Real Talk: You Do Not Need to Write Every Day

It’s that time of year again.

Every year, people sit down in January and decide that they want to become writers.

For some, it’s a dream they’ve harbored forever. For others, it’s a newfound passion. If you’re reading this, I’m betting you’re one of those people.

Maybe you’ve even tried writing before. Maybe you’ve tried and failed to establish a writing habit for years now—starting fresh every January only to give up before Valentine’s Day.

If you’ve been unsuccessful in the past, one itty-bitty, well-intentioned piece of writing advice may be to blame… The advice to write every day.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with writing daily. If that works for you, great! This post isn’t for you.

This post is for the people who’ve tasted failure too many times to count. This is for the people with messy lives and chaotic schedules who have been told they can’t be real writers because they can’t find the time to write daily. The people who think they’re the problem. They don’t want it enough. Aren’t committed enough. Just aren’t as focused or as dedicated as the people who make it work.

Hear me loud and clear. You are not the problem.

The write every day “rule” is just plain wrong.

There, I said it. Chances are, you’re sitting at your computer, nodding your head relieved that you no longer have to fight against reality and all that is holy to try and make a daily writing habit work. 

Still not convinced?

Here are three reasons why you shouldn’t try to write every day: 

1) Daily writing goals don’t mesh with the complexities of most people’s lives.

If you’re a full-time writer, then you just might be able to write every day (though there is something to be said for taking time off—see #3 below). But most of us are not full-time writers. Some of us will always write as a side hustle—either by choice or because we don’t make enough money from writing to make it a full-time job.

Even if you are a full-time writer, you might still have other things going on in your life. Maybe you have small-children, a parent or significant other who requires full-time care, volunteer organizations you are passionate about supporting, or other hobbies that keep you sane and happy.

If you force yourself to write every day, you might succeed at first. But at what cost? If you sacrifice sleep, exercise, family time, or healthy eating, you might get words on the page, but you might also make yourself miserable. Your progress will become unsustainable and the day will soon come when you don’t hit your goal. Enter shame, misery, and despair. Chances are you’ll quit before you’ve had a chance to make any real progress as a writer. 

There’s nothing wrong with having multiple priorities in your life.

And if someone judges you for that? If someone wants to tell you that having a day job or a family makes you less of a writer? They can kindly take a seat and mind their own business.

Writing every day doesn’t magically make you a more committed or better writer. No matter what you might have heard from a certain famous male author who has fully grown children and no day job. 

Already sold—learn more about how to set flexible goals in this blog post!

2) Daily writing goals can put the focus on quantity, not quality.

The most common metric for writing goals is word count. Word count can be great—it’s easy to track, especially with modern technology, and it tends to go up relatively quickly—what better way to motivate yourself than with quick growth and achievable metrics? 

The problem is that readers don’t buy books based on word count. Just because you’ve written the words doesn’t mean they’re any good. Now, I’m all for fast-drafting and embracing your shitty-first-draft. However, writing shit for the sake of hitting an arbitrary daily goal is very different from writing shit with the specific intention of discovering your story and working your way toward a publishable manuscript. 

I’ve noticed that when I’m overly ambitious with word count goals, I start padding my drafts. Cue the massive world-building info dump and and page-long descriptions of someone’s gaze.

If you’re writing something that you know you’re going to cut just so that you can hit a daily word count goal, then there’s no reason to sit there and write it at all. [P.S. You don’t have to track your word count at all—check out this post on writing goals beyond word count].

Now, writers can fall into this trap whether they write daily or not, but having a daily writing goal (particularly if you try to hit the same number every day) compounds the problem. If you’re writing crap on Monday and never stop to brainstorm new content, you’re probably writing absolute diarrhea by Friday. And when it comes time to revise? 

Yikes—I wouldn’t want to wade through that mess.

By giving yourself time off from your writing goals, you let your subconscious take over for a while so that new ideas can form. Trust me, sometimes, time off is the best thing you can do for your project, no matter how tempting it is to keep hammering at the keyboard. 

3) Burnout is real and it won’t get your book written. 

Now, what if you can write every day? Hold off for a second. Having the time doesn’t automatically mean that you should. 

Writing takes energy. Even when it’s fun, it’s not easy. Taking breaks and allowing yourself to recharge can actually improve your writing. 

Think about it like exercise. 

Say you want to start running, but you’re a bit of a couch potato right now. Of course, you could lace up your shoes, go outside and run right now. Then, you could do it again tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. You might make it a full week, even two, but at some point you’ll get exhausted. You might even get injured. There’s no better way to kill an exercise goal than to go too hard, too fast and hurt yourself.

The same is true in writing.

No matter how well-intentioned you were, trying to do too much, too soon, too often will lead you straight to failure.

Even if you have all the time in the world for your writing, take time out to recharge. Practice ending your writing sessions on a high note. Take deliberate breaks that fuel your writing brain and get you excited about your next writing session. Not sure what to do with all your free time? Read a really good book in your genre. Take some time to do research. Get outside for some fresh air and movement.

When you come back to your writing, you’ll be refreshed, re-energized, and ready to tackle any writing goal. Still not convinced? You can learn more about the benefits of taking a writing break in this article from Masterclass.

And if you don’t have the time for all of that? It’s okay. One really good writing session each week is going to do more for you than seven rounds of multi-tasking while your kids go hungry and your dog goes un-walked.

In case you still need to hear it: you are a real writer whether you write every day, once a week, or once a month. No matter what your journey looks like, progress is progress, and I’m here for it!