Rule One | Rule Two | Rule Three
I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o’clock every morning.
—William Faulkner
Without Rule One
You can always think of a handful of legitimate reasons not to write today. The problem is, the more you put off writing, the longer it will take you to finish that book.
The hardest part about writing is sitting down and doing the work. You can’t bang out an entire book in one sitting. You have to write day after grueling day to finally get to the end and even then it is time for rewriting and editing. It is overwhelming to think about such a large project and it often causes a writer to avoid the work altogether.
With Rule One
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
—Thomas Edison
The excitement of writing your new book comes and goes. Some days are better than others, but most days the decision to sit down and write can be the hardest part about being a writer. Making the commitment to write every day eliminates the hard part about writing: sitting down and oing the work. You pick a time and a place to write and you stick to it rain or shine. You know if you don’t stick to your plan, you will fall behind. You feel it when you miss a day or two of writing. You try to get your head back into the book, but already you feel rusty.
If you are keeping track of your word count each day, you find yourself looking back at your production in amazement that you have accomplish so much. Those two hundred-word days didn’t seem like much at the time, but add them up together and you find an incredible about of progress.
You finish your book, hand it in to your editor, and take a breath. Then, you start with the next one. No sense in taking a break. It is not your way. Writing is your job. It is time to get back to work.
Years later you look back again in wonder an awe. The fact that you have written so many books surprises even you. You now have a body of work that sustains you. You are not only a writer in your spare time. It’s your career.
Why It Works
“Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you are doomed.”
—Ray Bradbury
You build momentum.
When you choose to do anything for multiple days in a row, it’s hard to break the streak. The longer your commitment to maintaining that streak, the more the commitment becomes a habit. Once it becomes a habit, the momentum of showing up day after day increases the quality and quantity of the output. While 500 or 1,000 words may not seem like much at the end of a day, when you combine it with an entire month or two of writing daily, you have yourself the bulk of a book completed.
You are ready when inspiration strikes.
We don’t know where ideas come from. They seem to magically pop into our heads out of nowhere. The only way to receive them, though, is to be there ready to receive them by showing up every day to write. One day might seem totally uninspired while the next day the words seem to appear on the page out of nowhere. As writers we can’t know what kind of day we will have, which is why we need to show up every day in hopes that the magic happens.
You ignore the fact that your writing sucks.
Most of what we write just isn’t very good. That’s okay. This rule for success isn’t about creating perfection, it is about doing the work. The more work you do, the more you will produce some decent writing. Just getting something down on paper is much better than never writing anything at all. The commitment to write daily protects yourself from avoiding the work altogether for fear that it isn’t good enough. Don’t forget, your gut is probably right; it isn’t good enough . . . yet.
It is the only way to beat the Resistance.
In his must-read book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield describes something all writers experience whether they have named it or not: the Resistance. The Resistance is the force that pulls us away from our work. It takes the form of procrastination, self-doubt, self-sabotage, envy, and fear. What is Pressfield’s advice for combating the Resistance? Show up every day and do the work.
How to Make it Happen
- Wake up early or stay up late. Set a time to do your work and stick with it.
- Track your word count.
- Seek accountability.
- Outline and plan ahead of time so when you sit down to write, you know what you are working on.
Books that Will Inspire You to Write Daily
- The War of Art (and also Do the Work, Turning Pro) by Stephen Pressfield
- Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
- Write. Publish. Repeat. by Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt
- You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins
- Writing Habit Mastery: How to Write 2,000 Word A Day and Forever Cure Writer’s Block by Steven Scott
Additional Advice from Successful Authors about Writing Daily
“I get so much mail from kids, and so many of them say, ‘We wanna be writers,’ and ‘I want to be a scary writer too.’ And I think that’s really a nice thing. My advice has always been — it’s actually pretty boring advice — write something every day. And my only other advice is to just READ READ READ. And not just from the same author, but from all sorts of authors. You pick up all sorts of things from other writers by reading them.”
— R. L. Stine
“The most important thing for any aspiring writer, I think, is to read! . . . And write. Write every day, even if it is only a page or two. The more you write, the better you’ll get.”
— George R. R. Martin
“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
— William Faulkner
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
— Steven King