Happy New Years from your creators Dickens, Franklin, Morrison, and Oates

"Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor."

I'm going to give you a peek into the daily rituals of some of the world's biggest and brightest creators. America has been the birth place of some of the most intelligent and successful people in the world.

These people created the world as we know it. As creators especially, we all want to be earth shakers. Everyone on this website creates because they want the world to see it. Whether it has 10 views or 1,000 views, we want to make a difference. If we want to be the world changers we dream of becoming, we have to go back and see what has been proven to work for those who have succeeded.

Everyone grows their success in their own way. What might work for some people might not work for others. If you are uncertain about what type of New Year's resolutions would best work for you, good news! There's an endless variety of methods leading to success, starting with these masters:

Charles Dickens. This brilliant and ultra-creative novelist wrote fifteen novels, accompanied by countless essays, poems, letters, and plays. How did he do it?

Dickens arose every morning at 7:00 am. He would eat breakfast at 8:00 am, and be in his study by 9:00 am. Once in his study, he had to have absolute quiet to work. There was a whole other door installed in front of the door that was already there.

On his desk was a vase of fresh flowers, a jar of blue ink along with his goose-quill pen, a paper knife, and two bronze statuettes. (One was of two fat toads dueling, and the other a gentlemen swarmed with puppies).

At 2:00 pm, Dickens would leave his study to take a walk. He walked through the countryside or the streets of London, continuing to think about the story he was writing. He described the reason for these walks by saying he was, "searching for some pictures I wanted to build upon."

His walks were extensive, so when he returned home in the evening, he spent the rest of it with friends and family.

His son recalled that, "no city clerk was ever more methodical or orderly than he; no humdrum, monotonous, conventional task could ever have been discharged with more punctuality or with more business-like regularity, than he gave to the work of his imagination and fancy."

The way in which Charles Dickens discovered the conditions he wrote best under were drastically different from--we'll say--than that of Steven King's, wasn't it?

Benjamin Franklin. In his autobiography, Franklin put together a plan to achieve "moral perfection." We all want to be upstanding and contributing members of our society. At least, I hope we do. Franklin determined the best way to go about his plan was to devote each week to a specific virtue: temperance, cleanliness, moderation, and so on. How did he do it?

I think that we could put a modern take on old Ben's plan here. Recent studies have said that on average it could take 66 days for the behavior to become automatic (a good habit). What if you chose one virtue to really focus on for 66 days?

In just 66 days, there's a chance you could have one of those down pretty well. Courage, humility, kindness, sincerity, forgiveness, honesty, or hope are just a few examples of the many virtues you can master in 2021.

You could have approximately five virtues under your belt by the end of the year! Who doesn't want to try to be a better person?

Toni Morrison. I love the pointers that Toni Morrison gives. She has written a mass of successful books, such as Sula, God Help the Child, and Song of Solomon. How did she do it?

This woman was pretty remarkable. She had a 9-5 job, so she didn't have the luxury other writers had of adjusting her writing schedule to be whenever she thought would be best.

In earlier years, she wrote in the evening, after she got home. Fast forward a few years, and she began to get up at 5:00 am and write before the sun came up.

She said, "I am not very bright or very witty or very inventive after the sun goes down."

(I can relate)

My favorite part about her rituals was that she said she "never brooded."

"I have so many other things to do, with my children and teaching, that I can't afford it. I brood, thinking of ideas, in the automobile when I'm driving to work or in the subway or when I'm mowing the lawn. By the time I get to the paper something's there--I can produce."

I think that's a tip we should all try. You know how people say, "Ain't nobody got time for that"? Nobody has time for writer's block--ever.

Joyce Carol Oates. Lastly, I have chosen Joyce Oates' routine, because, like Toni Morrison, I think that writers in particular would agree with Joyce when it comes to the writing process. How did she do it?

Oates' routine was similar to Charles Dickens'. She would begin to write at 8:00 am and go until 1:00 pm. She would give herself a break and resume her work at her desk around 4:00 pm -- 7:00 pm. After dinner, she would read.

During an interview, Joyce Oates said, "I write and write and write, and rewrite, and even if I retain only a single page from a full day's work, it is a single page, and these pages add up. As a result I have acquired the reputation over the years of being prolix when in fact I am measured against people who simply don't work as hard or as long."

Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Toni Morrison, and Joyce Carol Oates, all creators, all looking to do one thing: Change the world. As a creator, it can feel like you aren't going anywhere for a long time. Maybe it's been years, and you're feeling discouraged. I know I have been.

But I am choosing to take it from the experts, and find what brings out the best work in me.

That should be your New Year's resolution...to not be afraid to try and change the world. Because, you just might do it.