You Don't Need to Write Every Day*

*But you should strive to write regularly — whatever that means to you.

P.S. - I’m offering a special resource at the bottom of this newsletter as a perk for those who make it to the end :)

In the late spring, I went home to the San Francisco Bay Area for a weekend visit, as some extended family were in town and wanted to see me and meet my partner.

While standing in my childhood bedroom, I pored through an aging cardboard box of notebooks, scrapbooks and various books. Four years of living in Washington, DC., and New York, reduced down to two boxes.

In those boxes, I found a book I purchased a decade ago: Walter Mosley’s This Year You Write Your Novel. Mosley is a well-regarded author, primarily in the mystery/crime/thriller genres.

I read this book back when I first started thinking seriously about creative writing about a decade ago. I ate this book up. It was my writing bible. Even though several of the passages were some variation of “write every single day, without exception, and you will write a novel this year,” I thought that simple message was exactly what I needed to hear.

I even got my copy signed by Mosley at the Book Festival in Washington, DC. He was very kind to me and said I would write my novel.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Now, I don’t know what went wrong (or maybe I do), but a decade has gone by, and I still haven’t written that novel, which is not Mosley’s fault and is most certainly mine. However, after taking numerous classes and reading countless books touting the same mantra — largely from people I respect with credible experience in publishing and Hollywood — I’ve come to realize that “write every day” is not the only way to complete a novel or longform writing project.

For working parents, neurodivergent folks, people with chronic illness, and others, “write every day” isn’t always feasible.

Instead, they eke out novel drafts during a weeklong retreat or on a Sunday afternoon they have free every week or write in hyperproductive bursts on the rare day when they have high energy levels.

You do not need to do something every single day to hone your craft or prove your devotion. You do not need to write on vacation. You are no less of a writer if you do not write daily. You are still a writer.

Having written every day for a living for the better part of my 20s, I would offer this piece of advice: tread cautiously. Unless you are getting paid to do it, writing every day is an easy road to burnout that may not be worth it.

Approaching a creative process like writing or making any kind of art with such rigid workman-like devotion — I clock into my writing desk at 9 am and don’t leave until I’ve written for at least an hour! — may lead to productive output in the short run.

But if your brain is one that thrives on novelty over routine, you might be doing the very thing that will kill your love for writing. Not to mention that different people have different capacity for writing output, which may or may not be daily.

That’s not to say that people with chronic health issues, neurodivergence, or simply irregular availability for writing, e.g., parents/caregivers or people working multiple jobs, cannot make a living as writers. But you will need to find ways to be more productive in the time that you *do* write.

Let’s say you do the bulk of your writing on the one day a week when you have the most energy or the most free time without demands from family or partners.

Then, you must get a good amount of writing done — either in the quantity of words or the quality of words written — knowing your energy or time reserves will be depleted on the other days of the week.

Writers who write every day have the luxury every now and then of being able to open Microsoft Word or Final Draft and stare at the blank page for an hour straight while thinking about the backstory of their character’s childhood nickname — which won’t even make it into their draft — and then calling it a day without having written anything.

You cannot get away with that act if you write less frequently. You just don’t have enough time in the year.

However, writing less frequently does not mean you write less consistently. You are still following a pattern of writing regularly, whether that’s during a weeklong retreat twice a year, writing once a week on Sunday afternoons, three times a week whenever you feel at your highest energy levels — whether it’s the same time of day or not — or twice a week in the park on the days when you get an actual lunch break.

Granted, some of these options — like writing once a year during a retreat — may be less suitable once you are a working screenwriter or novelist who must hand in multiple edits in a short timeline, but if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re not at that stage yet.

Go frolic in a field with a book today instead of writing. You have my permission. Photo by Valentina Ivanova on Unsplash

Even if you are lucky enough to write full-time as a creative, I still think you can get away without doing it every day *if* you know you can go the extra mile on the days when you do write.

OR feel free to write every day, but do it during a short-term period with a definitive end date. Examples of this short-term writing frenzy might include a three-month intensive writing class or writing every day for a month during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This hard deadline is a good way to drive urgency and make significant progress on a long-term project without venturing into burnout territory.

Much of the traditional writing routine advice until the early 21st century was dispensed by able-bodied male writers who likely did not do their fair share of the child-rearing and household maintenance and had ample free time to write. It’s not wise to judge yourself by standards that were not meant for you.

Please do not fall prey to the “we all have 24 hours in a day” mantra. There are 24 hours in a day, yes.

But if you’ve ever done the dreaded task of tracking your time — which all time management gurus love, and which I am sad to say actually works — then you know that after sleep, eating, showering, exercising, cooking, working, commuting, laundry, date nights, social events, and all the myriad other obligations you have…you probably have far less time than you think to write.

And that’s assuming you’re a Luddite who has sworn off social media, which, let’s be honest, you probably haven’t if you’re reading Substack.

Then again, if you are going to call yourself a writer, you must write over and over and over. Write regularly. Write regularly. Write regularly.

You just don’t have to write every day. And I’d argue that you shouldn’t. If you have dependents, work 40 hours a week, have health issues, et cetera, it is very difficult to write every day and do all the things you need to do to foster inspiration that creative people need, whether that’s traveling, perusing the news, knitting a sweater, researching in the archives of a cool library, getting your heart broken, or simply reading a damn good book.

Because you must live life well enough to write about it in a way people will care about. Because you must have free time for your mind to wander, absent the demands of a blank page. Just because.

And sometimes, that means taking days off from writing.

Until next time…

Resources for Living “In Deep Time”

Going forward, I’d like to occasionally share resources that week that have helped me make sense of the world and live well according to my values, AKA, to live “in deep time.” I am not sponsored or paid by any of these people/organizations. I just find their content immensely helpful.

Here are this week’s resources:

• “Solved” Podcast by Mark Manson - Each episode in this series provides an exhaustive overview of a specific self-help topic, with the aim of it being the last piece of content you’ll ever need to consume on that topic. It’s a high bar to clear, but I’d say Manson & his team mostly succeed. Podcast episodes have gone on for four hours, diving into competing theories of emotional regulation and theories on procrastination dating back to Aristotle. If you’d prefer to read, you can get a free PDF booklet on the website that will summarize the contents of each episode, provide references, and offer exercises to put theory into practice.

• Dr. Tracey Marks’ YouTube channel - Dr. Marks is a psychiatrist with decades of experience who presents science-backed ways to improve our mental well-being, particularly through the mind-body connection. Recent episodes have focused on improving resilience, which I think we could all use right now.

• “Maybe it's time to stop searching for purpose and start doing things on purpose”: A Substack post from Self: Assemble by Rachel Carr - For all the hundreds (thousands??) of self-help videos I’ve watched and dozens of books I’ve read, I’ve never seen one that challenges our singular vision of purpose so clearly as this post by Carr, which deserves far more likes. Give it a read.

• Esmé Weijun Wang’s newsletter - This newsletter from the author of The Collected Schizophrenias offers tips for writers with mental health issues and chronic illness on developing a writing process that suits them.