How to write every day: A few thoughts and tips to get started

I don’t write every day, and it makes me feel bad about myself. It’s like I’m sabotaging my own goals. How on Earth am I supposed ever to get published if I never manage to complete a manuscript?

I remember once even writing a blog post about ‘writing every other day’. I even made a promise with myself that I would keep on working on those drafts. It doesn’t matter how much or when I write, as long as I’m putting words down on paper. Right?

Reality is not that simple for many reasons.

First of all, I don’t think I’m even capable of forming habits. I can easily get derailed by an intrusive thought and spend the day painting walls or tending to my garden. In fact, if I plan to do something specific, it’s the best indicator that I will not do that in the planned time. It’s like I have to physically force myself to do something once it’s planned. Yet, I’m still trying to discipline myself.

In my defence, even if it comes through this mental struggle, at the end of the day, I get a few more words in, or a new blog post published, or some research done. It may not be on time, and I’m gonna feel terrible all along the way, but I’m going to do it eventually.

There was a time I could write every day. I used to be subscribed to this website that would send me daily reminders to write, and I could do it on their platform with a timer and pretty statistics to look at once I was done with my daily goal. The longest I managed to stick to the goal of writing every day was two or three months. Years later, when I tried to return to that website, regretfully, I found out that they were moving to a different platform and no longer offering free accounts.

For a while, having a ‘general’ Google document for my daily writing helped. Even then, most of what I would write was plans and brainstorming.

I entered the NaNoWriMo challenge a few times, and even won CampNaNo one time, which got me the discount code for Scrivener back in 2017, I think. I even tried using the website just throughout the year, outside of any timed challenges. Now that NaNoWriMo is no more, I think we could still make this promise with ourselves, as writers – set up our own goals, challenge ourselves, and do it with friends and fellow writers.

There is no lack of timed challenges for writers that utilise the Pomodoro method over on YouTube and Discord. I once tried to do such writing streams on my channel, but because it was an attempt to revamp a channel that originally was aimed at ESL, it didn’t go far.

Still, it’s never too late to try all of that one more time. After all, the difference between failure and success is just another try.

How to get into the habit of daily writing? Here are a few tips and rules I’d like to set for myself and see if any of them work.

1. Have a set time for writing. This could be the first thing in the morning, right after breakfast, half an hour on your lunch break, or a few hours later in the evening.
2. Set a daily goal. I think it’s Stephen King who tries to write 2K words every day. It doesn’t have to be good or even make any sense. And your goal can be on the smaller side. Even 500 words a day in a year will build up to over 180K words, and that is a solid fantasy novel, a few romance novels, a dozen novellas, or a heck of a lot of short stories.
3. Use a timer. Find one on YouTube with some nice background music. Grab an egg timer from the kitchen. Or order something fancy. Anything works.
4. Don’t stop even if you skip a day. Every other day works just as fine as every day. What really matters, at the end of the day, is that you are writing and adding to your amazing story.

Do you have any more tips on how to be more consistent with your writing? Please, share them in the comments.