If you do a Google search about the writing process, you will find numerous articles that preach the importance of routine, habit, and discipline. Those are certainly important characteristics, and in any writing course that I teach, I begin by addressing the writing process. Specifically, I tell students that everyone’s process is different, but you have to find a routine that works for you. You have to show up and do the work, not expect inspiration to merely find you. It never works that way. Sometimes, I share this link/article with them about the routines of famous writers, everyone from Ray Bradybury to Susan Sontag.
I’ve had the same writing routine since college. More specifically, I write in the morning, often starting with journaling or a recording of dreams, and then moving to a draft of a previous poem or new poem. I either sit at my writing desk, in the bedroom, or at the dining table. I’ve had an affinity for writing at dining tables since college, when I had no other place to write because I shared a cramped apartment with three of my friends. In college, I developed the routine of writing in the morning, before my late morning/early afternoon classes. I hustled to finish drafts of poems or short stories before my afternoon and evening workshops. Beyond location, I have other specific aspects of my routine. I journal and write all drafts of poems by hand. There is something to be said about breath, rhythm, and writing by hand. Revisions are later done in Word, printed out, and then written over in pen, before revised in Word again. This is what works for me.
Lately, however, I’ve needed to clear my mind and sweep away some dead energy. I felt confined to a space. While routines and specific habits are important, so the writer gets in the habit of sitting down in a chair and showing up for the muse, there is also something to be said about breaking out of habit. For four days, I ventured to Cape May and used the time not only to see the town again, but also to write. In that span of time, I wrote seven new poems. n addition, I plowed through some books that have been stacked on my shelves for weeks, even months.There is something to be said about a simple change of scenery, and it doesn’t have to be a mini vacation. It can simply mean visiting a new cafe or walking through different parts of your neighborhood.
If you are stuck, try breaking the routine, at least for a day or two. Take the journal and laptop and go to a new cafe or park. Take a long walk through unexplored territory. It will help, trust me.
Brian Fanelli 
Last year, when I found myself hopelessly stuck and without motivation to write, I emailed Joseph Bathanti our state’s poet laureate. I had never met him, talked to him, heard him give a reading, nothing. He was gracious enough to email me back and give me some great advice – read voraciously and write daily. The Habit of Writing has worked for me in that it has re-wired me to the point that I find myself writing in my head doing the most mundane tasks. On those days when my motivation is lacking, I force myself to write “something” or “anything.” Tap that part of the mind. Bring out whatever is there no matter how insignificant or trivial. There are bad habits and good habits and I’ve found that writing daily is most certainly a good habit.
John,
Your post brings up a great point. Writing daily is imperative in terms of developing any sort of long-term process, and so is reading as much as possible. Like you said, on those days when the writing isn’t coming, it’s important to at least get something out! Just get the pen moving or the fingers moving on the keyboard. That is one of the reasons that I journal daily. It allows me to complete at least some form of daily writing.
Thank you for your insight!