5 "Bad" Habits Every Writer Needs To Succeed

It's good to be bad.

Writers love rules. We collect them like talismans, hoping they’ll unlock the secret to endless productivity, pristine prose, and turning your freelancing side hustle into a lucrative full-time career. “Write every day.” “Read voraciously.” “Kill your darlings.” But for every golden rule, there’s an equal and opposite force—the so-called “bad” habits that we’re told to resist, when they might be the secret to doing this job well (and staying sane while doing it).

Here are a few of my favorites.

1. Be Nosy

We’ve become a bit of an “anti-social” century, where making conversation with a stranger feels borderline intrusive. Chatting up your seatmate on a flight? Risky. Saying hello to your Uber driver? Not guaranteed to be reciprocated. People cocoon themselves in headphones and screens, and curiosity—the everyday kind, not the deep-dive-into-your-niche kind—feels like it’s going out of style.

But good writing thrives on nosiness.

Little kids do it instinctively, responding to every answer with “Why?”—which, yes, is annoying as hell, but also the exact approach writers should be taking. If you’re at the farmers’ market buying a loaf of bread, don’t just grab it and go—ask the vendor why they made this type, why they used this wheat, what makes it different.

Nosiness isn’t about prying—it’s about noticing and asking questions. Being the person who isn’t satisfied with small talk or the obvious answer. It’s how you find stories in the places other people overlook.

2. Scroll Social Media

Social media often gets lumped in with all the other so-called vices we’re told to avoid—sugar, alcohol, reality TV. And sure, mindless scrolling can be a creativity killer, but when used with intention, it’s one of the best tools a writer has.

A good writer needs to tap into the zeitgeist—to know what people are obsessed with, what they’re arguing about, what’s about to crest into the mainstream. It’s how we find new angles, fresh takes, and the voices shaping culture. Whether it’s Twitter threads that unravel a niche debate, viral TikTok videos showing that a glass pot exploding (article forthcoming!), or an Instagram live that sparks a story idea, social media isn’t just noise. It’s material.