Writing Every Day
Is it harder to write every day, or is it harder to not write every day?
I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m a lazy person by nature. And having been without a regular 8 to 5 job for the past six weeks hasn’t helped. Before I lost my job, a girl that I worked with told us that her husband, who teaches Creative Writing, was off for the summer and had committed to writing four hours a day. Later, I actually laughed about that. Only four hours? If I didn’t have to work, I’d be writing all day!
Yeah, well, God decided to put me to the test, and I have to admit that I’ve failed miserably. I’ve only managed to add about 14,000 words to this draft of Menu for Romance—that’s barely over 2,000 words per week when I should be banging out at least that many per day! But therein lies the problem: I haven’t been disciplined enough to write every day. I’ve been treating these weeks since getting laid off somewhat like a summer vacation instead of just like a change in employment, since I’m now basically self-employed. The excuse I’ve been giving myself is that I’ve been working nonstop since I was seventeen years old—part-time in high school and college (the first go-round) and full-time ever since I left school in 1992. I continued to work full-time when I went back to college to finish my degrees in 1999.
Yes, I’ve enjoyed my time off. But I still need to earn a living. And I have a couple of deadlines coming up soon for books I’ve already sold that I don’t want to miss. And If I’m going to live up to my commitment (and I hate missing deadlines!), that means I have to get on the ball and get Menu for Romance finished and get started on A Case for Love. Which means I have to write every single day.
Which I started doing this past weekend. It’s not that I didn’t like my story—I love my characters and have great ideas for what’s going to happen to them. It’s just that I got to a point where, as James Scott Bell said at the ACFW conference last year, I wanted to “have written” instead of wanting “to write.” I wanted the story to write itself with no effort from me.
Well, guess what—in the couple of weeks since the last time I’d opened my manuscript file, it hadn’t written itself. So I forced myself to sit down and write. At least 1,000 words. That’s my goal every day. Do I give myself the next day off if I reach 2,000? No. Because having days off isn’t the point of writing. The whole point of writing is that it’s something I used to love doing. Something I used to look forward to doing after a long day of crunching numbers, creating sales presentations, or dealing with irate customers when I worked at the newspaper. Something I sort of lost my desire to do after long days of reading and editing other people’s work when I was at the publishing house.
So what’s my excuse now? Yes, I’m doing some freelance editing. But it’s nowhere near the level where it’s a full-time job right now. Yes, I’ve been busy this week trying to get a bunch of stuff done before I go out of town.
But each night before turning off the bedside lamp, I’ve made myself fire up the laptop and tap away at the keyboard until I’ve added at least 1,000 words to Major and Meredith’s story. And you know what? Each night, it comes a little easier. Tuesday night, after writing more than 2,200 words, I had to turn the light back on after about twenty minutes and write down several ideas that were still swirling around in my head.
And last night, sitting at the desktop computer—the one that I’m writing this on now, the one that’s connected to the outside world—as I was starting to think about shutting down for the night and going to bed, I suddenly heard the opening of a conversation between Meredith and her sister that made the perfect opening for the next chapter I needed to work on. Do you know how long it’s been since I could clearly hear the voices in my head? In about an hour, I’d written over a thousand words and fulfilled my quota for the day.
Even though I’ve read in book after book that writers who want to be professionals must write every day, which I’ve always advocated here on the blog, I’d never really fully comprehended why it’s so important. See, I knew that the longer of a break I took from writing, the harder it was to come back to it and get momentum going again. I’d just never really realized that the reason why it’s harder is that because the longer I go without writing, the harder it is to hear my characters, to see the scenes happening in my head, to be open for the story to come to me when I least expect it.
So now I have a set time for writing: from 11 p.m. until _______ (whenever I’ve written at least 1,000 words or come to the end of a chapter or scene where it’s a good stopping point—with a good place to pick up and continue from the next day). Why so late at night? Because as I learned many, many years ago, it’s at that time when writing comes easiest to me. So why try to force myself to do it at some other time of day when I’m not ready for it?
What about you? What’s your writing schedule? Do you write every day? When’s your ideal time of day to write?
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KayeDacus.com 
Hi Kaye,
I’m reading Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, an exceptional book. I know you’ve probably read it too. She states you have to train your creativity to work at a certain time of day.
Always having been an early bird, I go to bed with my children and get up in the wee hours to write 2-3 hours before work. That way, I’m not ‘stealing’ time from my job or my family to write. Yeah, I only get by on about six hours of sleep a night, but I catch naps on the weekends.
I’ve noticed that writers will grab a couple paras here and there during the day, but most write either late into the night or early in the morning. Either way, darkness seems to be the key for writing. 🙂
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Kaye, I needed this. Thanks for posting about it today.
Being a SAHM, I write while the kids are away at school. Um…let me rephrase that…I used to write every day while the kids were at school. I’d fit housework in around my writing. Often I could get 4000 words in a day, but lately that hasn’t been happening. The summer reason is obvious. When the family is home, even if I tried to write, I couldn’t. I’m one of those who needs complete silence, besides, my kids wouldn’t let me even if I tried. Which is good!
During the summer I started out strong at rising at 5:00 and writing until the household woke up, but then that fell off.
Since they’ve gone back to school I keep procrastinating. I believe this time a big part of the reason is that I’m frustrated. Nothing ever seems good enough, so why bother?
That’s the wrong attitude, though, right? Nothing will ever be good enough if I don’t keep practicing.
Kaye, keep up the great writing schedule you’re onto now. Knowing that your writing is good enough to be published is one huge step ahead of me. When you want to back down and forget your daily word goal, think of those of us still struggling to write daily just to learn to be good enough to get published. Your writing is now sought after, make that knowledge your reason to stick with the schedule, and be proud of it! I know I can’t wait to get hold of your books, so please do finish them!
Blessings,
Eileen
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Never in my life have I successfully been able to stick to a schedule that allows for me to write every day. Throughout high school I didn’t nearly lack the discipline, throughout college there just wasn’t time for it regularly, and now that I’m graduated and on the job hunt I’m just in that rut where I’m still treating this as a summer vacation.
It’s something I really need to work on and I keep telling myself I’m either “going to start next week” or that once I have a job that’s forcing a consistent schedule on me, it’ll be easier then.
Right now, I’m still waiting for feedback on the first half of what I’m working on so that I can gauge if I’m on the right track before I continue. I keep telling myself that as soon as I hear back from him, I’m going to continue, but he seems pretty swamped with school lately.
I’m good at making up excuses to not write daily.
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Wow – this really spoke to me today, too. If I’m on a deadline, I write fast and furious. If it’s my own deadline, I just have to force myself to write – and then I, too, like “having written.”
I write better at night, when the house is still and quiet. But I’m here at home all day by myself when the house is still (we’re empty-nesters.) I keep trying to force the writing during those hours, but it hasn’t been happening. Maybe I’ll go back to the dark side. 🙂
Thanks for such an encouraging post.
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I write Monday – Thursday, 9am to noon. That’s the bare minimum for me to keep productive. I often come back after a long lunch, and stationary bike ride, to write for an hour or so in the afternoons. I write on Fridays when and how long I can. Same for Saturdays; if my husband is away I treat it like an extra writing work day. I almost always take Sundays off (or at least one day over the weekend) to refuel by heading into the mountains to hike. I’m much more productive for taking a day of rest, away from the computer and the house if possible.
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I’m an afternoon writer. School and bookwork in the morning, then write in the afternoon. I’d love to be a morning writer, but my son does his best work in the mornings so that’s when we tackle homeschooling.
Right now I’m a bit out of sorts. I always have a WIP, but for the last three weeks or so, I’ve let my completed first draft lie fallow and concentrated on lots of other things instead. I’ll get back to the editing after the conference.
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Writing for me is a part-time thing, because I teach my K-3rd grade siblings and take music courses, and our family is involved in a lot of traveling. So for me, it’s a “try-and-fit-it-in” things. Lately I have actually written in time in my schedule for it, and for me, the best time is during the afternoon or late at night after everyone’s asleep. I can zone out noise and write during the day if necessary, but it’s just the best time for me. I try to get at least two hours in a day or 2,000 words in.
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You’ve hit the nail on the head!
When I struggle with my writing, it’s because I’m not writing. Not every day. Maybe even not every few days. The more distance between me and the ms, the harder it is to jump back in.
Victoria Christopher Murray told me to make a goal to write five words every day. Just five. Because I would never view this as a hardship or an impossible task. And chances are, once I start, I’ll write more than five words.
She was absolutely right! So I haven’t developed the discipline of daily writing yet but I think about writing those five words every day. And most times the thought of just five (and the guilt of not writing at least five) is enough to get me going.
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Another piece of advice I’ve heard is to write for just eight minutes a day. Just eight. Not ten, fifteen, or twenty. Just eight. Why?
Because that’s the average amount of time dedicated to commercial breaks in a typical one-hour TV program.
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Thanks for not just saying “If you write every day, it’ll get easier,” etc. You showed actual examples of how it’s making a difference in your life.
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Yeah, I’m one of those who prefers learning through experience instead of just empirical data or someone’s just saying “do this.”
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I’m an afternoon writer, which I’ve discovered after a few years of trying to be a morning writer and failing miserably. Slow learner, I guess. Plus, I work at my church’s child care center or baby-sit most mornings, so afternoon writing works well from a practical standpoint. My goal is usually 3-4 hours a day. I used to think it would be a breeze to write 8 hours a day, and then I tried it…and my brain turned to scrambled eggs:) If I’m close to the end of a story, I will push to the end no matter how many hours it takes, but then I do need a few days to recover from the scrambled eggs feeling.
I read in a book entitled “Revision” (forget the author) that day-dreaming about your story when you’re not actually writing can be a form of creation or revision, which is great because I’m constantly playing out scenes in my head. It has helped me save a lot of paper, laptop battery, and writing time to eliminate impossible scenarios before I sit down to write. Good to know having my head in the clouds serves a useful purpose:)
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I agree with the person who said this is just what I needed to hear. I have done 2 BIAMs–where you try to write or finish a book in 30 days, and wrote 6 days a week and logged over 50,000 words both months. But lately I’ve been doing rewrites on my MS which I do enjoy seeing how I can make it better, but it is much harder to discipline myself when I don’t have a word goal for the day or week. I also take sundays off, but need to get BIC the other days for something else besides email! Thanks for the swift kick, kaye! ps. anyone have any ideas for ways to keep going when you’re in the rewrite stage?
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I don’t write every day. One reason – there are two days a week where I work from 7-4:30 and then go teach from 5:30 to 10pm – so I get home around 10:30/11pm where I drop into bed to get up and start my day over again.
However I do write. Whenever I have time I write. And I get things done. I finished 20,000 words in a little over a month. So dived that by 30 days and that’s a little over 600 words a day. For me that’s pretty good.
Revising goes much faster for me 🙂 I can revise like crazy. It’s a much easier process for me and I can do it anywhere. I can sit and start revising, I can’t just do that with writing (i.e. having a blank page).
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Wow is this post right on time! I’ve been in that vicious cycle of what I write stinks, so I don’t write, so then what I write stinks even more…
So back to it. Stinky writing can be fixed. No writing can’t.
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