Why can't I write everyday? Can you do it?

I am officially abandoning my attempt to write everyday. It just doesn't work for me. I wish it did, but all it's given me are low word counts and exhaustion. Writing three or four times a week has proven to be much more beneficial. I write faster and longer if I wait for the story to be ready to be written. I just get a lot more done. So, I really don't see the point of trying to write everyday if it is actually making me less productive.

When I was a journalist I wrote everyday because I had daily deadlines. It was tough sometimes, but I did it back then. I think creative writing is a little different and needs to be approached differently for me at least.

I guess the reason I thought I should be writing everyday is because I have made creative writing my main focus. I'm in an MFA program and want to accomplish a lot while I'm here. But writing everyday seems to be getting me nowhere, which is a little hard to admit because I've really tried to write everyday more than once, but my creative writing seems to suffer because of it each time I try to do this. It's discouraging.

Have any of you tried and failed at an everyday writing schedule? Is this something I should try again in the future? Does it get easier? Or do you find that spreading things out a bit and not sticking to a regular schedule is best for you? I know everyone's got their own approach. I think I am still trying to figure mine out.

Osulagh said:

As long as I have the content to write and the time to do so, then I can everyday.

Click to expand...

Lack of content has never been the problem for me. But I still can't do it. I mean I can make myself do it, but the results aren't great after a few days, and I start to feel burned out.

chompers said:

I only write when inspired, but I do try to think about my story most days and do stuff to help ignite the inspiration. For a period of time I did write every day. And found it made writing a chore for me and made me start to really dislike writing. So it didn't work for me either.

Click to expand...

I think I was headed in the direction of writing feeling like a chore. I sometimes have days when I write for a few days in a row and write a real lot because it's just all flowing. But trying to make myself do it when I am feeling less inspired is hard and never seems to produce great results. I'm like you in that I think about what I am working on a lot. I know it's not actual writing, but I think it is a big part of the process for a lot of people.

WriterDude said:

I can't write everyday. By the time I can sit by myself and put pen to paper the most I can ask of my cognitive functions is to sit, pvs like, and watch nothing more taxing than Michael Portillo on TV.

Click to expand...

Have you found out how often you can write? I'm starting to rethink the whole idea of word-count goals and writing schedules. Maybe you're there, too?

Layla Nahar said:

I am forcing myself to write five days a week, and keeping to a certain minimum. I have a number of projects going at once. However, I have yet to get to the point where I can just sit down & start typing story every BIC session for every story. I'll write and I'll get to a point where the story ... where the flow stops, and then I'll have to do some work external to the story to get the flow to start again. I'm finding that if you write till the lead runs dry & switch to what's easy, you end up with all your stories being dry leads at the same time. I've added a cheat, which is that I'm working on a long-term non-fiction project for which I am transcribe information from library books and this material is serving as a rough draft for the book. Now, it fails the test of sellable words, but it's also sent my daily word count through the roof, and bought me time, so to speak, to fix the stuck points on my fiction. I have still kept a respectable word count of completed fiction for each day, so yeah, my answer to your question is yes.

Click to expand...

Did it take you more than one attempt to be able to write everyday? I have tried a few time. It just doesn't seem to work for me. I also don't care to work on more than one thing on the same day if I can avoid it. I just find it pretty hard to switch projects. But it's good to hear you have a system that works for you.

Layla Nahar said:

getting -

I started 8(?) years ago with 'at least one sentence every lunch break'. (I was working four days a week). So early on, keeping a writing habit was a priority for me. This was my understanding of what those who make a living from writing do.

ETA: In those 8 years I had some times of discouragement where I stopped writing for several weeks, once up to nearly 3 months. But the times when I was too discouraged to write got shorter and fewer as time went on.

Click to expand...

See, I kind of have or had that understanding that writers write everyday, too. But when I do it, a lot of it just seems to be a waste since so much of it I want to scrap after. When I write when I feel like writing, it just comes out much better. The good thing is that I do feel like writing quite often, just not everyday.

I don't think I could do a sentence a day. It would be hard for me to connect all that and create a flow. Without a set schedule, I enjoy long writing sessions where I get a concept really down or make a lot of progress on a piece.

I'm sure I will try writing everyday again at some point because I want to be able to do it, but I want to be happy with my work even more. I wish the two were in sync for me.

CaroGirl said:

I can't write every day (two words, btw; one word is an adjective, as in "everyday life" or "we're an everyday family"). I go through spurts where I have enough material planned in my head (I'm a pantser) to write every day, but I have too many competing priorities to be able to sustain that in the long term.

I used to feel like a failure when I couldn't do it but now I accept it and write when I'm able to. If I didn't have a full-time job, dependent family members and a house to run, I think I'd make a concerted effort to write on a daily basis. As it is, I need to give myself a break and not add that pressure to my everyday life (see what I did there? ).

Click to expand...

Sorry about the typo. Maybe this is a result of not writing every day. LOL. For me, I do have the time. This is supposed to be my time to write. I'm in an MFA program for it, and I really want to make the most of this time I have been given. I don't feel like I have a good excuse for not writing every day other than my writing and mental status both seem to suffer when I attempt to do so. I can go strong for a few days, but after two weeks or so, I start to question why I am doing this to myself.

I know thinking about writing and reading are not the same thing, but those are things I do every day. It's almost like I need those days without writing to really be able to write.

heza said:

I do feel like I have a sort of story buffer, too. The first day, I'll write really well with lots of ideas flowing. The second day, I'll write but I'll feel like I'm just tossing in random stuff to make word count. Third day, I'm just completely blanking. And yeah, I've got too many other responsibilities to just be sitting there writing nonsense or staring at the screen.

I feel like I have to wait for the buffer to fill before I can write well again. I'm not sure if the buffer is story or narrative or just creative energy. So I write every three days or so. On the other days, I research or write character bios or just look for inspiration.

Click to expand...

It seems like we are on the same page with this.

Lillith1991 said:

Have you tried something like alternating what you write, like maybe a blog post or something like that on days you're not doing creative writing? Right now I have a project rotation of sorts, one is a series of blog posts I'm working on writing up before posting, another is a series of fanfics, and a third is an original novella.

You could also set a really short daily wordcount goal for yourself. In addition to the above things, I'm starting to impliment a goal of just 50-100 words on something novel length five days a week. And I'm not sure if it will work yet, but it is something.

Click to expand...

I don't blog. It's never really been something I wanted to do. And I don't want to write just for the sake of writing. If I don't write every day, I actually write more than if I were to set low word-count goals. I really can't get into something if I am just writing 100 words here and 100 words there even if I am doing it every day. When not trying to write every day, I usually produce between 2k and 5k words per writing session, but it's just not something I can keep up with doing on a daily basis. I wish that were not the case. I just can't be brilliant or anything close to it on demand. LOL. Thanks for you comment and trying to help, though. I hope hope you reach your goals and that your new writing schedule works for you.

flapperphilosopher said:

I can't force myself to write when I don't feel like it. I mean, of course I literally can, but it's slow and painful and missing something and not worth keeping. Sometimes I have a reason that I don't feel like it, usually that I'm physically and/or mentally exhausted and can barely string together a coherent email to my parents. Sometimes though I just flat out don't feel like it, even if at the same time, I want to. Fortunately I usually feel like it about 6 days out of 7, but when the off day comes up, I just don't. Sometimes I try a couple paragraphs to see if I get going, but I usually don't. I feel I really need to be into it to write anything worthwhile--I'm not someone who can build something slowly, 200 words at a time. So if I'm not in a mindset to write a full scene (or at least most of one), I don't see any point in forcing myself to write just for the sake of having written that day. Usually the days off get me wanting to write even more the next day.

Everyone's process varies. Writing regularly is very important, but different people have different ways to get themselves writing regularly. For some people that might be "I MUST write 100 words every day no matter what." For others it might be "I MUST take every fourth day off to refill the well." I don't think one is inherently more worthwhile than the other.

Click to expand...

I agree with what you are saying, but you are practically writing every day. How do you get yourself to feel like writing on most days? Is it something you worked up to or is that just how it is with you?

I want to improve as quickly as I can. I do feel like I write all the time even though it's not every day. I would like to be doing more. Just that my attempts seem to backfire on me. But I am interested in hearing more about how you keep that feeling of inspiration and wanting to write going.