Writer Room

Writing Every Day: Yes or No?

You have surely heard this advice.

If you're going to be a writer, you need to write every day. Literally every big writer seems to offer some take on this sentiment as gospel.

"If I don't write every day, the characters begin to stale in my mind... I begin to lose my hold on the story's plot and pace." — Stephen King

"Writing is like playing piano or learning tennis; if you do it every day, you're going to get better and better." — Anne Lamott 

"I try to write daily, unless I'm on a planned/intentional writing break... I think writing is a muscle, and if you don't exercise it pretty frequently, you get out of shape." — Sarah J Maas 

This is probably one of the biggest and most popular writing tips, right behind "show, don't tell."

WRITE EVERY DAY. 

EVERY. 

DAY. 

Part of me agrees. That's the part of me that yes, is currently writing every day because I have a deadline. It's the part of me that writes every day because I need to eat and pay taxes and come up with money for dog food. 

But is it good advice for everyone? 

I'm here to tell you that no, it's not. Well, maybe. It depends.

What do Sarah J Maas, Anne Lamott, Stephen King and I all have in common (if I may be so presumptuous)? 

We all write for a living, full time. Now, I'm not raking in the money like they are, and nor do I have their level of fame. But I do make my living writing. Technically I guess I have for my entire adult life since I was a journalist before, but now all I do is write fiction. I support my family by writing. If I don't write, we don't have money. Seems like a pretty simple equation. Writing = staying alive. 

But let's set me, Sarah, Stephen and Anne aside. What about YOU, the Wattpad author who perhaps is in school, or has a full time job, or is a full-time mom or caregiver? Should you write every day? 

The answer isn't that simple. Yes, in a perfect world, you would write every day. In a perfect world I would also live in a villa in Tuscany and Michele Morrone would be my pool boy. But I digress. 

I don't think you should beat yourself up if you can't write every day. Sometimes it's just not possible, and I am a firm believer that you should not stretch yourself so thin that you burnout. I've experienced burnout before in my previous job and it's awful. It leaves you unable to write ANYTHING, unable to create, and you don't want to get to that point. 

But you are a writer, and you do have stories to tell. How can you balance the two? That is definitely one of the biggest questions facing writers how to struggle with work-life balance, and I might be able to help you. 

Let's start with looking at your obstacles. Are they immovable things like caring for children, university classes, or a job? Or do you spend your time playing video games, watching shows and reading? 

If you're in the latter category, that is OKAY. No judgment here. Doing all of those things can help spark creativity and give you ideas that will eventually lead to a book. But you also have to be honest with yourself: are you playing video games and ignoring your writing more often than not? If so, why? Ask yourself some hard questions. 

Do you really want to write a book? Do you want to put the work it takes into writing a book? Maybe you don't, at least not right now, and that is PERFECTLY FINE. Especially if you are young, you should explore lots of things. Maybe you don't write fiction at this particular time in your life. I waited until I was in my forties to begin writing fiction. You have time. Read books. Study the world. Live your life and come back to writing later. Collect stories and experiences. Writing will be there for you, waiting patiently. 

If you decide that you'd rather write, then do it! You might be helped by a daily writing practice. Developing a writing habit could be essential for you, if you have the time. Start small, with 100 words a day. Then 500 words a day. Try this for a few months and see how it feels. Be as consistent as possible — I have studied Mel Robbins' The Five Second Rule on how to be disciplined, and I highly recommend it.

If you're consistently hitting your word count, up it if you feel like you're in a good place.

But let's say you're one of the people with the immovable obstacles. A job. Kids. School. You need to balance your time a little more delicately. You might not be able to write every day, and that is NOT A PROBLEM. 

Don't get discouraged! Instead of a word count, perhaps you set aside a couple of hours on a Saturday, and make that your dedicated writing time. You might not finish a book quickly, but there's no crime in that. You will take the time you need. You will take the time you have. 

Perhaps the idea of a daily writing practice is attractive to you, and you want to try it despite a hectic schedule. This is what I did when I was a reporter, and I dedicated my evenings to writing. I would work, then make dinner, walk the dogs with my husband, and then write from about nine at night until midnight. Every night. This obviously worked, because I wrote a ton of books and was able to quit my job and become a full-time author. 

There was a downside, though. I was pretty exhausted by the end of my journalism career, however, and there were many days where I was too tired from my day job to write. I would often take writing vacations and long weekends to work on my books. You could try this as well; a writing retreat is a great help in kickstarting a project. Sometimes a retreat can be done with other writer friends, or an organized group. I also know many people, myself included, who have checked themselves into hotels simply to focus on a book. That can be fun and productive, especially if you want total seclusion and quiet. 

But I do want to stress that PLENTY of people have written books without writing every day. You need to find out which method works for you. 

Writing advice is not set in stone, and you can always tweak and shape it to fit your individual needs. You might spend a year writing every day, but then not write daily when you're editing your book. Or you might write only on weekends, but when your book sells and you're waiting on copy edits, you might switch to writing daily. 

People change, work habits change, circumstances change. You are flexible, and your writing life should be as well. Don't compare your path to anyone else's. Most importantly, ENJOY YOUR JOURNEY.