read told me the same thing: I needed more discipline.
Historically, I suck at being disciplined.
Balking at orders and other similar issues
After college, I tried to fit myself into Corporate America. More than once. Almost every time I did this, it proved to be problematic.
First and foremost, I’m a round peg trying to fit myself into square holes in that world. I’m a free-thinker, question authority when it makes little or no sense, and a problem-solver who tends to think outside the box.
Over the years, I worked in tech support, customer service, benefits administration, marketing, and similar roles. (I also spent more than a decade in retail management, but that was a better fit than the others). Some companies were pretty big, others quite small. I usually did better in startups – until I butted heads with someone.
For example, I worked in a tiny audiophile music label as the marketing/sales manager. The boss brought in a consultant who looked great on paper but had ideas I disagreed with. He once insisted that a letter I was sending to potential customers have “award winning” in it. When I asked him what awards we’d won, he said that didn’t matter. I disagreed. The letter he saw said “award winning,” but the letter I sent out didn’t.
Likewise, working for a rather large company in tech support, the manager told us to bring to his attention things that could be improved. When I did so, I learned he didn’t actually want that. Suffice it to say, I saw the writing on the wall as I suddenly started getting written up for bullshit reasons.
Hence, while I can be disciplined, I don’t do well in the face of what I disagree with. I bounced around different jobs for quite a while.
Yet I always come back to writing. When the pandemic hit, I had a chance to make more of it.
The importance of discipline
When the pandemic closed the office where I was working, I saw the opportunity before me to write more consistently. But how could I do that? What would it take to discipline myself to that end?
I read a lot. Blogs, books, audiobooks, magazines, and so on. Along the way, I’ve read about how other artists discipline themselves.
Some set very specific times they work, like between the hours of 10 and 3. Others insist on setting timers throughout the day for uninterrupted blocks ranging from half an hour to a few hours. Still others choose word counts.
This comes from a wide range of writers and artists. And it got me to thinking – if they can do it, I can do it.
So, I set my goal. I would write 1500 words of fiction a day. Fiction specifically, because I’d become consistent with blogging. What began as once a week in 2012 blossomed into as much as 6 days a week at one point before settling to the current 3 blogs a week. In addition to the 766 and counting Pathwalking blogs, I’ve written 654 Positivity blogs (every Monday) and essays here every Tuesday for nearly 300 weeks.
I began to work on writing 1500 words of fiction a day somewhere in 2020. At first, the discipline was a challenge. I’m easily distracted. I sometimes have what I call ADOS – Attention Deficit Oooooooooo, Squirrel! syndrome. Doomscrolling and email have been known to draw away my attention.
I realized that discipline takes work. More specifically, conscious work. You can’t trust rote, routine, and habit. At least, not at first. Effort is necessary.
The conscious work to create discipline
First, I recognized I needed to find a better way to be more disciplined. Then I acknowledged it. This is important because it’s easy to recognize something and then ignore what you learn. Acknowledging it means you aren’t ignoring it. I then set about creating better discipline.
To do that, I acquired a whiteboard. On that whiteboard, I set up a group of goals. Every weekday, my goals include writing 1500 words of fiction, editing something I’m working on, exercise, meditation, staying on top of my affirmations, and drinking plenty of water.
By checking these off, I’m holding myself accountable. At the start of each week, I write down how I did the week before. Then I track this to see how consistent I’m being.
Because I’ve tracked these disciplines, I know that in 2024 I met my writing goal 36% of the time. But rather than berate myself for a lack of discipline, I used this to spur me to do better. In 2025, I met my writing goal 81% of the time.
This takes daily conscious effort. But because I’ve been more disciplined in doing my art – my writing – I’m on track to have written 3.5 of 5 novels in my new Gentleman Space Pirate series before the end of the year (each book being more than 90,000 words).
While it’s become more habitual, it still takes conscious work to have the discipline to do my art. But I believe it’s utterly worthwhile, and I continue striving for greater consistency and producing more.
Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own authentic creator, whatever form that takes?
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