How to Make Writing a Daily Habit

Writing every day is a fantastic habit, but it can be difficult to go from not writing at all to suddenly writing every single day. For some writers, jumpstarting this habit is fairly resistance-free, but others need some stepping stones to get there. That doesn’t make you any less of a writer. You just have to learn how to work with your unique brain and get the results you want to achieve.

One thing to try is building blocks. You start by training your brain to do “writerly” things at a specific time every day and slowly transition to full-on writing. There are five stages to this process: scheduling, reading, learning, brainstorming, writing.

Set your pace however you like. You might spend anywhere from a few days to a month on each stage—just make sure you’re committing to a set date to move forward to the next one.

1. scheduling

The first thing you need to do is figure out when you want to write. If you’re already familiar with the time of day you do your best work, you might opt for a time within that window, but if you have a busy schedule, you may need to work around other obligations. The key is to choose a time that is reliably yours to do what you want. I recommend a minimum of an hour, but if this is a challenge, try to find at least 30 minutes. You also might block in two 30-minute sessions if that’s easier: one in the morning and one in the evening, for example.

If this is still a struggle, and you find yourself saying, “I have no time to write,” then I suggest you time track for a week to get a better idea of where your time is actually going.

We don’t need to tend to realize how much time we actually waste until we see it written down. Ten free minutes can quickly be wasted scrolling on social media because you make the mistake of thinking it’s not enough time to get into anything.

I’m not suggesting you use free pockets of time for writing; I’m suggesting you use it for things that take away bigger blocks of your time.

For example, imagine you spend 30 minutes tidying the house at the end of the day. Tidying is not a task that needs to be done in 30-minute blocks. If you use those “worthless” 5-10 minute blocks of time for small tidying tasks, that reduces the time you’ll need to spend later, which essentially frees up an entire 30-minute block for writing!

This is just one example, but if you start notating how you spend your time, you’ll start to notice opportunities for adjustment.

And if at the end of it all, you still don’t have time to write, then I think you’ve determined that it’s just not a priority for you right now. And that’s okay! You can always try another time when life is less hectic. Just be wary of putting it off forever. If it’s truly something you want to do, then you may eventually need to make sacrifices to make time for it.

2. reading

Once you’ve chosen your dedicated writing time, it’s time to get to work. Don’t worry—we’re using stepping stones, remember? We’re easing in.

For the first stage, you’re going to spend your dedicated writing time reading fiction. I suggest starting with reading for two main reasons:

First, writing can be a mentally taxing endeavor at times. We’re already facing a challenge in trying to establish a routine, so adding the two together can make this an even more ambitious task. So we start with a low-resistance task to fill that hour: reading. What you’ll find is that you start to look forward to your “writing time” every day. And that’s the association we want as we build this habit.

Second, reading is a writing-adjacent task that really benefits your motivation. Reading can inspire you to write your own characters and stories, especially when you’re reading something similar to what you ultimately want to write. So while we’re partially trying to establish the routine, we’re also trying to get the juices flowing creatively. No pressure here if you don’t end up inspired; this is really just a bonus benefit.

As I said before, you can stay in the reading phase as long as you want, but make sure you decide beforehand when you’re going to stop. If you leave it too open-ended, you might never progress. So you might say, “I’m going to do this for two weeks, and then move onto the next stage.”

3. learning

Similar to reading, the learning stage will focus on taking information in. It’s more passive than writing, but it’s still valuable.

During this stage, you’ll spend your dedicated writing hour listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos, reading articles, reading writing craft books—anything educational that focuses on writing. You don’t have to do everything I listed; pick the ones that appeal most to you.

You can certainly be spontaneous about this, but I recommend planning out which resources you’ll consume ahead of time. You might make a list on the weekend of things you want to check out that week, or you might make a smaller list at the end of each day as you’re getting ready for bed. Worst case, devote the first 5-10 minutes of your dedicated writing session to plan out how you’ll spend the time.

The reason I suggest planning in advance is that it can be easy to get distracted if you don’t. Many of these resources will be online, and you might find yourself off on a non-writing tangent that you can’t come back from, especially if you’ve chosen YouTube. If you have a list of videos or podcasts you want to watch/listen to, it’s easier to stay on task.

If you learn something, that’s fantastic. But learning isn’t necessarily the primary objective. We’re training the brain to think about writing during this hour. Again, we’re just easing in with a low-resistance task.

Like the last stage, determine ahead of time how long you’ll stay here before moving on to the next step.

4. brainstorming

With stage four, we’re going to start transitioning from passive work to active work. Up until now, we’ve been absorbing ideas from other people. Now, it’s time to start focusing on your own ideas.

One way to approach this is to run through the exercises I outlined in the last blog of this series: How to Come Up With Story Ideas.

But hopefully by now, you have at least some idea of what you want to write. There are tons and tons of story plotting systems out there to help you develop those initial ideas, but I’ll keep it very basic here since brainstorming could be its own post entirely.

Use your hour to think, and then take notes on your thoughts.

For every idea you have, ask why. For example, if you have the idea to write a character who’s training to be a mage or other magic user, why? Why do they want to do that? Why were they given that opportunity? Why do certain people get that opportunity and not others? Why does the world even have these opportunities for learning magic? Why is magic needed or useful? This simple tactic can take you a long way in developing your story.

More than likely, you’ll spend more time in this stage than you did in the previous stages combined. You still want to put a limit on it though. Choose a date to stop brainstorming and start writing. Otherwise, you may spend months or even years planning a story you never write.

5. writing

It’s okay if your ideas aren’t fully formed when you move onto the writing stage. As long as you have a general idea of how to get started, that’s all you need. First drafts, rough drafts, discovery drafts—these are meant to be messy. Don’t worry if you jump around or change your mind as you go. The point is not to write the perfect novel; the point is showing up to write on a regular basis, every day if that’s your goal.

It’s going to be difficult, but try your best to devote at least 45 minutes of the session to actual writing. You could write for two 25-minute sessions with a break in between. You also might consider using the first five minutes to make a plan of what you will write, then write for 45 minutes, then spend the last ten minutes taking note of any new ideas or revelations that came to you while writing.

You might start to notice that you need full sessions to do more brainstorming and plotting, which is normal. But try to do at least two to three weeks of dedicated writing first. We want to get into the habit of writing, and that’s difficult to do if you don’t do if consistently for a decent period of time.

Once you’ve gotten into a groove, you might start scheduling your sessions as either plotting sessions or writing sessions. By now, hopefully you’ve gotten so used to this hour being your “writing hour” that you’ll follow through with whichever task you’ve planned to do that day.

Be Consistent but Flexible

With any habit, it’s important to allow yourself some grace from time to time. Life throws us challenges at every turn, and there will be days where you don’t feel up to writing either emotionally or physically. Whether it’s sudden loss or bad news or an illness, take the time you need to take care of yourself and your loved ones. In some cases, you may need to pivot entirely and put a pin in this goal until your physical and mental health is ready to tackle it.

You might also experience more mild roadblocks, such as a lack of motivation or one-time activities and events. If a friend invites you to dinner during your usual writing time, it’s okay to accept! You can skip the session for that night if you need to, but try not to skip two in a row. The more sessions you skip, the harder it will be to get back on it. If you do end up skipping several, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just get back to it and move forward.

Accountability can be a big help when trying to set goals. Consider involving your significant other or a friend by asking them to hold you to these sessions. You also might consider a writing coach, who can be the external accountability you need.