How to Start Writing Every Day

The greatest challenge to your writing career is not what you think. It’s not your job, kids, or your marriage; it’s also not your lack of a job, kids or a marriage or your prolonged search for any and all of those three. It’s not that you have no place to write, and – despite how great it would be were this the culprit on which to place the blame – it certainly is not the software or hardware you are using. Nope. Sorry. The single greatest challenge to your writing life is your lack of a daily writing practice. In other words, you do not know how to start writing every day. And that is something we can fix.

Simply put, you need to learn to write consistently.

How do I know? Because early in my writing career, I needed to learn to write consistently, and made every mistake there is on the road to doing so.

Mistakes You Can Avoid on the Way to Your Writing Career

At first, I thought my problem with writing was about where I lived. At the time, I still lived at home. Not a good writer profile I figured, so I got a genuine garret apartment in Manhattan. Small. Dark. Quiet. Upstairs in the back of an old brownstone. What happened? Nothing, except that occasionally I’d retype the same opening page from the same short story, hoping to find page two. Ah! I thought. Who could type at this desk?

So I got a new desk – a really, really cool one. It practically ate up the entire floor plan of my miniscule living room. But it was modern and sleek and had come as a hand-me-down from a successful New York artist, and I thought the thing would be embedded with good juju. It wasn’t.

Then I thought my writing problem was my friends. So, I got some new friends, all of them writers, and that changed the conversation but, since they were writers, I did not see much of them. So, then I – yup, you guessed it – sublet my garret and went to Paris with my then-boyfriend and tried writing there in a different garret apartment. Not much happened with my writing, but the food was great. The boyfriend was not, so he had to go and I moved back to the US and to the wilds of northern New York’s Adirondack mountains by myself and, well, this tale of not writing goes on until the day I made one, simple but essential change – just one, and followed some solid advice given by a working writer.

Where to Get Writing Advice

Getting writing advice is a good idea, but only if the source actually writes and has published in the manner in which you want to publish. Please note that I write this after having got all manners of support for the New York apartment, the desk, Paris, the boyfriend, the house in the woods and many more of my big ideas. But when I asked a working, successful non-fiction writer for some advice on how to actually write he said simply, “Every day.”

“Huh?,” I remember thinking, as I was musing another venue, yet another “perfect” writerly life.

“Huh? Why hadn’t I thought of that?”

And I sat down and I started to write every day.

If you look around online, you’ll see all manners of advice on the who, what and why of writing, but precious little about the when, where and how. Why? Two big reasons: First, this is the advice that few want to hear. The second reason that few talk of the when, where and how of writing is because these are issues for which there are no retail solutions, meaning no one makes money offering you this kind of help. No one can sell you anything that can solve your when, where and how problems. Those, my writerly friends, are up to you.

The who is covered, of course. That’s you. And what of the what of writing? That is allegedly covered by all the people mistakenly offering you writing prompts and exercises, none of which will help your writing a bit. Exercises and writing prompts only stall you out and keep you from ever moving forward. Ditch them today. They keep you practicing. I want you writing for real. I want you writing with intent.

And the why? You know why you write. I don’t have to tell you that.

The when, where and how of writing, however, cuts to the chase, shuts down the excuses, stops the long soulful sharing and simply commands that you – wait for it – sit down and write every day. And who wants to hear that, when we can talk simply talk about writing instead and never, ever-ever get to the, caffeine, hard chair and the solitude?

Well, I do. And so, too, do you. I mean, you’ve read this far.

So, let’s talk about when, where and how. Let’s talk about the practical stuff. Let’s teach you how to start writing every day. Let’s get you a daily writing practice. Now.

Creativity and Discipline

I get invited to a lot of panel discussions on creativity, and always I seem to be one on the stage who’s got the bummer answer to the question about what creativity entails. I’m used to it, so much so that I listen patiently while the writer to my left inevitably says that creativity is some cosmic combo of sheer human will and that of the divine and the writer to my right adds that creativity demands calling up feelings from the unconscious to the conscious and turning them into thoughts.

If the panel is big enough, we’ll inevitably have someone who is well-versed in sources of inspiration for creativity, and another writer who has a daily dedicated practice to submitting to an unseen power outside herself. All of them have valid positions, of course, since writing involves no small amount of the unknown. But they all miss the point of where and how the process of writing actually begins. Before you can summon up or gather in or reap the rewards of any practice you have to show up. And few people like to talk about that. So I will, answering the question the same way I have since I was first asked on any panel. And it will be a big bummer.

“What’s the key to creativity?” the moderator will ask me.

“Discipline,” I’ll say.

And, oh man, you can almost feel the air being let out of everyone’s pink balloon. There it is. No one likes to hear it, and that’s a shame since if you adopt a little discipline you can write and write and, well, write – forever.

What you need is a daily writing practice. And yes, I can hear the groaning from here. I know this is hard. You are busy. I know you have a house/kids/dog/aging parents/addictions/siblings/siblings with addictions. But I also know that you want to write. Let’s start – and this time, let’s not stop.

 The When of Writing

When are you going to write? Simple question. When are you, the writer staring at these words, possibly even getting a little teary, going to stop mucking around and sit down and write that book/essay/op-ed series you were born to write?

How about Monday? How does Monday work for you?

I want you to begin with a short, clearly-defined time that begins on Monday. And that short, clearly defined time needs to be repeated. I’ll get to that. But let’s start with your time. Perhaps you can carve out 45 minutes to write. Or maybe an hour. That’s fine. I’ll take it. You are going to start on the very next Monday – my apologies if it’s Sunday when you are reading this post – and you will sit down and type or write longhand – I don’t care which – for 45 uninterrupted minutes.

And then you will do that same thing on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this coming week.

And next week.

And the next.

Oh, yes, and the week after that.

And if you can make that two hours – or three – all the better. But you will begin on Monday and write every day, five days a week for the next month. Period.

And what will you write in that time you have assigned yourself? Three pages. Double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-pt type. Period. No more. No less. Three pages.

If possible, make this the same time every day. And sit there.

But here’s the magic: It’s not about the time spent. Do not fixate on that. Merely carve out that daily time, prioritize it on your digital or paper calendar, and then follow these three simple rules:

1. When you get out of bed on those writing days, do not say “I am going to write a book” to yourself or to anyone else, even if you are, indeed, going to write a book.
2. Instead, say to yourself and to anyone else who needs it said to them, “I am going to write three pages today.”
3. Say to anyone in your life who needs it said to them, “It’s just three pages. I’m sure we can make room for me to do that.”

And then you write those three pages. And then you stop.

Here are your three other rules for your writing time:

1. No email
2. No phone calls
3. No Facebook

Can’t imagine this last part? There are lots of apps for you to download to block distractions. You can pause your inbox with Boomerang. You can kill your Facebook newsfeed with Kill News Feed. And you can easily silence your cell phone, though research says you’ll be more productive if you leave the phone in another room.Take a look at these tools, install them and get to work amid the peace of no notifications, no ringing, no pinging and no friending.

The key here is to shift the emphasis away from the time and onto the work. The secret there is to give yourself a doable daily word count to hit. How do I know this works? When I teach my Master Classes, I teach the students to write three pages a day, five days a week. Don’t think that’s a lot? Do the math. That’s fifteen pages a week, sixty pages a month, or a first draft of 300 pages in five months. How does that sound to you? Nice, right?

When I am writing a book, I write five pages a day, five days a week without exception – that’s twenty-five pages a week, one hundred a month – and I make that first draft appear in three months. If I have to be out of the house for a whole day during the week, I swap a weekend day, but I get it done. I keep a chart, checking off the pages. Some days 5 pages take an hour and a half. Sometimes they take fourteen hours. To date, this has resulted in four mass-market books with the largest publishers in the world, countless essays, op-eds, magazine pieces, book introductions, a screenplay treatment for a TV series, and more. This is my job. I take it seriously. It’s now your job, as well.

 How To Sabotage Your Writing

I had a writing client some years ago who was working on a simply marvelous book. It was timely, important and had a great argument. As a former speech writer for a person of national importance she wrote exquisitely, knew how to meet deadlines and write under the worst of circumstances – on a bus on her phone, for instance. Wow, right? She was smart and interesting. But then she quit her job to write full time and spent two years – two years – building a writing studio on her farmland property. Did you see the two years part of that sentence?

Don’t do this.

When planning a writing life, always remember that you can do so while writing. One does not preclude the other. I cannot begin to tell you the numbers of times I have had to have this conversation and had to peel the fingers of an otherwise reasonable person off the idea that before he or she can write a word, he or she must construct the perfect geodesic dome/tree house/beach house/studio space in which to write. I am not kidding.

Similarly, do not wait until you have the perfect book-writing software. I know there’s Scrivener, Ulysses, yWriter, and I’m sure they’re all fine. Just pick one. Here is a shocking piece of data that sends trembles into the hearts of the skilled staff I now work with. Every time I say this, I can see their twenty-something heads shake and hear the concerned muttering this confession produces. Here’s my confession: I still write with Word. Yup. Word. Why? Because it works and I don’t need an update to type. I just need to type. Let me type and I am working. Get me working and I am producing copy. Simple as that.

The Where of Writing

This brings us to the where — something , as you can clearly see above, I’ve fully explored in my New York-Paris-everywhere else meanderings on my way to my writing home.

It’s best if you can write in the same place every day. And if you’ve read my little irreverent book on how to write memoir, you know that I believe in the phrase “be hospitable,” meaning to be hospitable to your work. In the case of the where of writing, this means to keep your taxes off your writing desk and, if possible, to make this as sacred a space as you can. If you are really fortunate, you can ban everyone else from using that computer you use, but that’s tough in families, I know. So, negotiate for the space during that time you’ve already appointed to your work. And stick to it.

The How of Writing

Okay. So you have the time. You have the place. And now, you are ready to write. And you sit there. That’s right. You sit there. But guess what? You do not sit there alone, because I’ve got lots of help here for you. After all, I am an editor, writing teacher and memoir coach, the job requirement for which is to teach you how to have a daily writing practice.

Here are some places to start:

• What is the difference between memoir and autobiography?
• More on the crucial difference between memoir and autobiography
• What is memoir?
• What must happen in a memoir?
• How to write your memoir

Read those pieces. That’s what you do until Monday. And then write your three pages. You are now writing with intent. You are writing for real. Go get ‘em.

Need more help? Come see me in one of my online classes. The entry-level class, Memoirama, is a one-night, 90-minute class that is taught twice a month, every month but July and August. Follow that with Memoirama 2, and get yourself all set to enroll in the next session The Master Class. Can’t wait to hear about your work in one – or all – of these online memoir classes.

Thought: Until they invent a software that can write the book for you, it will be more important that you sit down and write.