10 Tips for Developing a Daily Writing Habit

My 16-year-old self is crafting a short story at the family desktop at 2AM. In the middle of the night, with everyone else asleep and the worries of the day removed, there is a clarity I reach. It’s just me and my protagonist trying to find her way after an unexpected crash. For weeks, I’m at this seat, at this time, enthralled as I create a world for my character to explore. After a few weeks, I finish the story and feel fulfilled by the completed self-expression. I title it “Spin Out”, inspired by the most dizzying ride at the annual local fair. 

I can’t remember the next time I wrote. 

For years, I had a number of writing experiences that were similarly meaningful and then scattered by many months in-between. I’ve considered myself more a writer than anything else since I was 16-years-old. Yet, for a long time, so many of my days didn’t reflect that identity. 

I tried to change that on many occasions. It’s hard to get started after a long hiatus. I found myself feeling unready, fearing I couldn’t reach the headspace to really be at my best. 

Diagram: The Cycle of trying to build a writing habit

I’ve gone through some variation of trying to build a daily writing habit a number of times. What changed? How did I break the cycle? 

Here’s my guide to developing a daily writing habit.

1. I write through my self-doubts. 

In my experience, the greatest battle a writer faces is against their own self-doubts. There are times when I feel overwhelmed by these wandering thoughts that can cause me to question why I write at all:

Will I get too personal? Reveal an embarrassing amount of myself? Will the writing feel self-indulgent? Or maybe I’ll hold back too much, making the writing feel empty and too general? 

Will readers question why I’m writing about a topic at all? Why do I believe that my ideas could be of any value to anyone else? Who do I think I am anyway? 

Or perhaps, on the contrary, my writing will seem like nothing more than a bragging contest of a monologue? 

The paradox of writing is how, on the one hand, it’s so deeply personal and solitary and, on the other, it’s inherently intended to be shared with others.

I think every writer faces these kinds of questions. I’ve learned to acknowledge each one, often I journal about them to give them their own space of consideration and expression. And then I write anyway. 

2. I create a space that is conducive to focus… for me personally.

I agree with Mindy Kaling: Forget about the mythical idea of needing the perfect writing space to produce your best work. The best writing space is often in the little things. 

I write with all the windows open, letting the morning sunshine or evening rain enliven the room as I dive into the words appearing across my laptop screen. 

I always listen to music when I write, subtle melodic electronic music that evokes the tone of what I’m writing. I listen on noise-canceling headphones. I tend to find 1-3 songs that most help me immerse into a scene and play them on repeat the entire session. Whatever it takes to get me mentally and emotionally as close to the story as I can get, so I can take my readers as close as possible too.

The songs I listened to on repeat while composing this article?

We Are Lucky People by Lange 

Where You Are by EMBRZ

Oceans & Galaxies by Jauz & HALIENE

Drift Away by EMBRZ

3. I have a means to record my writing ideas no matter where I am & what I’m doing. 

One of the amazing things about writing everyday is how often it has led to ideas outside of my writing sessions. In fact, I get ideas for my stories when I’m driving through the city or along Pacific Coast highway with all the SoCal beaches at my side just as frequently as when I sit down for a writing session. But what on earth do I do with a story idea when I’m accelerating down a winding highway? It’s a challenge to take note of the idea at all, let alone develop it. 

This is where a voice recorder app becomes infinitely handy. I also nearly always carry a small notebook with a click pen stored in the spiral binding. The Notes app in my phone has a folder dedicated to ideas for my novel and another one for this blog. 

It’s really helpful and empowering to know that I can progress my story no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

4. I stay connected to other writers. 

I used to think of writing as a solitary activity. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

Once I started looking, I discovered countless other individuals in that same struggle to get their words meaningful on the page. I’ve found a writing group for every morning of the week on Meetup. I’ve met amazing individuals and fellow writers of all kinds from these groups. (In fact, one of my writing groups has been a tremendous help in encouraging me to push past my fears and hesitations and finally publish this blog itself.) I”ve even discovered unknown writing ambitions in friends I already had. 

Don’t go through the immense challenge of writing a book alone. Find the writers around you. 

5. I read about other writer’s experiences in the creative process. 

What I love most about reading books on writing is discovering how surprisingly relatable the experiences of other more experienced and successful writers are to my own. I’ve learned that Jonathan Safran Foer has to write through his self-doubts―just like I do. And Margaret Atwood has to fight for time to write in her schedule―just like I do. 

There isn’t some sort of innate talent that gives some writers sublime abilities and confidence in their work. You don’t have to have a schedule that permits 6 hours a day of writing every day to write a great book. 

Writing is a learned and developed craft like any other ability. Progress is incremental. Writing through obstacles is necessary like any other meaningful endeavor. 

And while finding your own voice and personal creative process is an individual journey, having a toolkit of advice and techniques from other writers to test out and make your own is infinitely helpful. 

In addition, there are books on so many aspects of the writing process. Here are a few of my recommendations:

• The Writing Process Itself: On Writing by Stephen King
• Writing Practice: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
• Plot: Story Genius by Lisa Cron, The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, Saves the Cat by Jessica Brody
• Writing Emotions: The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass

6. I plant positive writing influences wherever I can. 

I’m a very visual person. It helps me stay focused by planting writing influences visually around me anyway I can. I have a purple t-shirt that reads, “It’s a good day to write” that I like to wear during a lot of my writing sessions. I print out meaningful quotes and place them on my walls like this one from John Steinbeck:

I write out my story notes on color-coded legal pads because I find closed notebooks harder to be consistent with (except for my on-the-go writing mini notebook). I have a writing-inspired Pantser mug that I designed myself. 

Anything to keep writing on my mind. Anything to emphasize my identity as a writer. 

See my Stories Awakened Etsy Shop for more writing-inspired gifts & supplies.

7. If I have a busy or tiring day, I still make sure to write for at least 15 minutes. 

Last summer, I read a book called Mini Habits by Stephen Guise, which recommends setting a very small daily goal for the habit you’d like to build. Like laughably small. The author, who had failed to build an exercise habit for years, was trying to motivate himself to do 30 minutes of exercise and failing. So, he reset his goal to do just one pushup daily. 

When I first started trying to write every day, the idea of sitting down for hours each day to write seemed overwhelming. But 15 minutes of writing―What excuse do I have to avoid 15 minutes of effort towards my art? None. It doesn’t matter if I’m hungry or distracted or tired after a long day of work. I can find 15 minutes of focus and energy. 

Some days, if 15 minutes is really all I have in me, that’s okay. I’ve made progress in my writing. I’ve kept my story on my mind. 15 minutes every day builds up. 

But usually, once I’ve started writing, I remember how much I love it. I get immersed in what I’m doing. And I can devote much more than 15 minutes. 

I’ve found creating “mini-habits” to be surprisingly powerful. It is vastly better to do a small amount than to skip a day. Skipping a day is discouraging while a streak of writing, even for a small amount of time each day, is really encouraging. Setting a small goal makes it way less intimidating to get started, which is where the real struggle is when trying to build a positive habit. Further, you might be happily surprised by how much creativity you can get out of 15 minutes.

8. Writing every day helps me write every day. 

I’ll write when I have more free time. I’ll write when I feel inspired. I’ll write when I feel ready and up for creating my best work. There are these myths we tell ourselves about the craft of writing that aren’t connected to the reality of building a writing habit. 

Building a habit is, by rule, most difficult at first. You will feel least like it when you are out of practice. It gets easier as you go, and it becomes more second nature. When I’m in the practice of writing at the same time every day, my mind begins to see it as a given that I’ll sit down and write. The resistance lowers as you work at it, not before. Sparks of inspiration and motivation occur much more frequently when I’m in practice as well.

If you don’t feel like you’re the writer ready to create your best work yet, waiting for the moment of magic inspiration isn’t the way to get there. We grow into better writers through writing. Halfway into writing my novel, I’m not at all the same writer I was when I started, and I expect a lot more transformation on the way to finishing. Every day, I learn something new and realize how much more there is for me to learn. 

Keeping track of your daily word count is another common method to increase motivation. This can make your progress feel more concrete. While 500 words may not feel like much on any one day, 500 words every day for a month is 15,000 words. Daily progress can really build up!

9. I’m careful not to be too hard on myself. 

I hate to miss a day of writing. But life happens. And, by rule, building a new beneficial habit is not easy. You are essentially rewiring your brain to make room for the new habit. 

When I miss a day, the biggest risk I face is letting that lead to discouragement. Discouragement can transform one missed day into a missed month. So I try to avoid judging myself and focus on what’s most important: picking my writing back up as soon as I can. 

For this, I like to consider how GPS apps handle unexpected circumstances. When I make a wrong turn, does Google Maps tell me it’s disappointed in me? When there is a delay, does Waze question my ability to get to my destination? Would this be the most effective way to get there? 

Of course not. My GPS will course correct and show a new route from where I am now to my destination. That’s it. Course correct and keep going.

So when I miss a day or even a couple, I make sure to sit down and write the next one. The goal is not to have some kind of irrelevant perfect streak—the goal is to keep going!

10.  I reached a point where I wanted to develop my writing more than the things that could get in its way.

I think Ralph Waldo Emerson explains this one best:

What techniques help you to write more regularly? Are there any important ones that I’ve missed?