6 Tips To Nail Down Your Writing Routine (From Legendary Author Henry Miller)

Nicolas Cole
6 min readFeb 28, 2024

Henry Miller was a prolific artist.

He wrote novels that were so controversial the US banned them from publication (The Tropic of Cancer and The Tropic of Capricorn to name just two of them). He was also a literary critic, wrote travel memoirs, painted watercolors, and was an amateur pianist. So if there is anyone we should look to on how to create a consistent routine for our creativity, it’s him.

Henry Miller

In 1930, Henry made a list of 11 Commandments that are a must-read for any aspiring creative:

These 11 commandments were part of Henry’s personal “Program” — they were rules that he followed day in and day out.

From these, we can draw 6 overarching principles which we should try and implement to create a more reliable writing process.

Let’s dive in!

1. Write first and always

Miller put writing at the center of his schedule.

It didn’t matter what other commitments he had, the writing came first. This is a trait we see in so many legendary writers we admire and…

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Nicolas Cole

100M+ Views | 5x Author | Co-founder of Ship 30 for 30 | Want to start writing online? Get the Ultimate Guide: https://startwritingonline.com