This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 480th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors Podcast.

Lately I've been reading a lovely book called Living a Beautiful Life by Interior

Designer Alexander Stoddard.

The book talks about the importance of crafting our lives around beautiful routines,

about turning every possible moment of our lives into a thoughtful ritual that emphasizes all the good bits.

I like this on a number of levels, but it's definitely inspired me to be even more rigorous in making

sure my writing time isn't just a time when I sit down and start typing,

but one in which I support myself with great rituals, including a snack, coffee and chocolate if I'm writing in the afternoon, a cold glass of

kambucha if I'm riding in the evening. I've gotten kind of sloppy about choosing music

for my background, often just running with whatever tops my YouTube feed.

But I also like to reward myself where appropriate with beautiful writing tools such as nice notebooks and lately a new nib for my fountain pin. I try to keep my writing areas

especially my desk tidy and pretty surrounded with plants and beautiful books.

The aesthetic is a small thing, but for artists, I think not such a small thing after all.

So I encourage you to take a look at your daily writing routine

and your writing environment and see what you can do to remove annoyances

and take advantage of things that are beautiful and make you happy.

And now I hope you enjoyed this week's podcast five questions for choosing a protagonist who represents

your story's theme. Choosing a protagonist is often more of an event than a process.

Writers sometimes feel more like the protagonist chooses them than the other way around.

While most of us heed our first instinct to simply chase after this character and see where he goes,

it's important that at some point we analyze the soundness of the story idea

by considering whether we have the right protagonist for the right story.

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