Nicolas Cole explains his fourth creative habit: consume the same type of work you intend to produce. Reading nonfiction while writing nonfiction, or fiction while writing fiction, reinforces the right mindset and improves output. He uses brief, targeted consumption before each task to reduce switching costs and anchor his thinking.
Rule number four, consume what you want to create. So this is building on rule three, where if you're going to take time to consume other people's work, you know, if you're going to study your craft, well, you actually want to be consuming the very thing that you are trying to create. So this is something I've really noticed with myself with writing. If I am in the middle of writing a nonfiction book, I get a lot out of reading other people's nonfiction. Whereas if I'm working on a fiction book, then the best thing that I can do for myself in that chapter would be to read other people fiction. So whatever thing that you're trying to create should also be the thing that you are consuming. And, you know, I'm at a point in my career now where the thing that I'm creating is changing on a daily basis. I have a lot of switching costs between different companies and different projects, different initiatives. And one thing that's really helped me is that every day before I go into creating a new or different thing, I first take a little bit of time to consume some version of the very thing that I'm trying to create. You know, if I'm working on a new digital product, I'm going to go consume one of our old digital products or someone else's digital product so that I can anchor my mindset there. Whereas if I wake up and I'm working on fiction, I might start that morning by reading someone else's fiction. So I'm a very big believer in these two rules together. You know, create more than you consume. And if you're going to consume something, you want to consume the very thing that you're trying to create.
What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
