My Thoughts on Writing Every Day

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

Apologies for my complete brain fart yesterday. I forgot to post this. My bad. Let's just continue as though I had posted this on Tuesday, shall we? We will now carry on.

Should you write every day?

Short answer: I think you should write every day, but I don't think you have to write every day.


You're welcome. Now that you're thoroughly confused, let me give you the long answer.

I'm not saying I'm super consistent with my writing now, but I was more inconsistent when I started out, okay? I would write however much I felt like, when I felt like. (this post is off to a great start. look at all those overused italics.) Sometimes, I wouldn't write two sentences collectively for a week. Sometimes, and this was very rarely, I would write ten pages in one day. Yeah, big woop for the people who write 10k every day, but for me it's still a big deal.

Eventually, I figured out I needed a rhythm if I was ever going to accomplish anything, so I started out with two notebook pages (which is I think like 400 words) a day. Since I don't believe in work on Sundays, I nixed all writing on Sundays. So yeah, I don't technically write every day, but every day that's not a Sunday. Since then I've upped it to 4 or 5 pages a day (800 to 1,000 words if I'm working on a first draft. For editing it's 1 to 2 hours).

I try to meet my goal every day. But sometimes I can't do it.


And it happens to everyone, okay? Sometimes there's a day where I have too much going on and I only get a little bit of writing done, maybe a 5-minute word sprint and I'm done, or I try to get a little work done in the car (automatic failure right there). Or sometimes I'm just not feeling it, so I get a little work done on another project instead. But there is one consistent theme here.

I try to do writing of some sort every day, no matter what it is.

Feel free to add this quote to all your Pinterest boards.
If it's like today when I've watched a lot of movies and don't feel like more screen time, I can just work on a blog post (see, writing!) and/or work on my NaNoWriMo prewriting for November. Just so long as I get writing of some kind done, no matter how little it is, I can feel okay about it. You needn't exhaust all your creative energy on trying to make something when you have no materials (wow I said needn't).

But whatever you do, even if you burn yourself out, don't stop writing for weeks on end. I mean, this might not do the same things to you as it does to me, but after last year's NaNoWriMo, I had burned myself out so thoroughly that I took several weeks' break, with bad results. By which I mean, before November started, I had been writing five consistent pages a day. And after NaNoWriMo and my weeks of break, I had turned into a movitationless potato. Seriously, it was a writer's nightmare. I could barely manage two pages a day, and it took me literal months to work back up to four. This might be a lesson in not burning yourself out rather than not taking long breaks, but I don't know. Just thought I'd bring it up as a warning. Anyway. Where was I?

I'm not saying I want you to write five pages every day including Christmas (actually I don't do much writing at all on Christmas) and never ever ever ever make a mistake. I'm not saying you have to stick to my system. What I'm saying is, a system to stick to. And whatever you do, don't stop writing.

(here, I drew you a happy pencil with pompoms to cheer you on)

How much do you write every day? How consistent are you in meeting your word count? I really wanna know! Tell me in the comments! See you next week!

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Comments

  1. HeroLassSeptember 19, 2018 at 10:25 AM

    I'm going to admit I haven't been doing very good at this lately, I'm still trying I just need to find the system that works for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BethanySeptember 19, 2018 at 1:49 PM

      Have you ever tried writing for a certain amount of time each day? I've heard it works for a lot of people.

      Delete
  2. Pixie PerkinsSeptember 20, 2018 at 6:25 AM

    I try to write some every day...whether it's the story I'm working on or a random scene, I think that staying in the habit of at least writing SOMETHING is important. Usually I try to write 1-2 chapters a week, but that doesn't always happen lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BethanySeptember 20, 2018 at 6:28 AM

      Basically what I try to do, too. Never thought of measuring how many chapters I do a week, though. Might have to test that.

      Delete
  3. Grace MarieSeptember 20, 2018 at 7:53 AM

    I've been very bad with writing everyday, but I'm blaming highschool. >.<
    I hope to get back into it once I get into the swing of things again, and this post encourages me to even more.

    ReplyDelete
  4. CG @ Paper FurySeptember 20, 2018 at 5:34 PM

    I'm definitely not the person who writes everyday. 😂I think it's important for writers to figure out what works for them and fits with their style! I tried a challenge of write every day for 100 days (even just 100 words) but I ended up burning out VERY badly. Now I will write for like a week and then nothing for a month. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Not a word! I LOVE IT. It fits for me so well because I spend a lot of time "writing" without touching the keyboard (like imagining and daydreaming etc).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BethanySeptember 21, 2018 at 4:41 AM

      Yours sounds like a great system! I also need a lot of time to daydream and just let things stew in my head.

      Delete
  5. sinaunknownSeptember 25, 2018 at 2:44 AM

    I am SO bad with writing regularly. But I think my the reason why I am this bad at it is because I never plot anything before starting because I simply do not have the patience to do so and once I am kinda deep into the story everything starts to fall apart aaand my motivation runs away.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BethanySeptember 25, 2018 at 5:07 AM

      Have you ever tried just writing out the starting and ending points of every chapter? It's a lot less outlining, so it might work better for you.

      Delete
  6. dgdgerhrthySeptember 29, 2018 at 5:13 AM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

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