Do you write every single day?

[Lucian Hodoboc]

One of the pieces of advice I see thrown around often is to write every single day. No matter how busy your schedule is, aspiring writers should take some time every day to sit and write at least a few sentences. Do you think this is achievable for everyone? Do you write everyday and, if so, how much?

[JameelaM]

Hey Lucian,

Great question and an excellent topic to bring up. I myself write everyday though most of my writing is for to do lists and random ideas that pop into my head as I go thru my days

The concept behind writing every day has to do with training your brain and creating consistency so that you form a new habit of writing every day...however it is a bit of a flawed system and we have to take into consideration how our brains actually work, which in most cases is geared towards failure or to prove our beliefs that we CAN'T write every day are true.

This article explains it far better than I can in this moment.

The short of it is that if you're not a professional writer, as in someone is paying you to write and you have deadlines lingering etc, then it's better to write during the times you can or are able to, when that is would be dependent on your schedule and time availability.

I think a better question to ask yourself is what are you trying to accomplish, are you writing a novel and want to complete it this year? If so how many chapters would you need to write each day or week to achieve that goal, then use that to determine the amount of time and how much writing you need to do each day.

Hopefully the information helps!

[landmersm]

No. Attempting to do it every day while working 50+ hours a week - not to mention kids!!!! - is a bit much.

I try to do at least 5 days a week, and I try to do something. Anything. Write. Edit. Read. Re-read. As long as it's related to my own work, I figure I'm doing something productive.

Now, if any of you want to pay me to write, I'll happily do it full time!

[DGSquared]

Try for 250 words a day. It will go quickly.


You're not a writer if you don't write.


If you get out of practice, you'll notice the difference in your writing. The more you write, more your writing will improve, just like anything else.




All the best.


Have a bountiful day.
~Deb

[HPvD]

I usually have a lot of daily writing,

Not that I am constantly writing on big novels or feature articles or aiming for specific word counts or something like that, it's more like writing notes, ideas concepts, writing emails, tweets, blog posts etc.

The great thing with the - Blog post - in particular is that you can also see the amount of views,
to get an idea about what blog posts you like. Especially when you also
write your comments & replies it makes me feel a little more confident
that I might actually have some blog posts that provide you with
some sort of value.


   

[trainer]

I try to write as much as possible, but not everyday. I do, however, read everyday, which I find terribly rewarding.

I also think there isn't a one-answer-fits-all option here. For some, writing everyday is essential; for others it's excruciating, yet necessary; for yet others it's both enjoyable and necessary. For some, there is just no need to write everyday, as long as what one writes rings true.

[EliTaffJr]

I try to write every day, and some days I can blast out a couple hundred words in a few free hours, and other days my full-time job and my full-time marriage cuts my writing time down to lunch breaks and ten minutes before bed when I’m too tired to write anything coherent, anyway.

How I’ve dealt with it is this: ANY Akins of writing that I do is better than no writing st all. If I’m not able to work on my manuscript, I’ll log into Twitter and see what writing prompt threads are posting (I really like #vss365, they are a terrific community of supportive writers). Just having a word prompt with no other expectation allows me to mentally cleanse my palette and write something, even if it’s rubbish.

The important thing is that it engages my brain and keeps me working (my fingers are typing, my brain is formulating a combination of words in a specific order, etc.? So e en if I’m not writing something for my current project, I can at least engage that creative part of my brain that makes me a writer.

It’s like reviving your engine. You don’t expect to get anywhere, but it’s always useful to fire up the motor and practice going through the motions. Once, I had no phone and a ten minute break with nothing to do. I took out a pen and a napkin and started brainstorming names for my next heroes and villains.

As long as you keep writing, everything you do will help get you to the finish line.