Why You Should Write Every Day

And what to do if you can't

Mindset, motivation and inspiration for novelists—with a dash of instruction about writing craft added in. There’s no one approach to writing that works for everyone, but I can help you find what works for you. Subscribe (free or paid) to get the fuel you need for your writing career.

Photo by Thomas Franke on Unsplash

Everything I do as a writing and book coach and writing teacher is predicated on the idea that I can help you figure out what works best for you when it comes to your writing. Not tell you what works best for me and insist that thus you should do that too. Accordingly, over the last two weeks, my mid-week extra posts have focused on getting yourself to the page. Last week, I offered a laundry list of suggestions to help get you there. The week before, I offered up an idea about one thing you are doing wrong when it comes to your writing. (And that post featured an adorably cute pug photo. Just because: pugs.)

So, my preferred modus operandi is to offer suggestions and guidance, not prescriptions. But I do feel very strongly about one thing, which is that writing daily—or at least as often as you can swing it—is the absolute best thing you can do for yourself as a writer. And hence I went out on a limb and used the word should in my headline, even though it is anathema to me. And it makes me feel squiggly and twitchy all over. I hate telling people what to do. (Quite possibly because I hate it so much when people tell me what to do.) Regardless, here goes me telling you what I think you should do.

At the moment, daily writing is on my mind because I am on a roll, writing nearly every morning. I’ve been doing this since, gasp, the first of the year. And yes I am feeling smug about it. Very, very, smug. But I should define what I mean by daily writing, because my work, by its nature, includes a lot of writing, such as manuscript reports, copy for newsletters (both the ones you read here and others for my overseas writing workshop business), and more. Because of this, it is often difficult to fit my own writing in. And by my own writing I mean novel writing. So when I write every morning I’m working on my WIP novel.

So here’s how I define my daily writing: It’s the thing I most want to write but least have the time for. But you can define it any way you want. And I will tell you this: you don’t need three or four hours every day in which to write. You can get a ton of writing done in an hour if you just focus. (Said the woman who checks email every ten minutes and loves nothing more than to waste time shopping on Ebay and Etsy and Amazon.) But what I really want to emphasize is that even if you just spend 10 minutes with your work in progress that counts. Even if you make a couple of notes, or reread what you wrote the day before, that counts. Keeping your WIP front and center in your mind in whatever way possible counts. I am a big believer in small steps adding up to big momentum. So, listen up: anything you do, any way you connect with your WIP counts as writing on a given day. (Although, of course, it is great to do more.)

Why I love writing every day (and you will also)

1. Because I feel better about the rest of my life. Truly. This would be difficult for a person who is not devoted (don’t mean to sound judgy) to their creativity to understand, but when I’ve done my writing I’m sane. I’m not twitchy or unmoored because I’ve done what’s most important to me, kept a commitment to myself.