The Night Before Ritual: From Scattered Writer to Morning Creator
How Evening Planning Unlocked My Best Writing
Welcome back to Writing Under the Palm Tree. We’re glad you’re here. We’ve saved you a seat on the proverbial grass.
This week, we’re discussing intentions. A word that is quickly becoming the “it” word of 2025.
What the hell does it look like on a day-to-day basis? Let’s find out together.
But first…our first poll! What are your thoughts on intentions vs. resolutions?
A spookily accurate depiction of the inside of my brain when I’m not intentional about my writing practice.
That’s it. I’m calling it. For me, 2025 is the year of intentions. ✍️
Early last November, before embracing the power of setting intentions for my writing, I was writing less.
I woke up, made coffee, and imagined all the ways I would fail at writing.
I would picture all the imperfect sentences I would right, how the ideas that burned bright and crimson in my mind would come out grey and misshapen on the page.
My writing desk is downstairs. The coffee machine is upstairs.
Where would I be? Upstairs of course——I mean, that’s where the rest of the coffee was. What if I wanted another round?
Then, it would be, "Let me just catch up on Social Media real quick,” or “Let me get these dishes out of the way.”
Then, I really should pick up after my toddler. No one wants to wake up to this explosion of plastic cars and wooden blocks.
Just like that, the precious time I had to write would dwindle.
It got me down. I would finally sit down to write and get gloriously lost in the words.
I would have to tear myself away when my toddler woke up yelling “Daddy!” at the uppermost register possible for his two-year-old frame.
Which—don’t get it twisted—is a crazy high register.
I would look at what I had written and feel deflated, because there was so much more I wanted to put on the page, or I wanted to re-shape the words so they caught the light in just the right way.
The next day would rush towards me, and the whole rigamarole would start again.
Clearly, I needed to step back and listen to the way I was moving through my early mornings.
I needed to ask myself these two questions:
What intentions had I set for my morning the night before?
What stratospherically high writing expectations had I set for my next writing session?
Intentions are your invisible guardrails. Just don’t crash into them (because, trust me, It hurts.) 🤕
The next morning, I sunk into my more calm place and listened to myself, replaying yesterday in my mind.
I set intentions for many things I want to accomplish.
If I want to go for a run, I place my running clothes on my dresser and bring my running shoes in from the breezeway.
If I plan to take my wife on a date somewhere, I research the restaurant, read reviews and make a reservation.
Why, then, when it came to my writing, the thing that painted my days in bright hues of hope, did I just wing it?
Good question.
The best answer I can come up with is that I didn’t step into my writing as a sacred commitment to myself. I saw it almost as an indulgence, a too brief way to feel a rush of dopamine froth through my brain before continuing with my day.
This mindset clearly needed to change.
I set the intention to write in the morning.
This looked like the following:
Putting a small espresso machine and the relevant materials downstairs, near my writing desk.
Setting small achievable writing goals for each morning session the night before.
Setting up several ways to spark my writing brain either on my computer or on my desk (such as leaving poetry and creative writing prompts open on my computer or written down in a notebook).
If it is a novel writing day (every other day as been my pattern), I would have the relevant notebook open to the last page I wrote on.
I also liked to end my previous novel writing session halfway through a sentence to make it easier for me to create momentum.
Did all of this work like magic? Of course it did.
No. No, it did not.
Some days were more fruitful than others, but day by day, my writing habit has built back up to the days when I would write for hours because I started writing earlier and not later in the morning.
I did not crash into my guard rails because I made them flexible enough that they had significant give. All this means I had set up several things (again, the night before) that could gently re-direct me to my writing.
Some of those were:
Cueing up excellent Substack posts that I knew would inspire me to return to my writing.
Cueing up videos on YouTube of emerging writers that I admired talking about their writing routine and how they set their writing intentions.
Writing whatever I felt like on a compost heap notebook I keep on a bookshelf near my desk.
Nah, I’m good on stratospherically high daily expectations, thanks, but no thanks.
A journey of a thousand steps starts with…you get it. There is a good reason for that.
When we are hyper-focused on a huge overall plan, we are thinking of the 26.2 miles ahead of us, instead of the first ten feet we have to take.
As a result, we may be more likely to stay in bed or do literally anything else (I’ve been guilty of this).
Instead, I’m a big believer in what the next 2 to 3 right things I can do to move closer to my overall vision.
Right, in this context, is defined as what are the things I know will inspire me, relax me, and encourage me enough to dive into my writing and play, without thought to word count, failure, or perfection?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out here saying this is all light work. It’s not. What it is, is worth it.
At the end of the day, it is a mindset shift. One that centers on the idea that a more fulfilling tomorrow starts the day before.
I’ll leave you with two African proverbs.
“He who does not look ahead remains behind.”
“A mother bird does not begin building her nest the day she is in labor.”
I hope these words help you build the perfect nest for your writing practice.
Reflection Corner:
How do you feel about all this intentionality talk?
How do you set intentions for your own writing practice?
Feel free to reflect on these questions below or through a journal entry (if you keep one), or you can be an absolute rockstar and do both! 😊
In Solidarity,
Olu
Pushing the Line: Writing Personal Stories Without Losing Yourself
Welcome back to Writing Under the Palm Tree. We’re honored by your presence.
Now about the article. I loved it and it was very helpful. I have been saying I am no longer doing resolutions. I was asked by the last person that asked about resolutions “well then what will you be doing?” I paused and thought about for a minute I’m being more intentional. That being said 5 days into February I have not been, but I think you just lit a fire in me. Thank you.
Love everything about this post! Thank you for the inspiration.