Should you write every day?
Before we begin, let’s clarify something.
When you are working on a writing project, writing every day or writing as many days in a week as possible is the ONLY way you’ll get through your project quicker and more efficiently.
You won’t get through a writing project if you write sporadically or whenever you feel like it.
The more you procrastinate or delay your writing, the longer it will take to finish your book project.
And the worse it will be to sustain the effort of keeping your motivation and spirits high and actually getting your book finished.
Before we assess the pros and cons of daily writing, let’s go deeper and see what writing every day looks like.
And do you have to write every day?
Do You Have To Write Every Day?
Writing Time
The first thing that daily writing entails is having to set aside the time to write.
To finish something properly, you need to set aside time to do the work that’s required.
Because let’s face it, writing a book does not involve only writing. There are many, many steps to writing a book.
There’s also planning, research, outlining, writing, editing, publishing, etc.
Writing Routine
The idea of having a writing routine every day makes more sense if your ultimate aim is actually to finish a writing project, like a book.
What I have done for many years is kept aside a couple of hours every morning as part of my writing day.
Those two hours went towards all activities related to the book including writing, editing, and publishing because I only had two hours to spare every day.
With that little time, I could write over 12 books in the last three to four years.
It was only possible because I kept to a writing schedule every single day.
A writing routine gives you the time you need to set aside to finish your work.
Flow Of Writing
More than anything, daily writing gives you the FLOW.
Writing becomes easier. It’s like building muscle.
You also don’t require external motivation to sit down and write when you set some things into motion, like making yourself a cup of coffee and going to your desk.
You know that your writing time has begun.
In that sense, writing daily helps you get a lot of work done.
Say you write a blog post every day.
Writing every day would make it very easy to continue it for the long term and produce consistent work.
It helps create a productive workflow for yourself.
It gives you consistency, productivity, and reliance on your flow to produce more work.
Competency In Writing
Writing every day can also provide a lot of benefits such as improving your language, improving the flow of words, improving the quality of your writing and so on.
Writing every day has such great benefits that I would advise it even if you weren’t working actively on a book project.
Use that time to improve your writing using a technique called CopyWork, which I’ve discussed in an earlier blog post.
You subconsciously pick up different writing styles and different writing techniques from great writers which help you improve your own writing.
Set aside 15-20 minutes every day to work on improving your craft even if you are not writing fresh words every single day.
Cons Of Daily Writing Practice
Whichever way you look at it, writing every day does give you a lot of benefits, but here is what could go wrong.
If a skipped day becomes a means to beat yourself up or berate yourself, you’ve just undone all the good work.
Do NOT punish yourself for not writing every day.
From my personal experience when I had just started writing, when I missed a day or something happened to disrupt my routine, or I had to skip a day of writing, I used to feel really bad about myself.
But, you don’t have to.
Cut yourself a break if it’s impossible to write on a particular day or if you can’t write more than 4-5 days a week.
I think that practical challenges are important to take into consideration for daily writing goals.
Conclusion
We talked about some ways to include writing into your life every single day to enjoy the flow of creativity and the process without giving yourself a hard time.
Remember, there are no hard and fast rules that say you must write every day.
Use your time and energy wisely to produce the best results in your writing journey.
And don’t forget to have a little fun along the way.
Also, don’t forget to celebrate those small victories.
Writing every day can be a huge mood booster, and it doesn’t have to be hard or painful if you’re not able to do it every day.
If you’d like to listen to this blog post, check out my YouTube video:
You can find all my books here at BOOKS.
Other Useful Book Recommendations:
If you’re feeling lost in the creative world and want to get your creative mojo back,
Check out Steal like an artist
If you’re just starting out and struggling to find your creative voice,
Check out: Find your Artistic Voice
If you’re looking for inspiration and to discover and recover your creative self,
Check out The Artist’s Way
For more inspiration and encouragement to write your best writing ever,
Check out Writing Down The Bones
I’d love to hear if you found this post useful!
You can write to me at sudha@sudhanair.com
