How to Develop a Daily Writing Habit

After you become a full-time author, you receive a fair share of requests for writing advice. Often, these come in the form of unsolicited inquiries from strangers who want you to read their manuscripts and provide them with feedback.

Needless to say, I have neither the time nor the inclination to provide free developmental editing services to nascent authors, so I typically ignore those requests out of hand.

However, sometimes the odd inquirer comes looking for advice on a topic that is a bit more nebulous in nature. Rather than asking for specific input on their work in progress, they’re looking for guidance regarding how to become a full-time author.

When I receive these queries, inevitably, I’ll ask the individual about their writing habits. Have they completed a manuscript? How many words do they write daily? Do they intend to self-publish or pursue the traditional publishing route?

More often than not, the answer I get goes something like this:

“Oh, I haven’t started writing yet. I just want to know how it’s done.”

To which I will reply:

“Writers write. If you want to become a full-time writer, start by developing a daily writing habit.”

How A Daily Writing Commitment Turned Me Into A Full-Time Writer

I started a daily writing practice in the late aughts with a weekly blog and a 5x weekly email newsletter, targeted to a non-fiction audience. Before that, I had written a couple of non-fiction books and a few courses, but I had yet to develop a daily writing discipline.

Before I started the blog and newsletter, when it was time to write a book, I just sat down and hammered it out. Which was fine, but it didn’t foster the kind of writing habits that I believe are necessary to becoming a full-time fiction author.

It wasn’t until I started writing content daily that I became a full-time writer. However, I didn’t start earning a full-time income from writing fiction until after I wrote Counteraction. Writing the blog and newsletter is how I made the transition from dilettante scribbler to professional writer.

A professional writer is someone who gets paid to sit down at their desk and produce words every single day (or Monday through Friday, at least). Back then, that’s how I was paying the rent, by writing my newsletter and blog—which drove sales of my non-fiction books, courses, and coaching—and by writing sales copy as a freelance copywriter.

Yet, the money I earned was inconsequential compared to the experience, because by immersing myself in that little self-publishing adventure, I was transformed into a serious writer.

Writers Write… Intentionally and With Purpose

Serious writers write. They have a daily writing discipline. It doesn’t matter if you write 150-ish words a day like Tom Wolfe, or 10,000 words a day like Michael Crichton—if you write every day, you are a writer.

I should mention that daily journaling does not make you a writer. Anyone can write in their diary. While it might be cathartic and potentially provide practice enough to improve your typing speed, I don’t believe it’s intentional or purposeful enough to provide good writing practice.

And that’s what a daily writing habit is all about—practice. People tend to think that good writers are born and not made, which is complete and utter bullshit. Elite athletes don’t just walk out on the field one day and become pros. Virtuosos don’t achieve overnight success simply by learning their scales and basic music theory. No one reaches the top of their craft, or even the point of becoming passingly competent at it, without years of study and practice.

Thus, writing skill comes from studying the craft and applying what you’ve learned in practice over time. Additionally, it helps to receive meaningful feedback on your work, either from a professional editor or an experienced writing instructor. Although I know of commercial authors who claim to do minimal editing, for most authors their best work is done in revision and editing. A good editor or writing coach can help you hone your skills through that process.

Meeting Writing Deadlines Is Key

Once I committed to writing a daily email newsletter and a weekly blog post, I had a deadline to meet every single day. Each week I wrote a 1200-1500-word blog post (back in the days when that was considered long content, har har), and every weekday I wrote a 500-1000 word email to my list.

That word count may not seem like a lot now, but back then it was a huge commitment. Especially considering that I couldn’t even touch type at the time.

Was it a positive experience? Yup. I did indeed learn to touch type during that period, and I developed a daily writing habit that served me well when I transitioned into fiction writing. During that time, I also “blogged” a half-dozen non-fiction books by compiling articles and emails I’d written and editing them into coherent manuscripts.

That said, I burned out after maintaining that writing schedule for almost two years straight. Not because I couldn’t maintain it, but because non-fiction topics no longer motivated me to write. That’s when I started learning to write fiction by taking courses, reading everything I could about the subject, and sitting down to write fiction each day.

I easily wrote a half-dozen unfinished manuscripts during that time. After about three years, I finally produced something I wanted to publish. In retrospect, it was still too soon, and that manuscript was not ready for primetime.

Still, taking the leap forced me to continue down the fiction author’s path. To be specific, getting rejection letters from publishers and then self-publishing to almost zero sales was what did it. My pride wouldn’t allow me to accept failure, so I switched gears and wrote my THEM Post-Apocalyptic series. The rest, as they say, is history.

Developing A Daily Writing Habit

It doesn’t matter how much you write; just write every day. Start small if necessary, then build on that habit. Writing a mere 300 words a day consistently, Monday through Friday for 50 weeks will result in a 75,000 word manuscript.

So, write. You might not write quickly at first, and it might not be the best work, but writing is how you learn.

As I mentioned earlier, I started by writing short emails, five days a week. Just 250 to 500 words most days, and I built on that. Now, 1,500 words is an easy fiction writing day for me. I typically shoot for 3,000 a day, and that’s after slowing down following my cancer battle.

If I hadn’t forced myself into a position in which I had to write every day, I’d never have developed this habit. Those early days of getting up at the crack of dawn to hammer out a few hundred words were the foundation on which I built my career.

But here’s the secret—the really valuable thing I learned from that experience was producing words on demand. See, it wasn’t really the number of words I wrote back then, it was the pressure to produce good content every single day that mattered.

That’s what made me a writer.

To Recap…

Let’s recap:

1. Make a commitment to yourself to write each day, and keep it.
2. Write with purpose, by studying the craft and getting feedback.
3. Be prepared to do a lot of bad writing before you improve.
4. Set deadlines and daily word count goals, and meet them.
5. Stick to your daily writing commitment until it becomes a discipline, and finally, a habit.

Finally, keep the following in mind:

Learning to write coherently on demand is the first goal. Then, you want to learn to produce work that is compelling and entertaining. The next step is getting paid for it. This takes time, so give yourself a few years to learn the ropes as you build your career.

Stick with it, and soon you’ll be able to confidently declare, “I am a writer.”