Hey everyone! I’m here again this week with yet another post. It’s not late! I can’t wait to talk about this topic because it’s definitely something that I think is important to every single writer no matter where you are on your writing journey. I also know that this is something in writing that I’ve always struggled with but it’s another good piece of advice that an author gave me early on in my writing that has really helped me. So without further ado …
Ten Writing Commandments: Write Everyday
Writing everyday is really important for every writer. Period. I could just write that and this post would be over but I think I’ll go into a little more of why its so important for every writer. Writers all over the world and in all different times have all given the same advice. That every writer should write every day. Here’s a few examples.
“Write every day even if it is just a paragraph” ~Michael Connelly
“You fail only if you stop writing.” ~Ray Bradbury
“You might not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” ~Jodi Picoult
“Sometimes writing everyday is like pulling teeth, painful but necessary.” ~Wendy Swore
Writing everyday is important. But it is really hard as you can see by the quotes above. I once attended a writer’s conference where in one of the workshops the author was giving us her tips to feeling successful as a writer and her first statement was write every day. One of the author young writers in the conference with me, a few years older than I was, raised her hand and asked, “But it’s really hard. What do I do to stay motivated to write?”
The author giving the workshops paused for a moment, contemplating and then continued. “Write every day. Writing every day is hard in and of itself. But if you write every day, then you will be more motivated everyday to write. It doesn’t matter what about, it doesn’t matter if its fiction or nonfiction, it doesn’t matter if its 3 chapters or 3 sentences. Write every day.”
This piece of advice has always stuck with me. I am now perfect at remembering to write every day in fact I went through a period just last year where I literally wrote about a sentence in 6 months. But it’s a strange sort of paradox.
If you write every day, then you will be motivated every day to write.
My biggest problem that keeps me from writing everyday is feeling inspired. If I don’t feel inspired with an idea or a concept or the story I’m working on, I feel tempted to just not write anything. A certain quote taped to my wall that used to be written on my chalk board says,
“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ~Louis L’Amour
This is so true. Some of my best plot twists, new characters, or novel ideas came from just sitting at my desk and writing something, anything, until it turned into an idea and I could write without any struggle. Some days I wrote a paragraph before an idea hit me. Sometimes I would write a single word while other days I wrote a whole page. Everyday is different but I try to write every day.
If you’re struggling because it’s been a few days of writing and you still don’t feel like you have a good story idea yet, don’t stress. Try writing something different from what you would usually write. You write fiction normally? Write a short one-page paper on something interesting you just learned recently that you would share with someone. You usually write from single character first person POV? Write a series of exchanged journal entries between one character and another. You usually write third person POV prologues? Write a first-person prologue to shake it up.
Like I said in my last post. Writing is supposed to be fun. It can be hard but it should still be fun. If you’re writing isn’t fun right at the moment, make it fun. But don’t skip a day of writing just because you can’t think of anything. And don’t feel bad if you do miss a day. Make it your goal again to write every day and keep working on it. There will come a day where you’re so used to writing every day that missing a day would throw you off. So just keep it up.
But you need to write to be a writer.
That’s all for this week’s post everyone. I hope that it was helpful and that you are challenging yourself to set a goal to write every day no matter the length or the quality. Next weeks post is being prepped and hopefully will be up on time. Don’t forget to give the post a like, follow me on social media at the bottom of the page, leave a comment if you have one, share this blog, and become a page member so you can receive on demand updates. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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