Here it is.  The piece of writing advice that really pisses me off:  Write every single day.

Lots of people give this writing advice, or some variation of it.  Author Jeff Goins suggests writing for at least 30 minutes every day.  In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King tells fiction writers to aim for 1,000 words a day, six days a week.

And Ray Bradbury once said, “just write every day of your life.”

Oh, okay.  Easy enough.

I mean, it’s certainly straightforward, and I completely understand why people suggest it.  But there are several reasons why this piece of writing advice pisses me off.

 

#1  It can set up unrealistic expectations

The “write every day” advice can make a person feel like a failure — like if they don’t write every single day then they aren’t a “real” writer.  I know because I’ve felt this way before. And there’s enough guilt and self-doubt swirling around in writers’ heads – why give them even more to worry about?

Of course, to be a writer you need to actually write. And waiting for “the muse to strike” isn’t a viable option for most of us.  If we want to finish things and possibly get them published, we do need to write even when it’s hard, even when we don’t feel like it.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean writing every day.  Writing every day isn’t going to work for everyone.  Or it might not work for your schedule at this particular time in your life.  Don’t beat yourself up about it if you can’t get to the writing desk every day.  Just try to write as often as you can, and give yourself a break when you can’t.

 

#2  Sometimes you just don’t have time/energy to write

Which brings me to the second reason this “write every day” writing advice annoys me.  Recently, I barely have time to write once a week, much less once a day.

I realize this might sound whiney or lazy.  And I know what’s you’re going to say:  that if writing is so important to me, I can make the time.  And maybe you’re right.  We all have excuses to not write, whether it’s a demanding job or a difficult family situation.  Sometimes they’re just that: excuses.  But sometimes they’re valid reasons why you can’t write right now.  

Here are my excuses:  I have a toddler daughter, and though I have a flexible work schedule that allows me to stay home with her in the mornings, I still work what ends up being a forty hour week.  Then there’s never-ending laundry and grocery shopping and cleaning and cooking.  Plus doctor appointments and researching preschools and managing house repairs.  Just today I ended up talking on the phone to the parent of one of the kids I tutor for an hour — the hour when my daughter was napping and I was planning to write.

I know what you’re saying: “so wake up early and write.” Well, my daughter’s been waking up at 5am.  So yes, I suppose I could wake up at 3:30 in the morning, if I want to write a bunch of slop and be a zombie for the rest of the day.  But I don’t. 

“So write after your daughter goes to sleep,” you suggest.  She goes to sleep between 7 and 7:30pm.  After that I clean up from dinner and sometimes I tutor from 8 to 9. I try to be in bed by 10 (because I’ll be up at five the next day.)  So yes, I suppose I could write from 9 to 10 every night.  But by then, I’m tired and used-up.  Plus, that’s often the only time I have to relax and spend time with my husband. A person needs some downtime, and I’m pretty sure spending QT with your spouse is one of the keys to a healthy marriage.

“So stop writing these whiney blog posts and get to work on your fiction.”  You’re probably right about that one, but I like writing blog posts.  And hey, at least it’s writing, you know?

Some people with more kids and more jobs and more responsibilities than I have seem to be able to make the time to write every day, and I raise my mug of coffee to them.  Seriously.  I wish I had more energy. 

I do make the time to write, though.  I carve out a few hours most weekends, and every day I cross my fingers that my daughter will take a long nap.  So I am writing — just not every day. 

I know my life won’t always be this hectic.  And that’s another thing.  My daughter is only going to be a toddler once.  I’d rather enjoy this precious time with her than resent her because she makes it difficult for me to write every day.

In a couple of years, I’ll (probably) have more time/energy to write and be able to do it more regularly, but for now, I refuse to feel bad about my sporadic writing schedule.

 

#3  Writing every day isn’t always enough

The “write every day” writing advice seems to suggest that simply sitting down to write every day is all you need to do to become a brilliant, successful writer.  And that’s just not true. 

It’s like telling me if I strum a guitar for an hour every day, I will become an amazing guitar player.  Definitely not the case, believe me.  If I wanted to become an amazing guitar player, I would need to take lessons, learn about chords and frets, study musical theory.  I would need deliberate practice instead of random noise-making, and even then there would be no guarantee that’d I’d ever become an amazing player.  

In the same way, simply writing every day is not necessarily going to make you a better writer or get you published. What’s more important than writing every day is to be deliberate about improving your skills.  Take a writing class.  Read books and study how they are written.  Force yourself to finish writing a story, or a novel.  Then take a good, hard look at it and figure out how to make it better.  Get feedback from other writers and learn how to revise your own work. 

Some days are writing days.  Other days are thinking days, planning days, reading days, researching days, revising days.

Simply producing pages is not the point.  It’s what’s on those pages that counts. 

Simply producing pages isn't the point. It's what's on those pages that counts. #amwriting #writerslife #writingtipsClick To Tweet

 

#4  Writing is about more than just writing 

When I haven’t written creatively for a while, I feel it in my bones.  A craving.  A deficiency. I don’t quite feel like myself. But then, a funny thing starts to happen. I’ll be driving to work, and, out of nowhere, the first line of a novel will come into my head.  Then the second.  The story will spool out of me as I merge onto the Beltway.  Maybe I’ll go home and write this idea down – or maybe I won’t.  I’ve learned not to worry too much, because even if I let this story go, another one will come to me in time.

Sometimes I wonder if maybe I need the time away to let my brain recharge.  And once it has, the stories come rolling in.  Maybe I need to walk away from the writing desk (even if it’s not quite by choice) in order to prove to myself that no matter what, I’ll always be a storyteller.  Writing is like riding a bike.  I don’t have to do it every day.  When I’m ready to sit down and write again, I’ll still know how to turn the pedals.  I might be rusty, but the stories will come.

And the thing is, there are ways I can improve my writing, even when I don’t have the time or energy to write.  As I go through my busy days, I can turn on my writer brain and notice things: the yellow leaves fluttering off the tree outside my window, the cheesy smell of my daughter’s post-nap breath.  I can listen to the way people talk around me, and make up stories in my mind about the girl who’s always standing on the street corner near the grocery store.  In the evenings, when I’m exhausted and can’t muster the energy to write, I can sit on the couch next to my husband and read a book.  Because, honestly, one of the best pieces of writing advice I know is this:  be a reader.  

I’m not going to tell you to read every day — again, we don’t need more reason to beat ourselves up.  But if you want to become a better writer, you should, in my opinion, read at least as much as you write, and read the sorts of things you’d like to write one day. I’m pretty sure that’s more important than whether or not you write every day. 

I do hope to one day get back to writing five days a week.  But I’m still a writer, even if I don’t write every single day.  

For more on this topic, see my post 10 Things to Do When You Worry You Might Never Write Again as well as this article from The Writing Cooperative. which explains why writing everyday won’t necessarily make you a better writer.

 

What about you?  What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?  What’s a piece of writing advice that really annoys you?