Daily writing

There are so many blogs, websites, etc about learning to write on a daily basis. Maybe some of them have good advice on them and others are just going to repeat the standard message. To write every day you just need to sit down and write. One really good reason to write every day is because a better writer you just need to practice the skill.

One thing that I learned while trying to write on a daily basis was not to get upset with myself when I missed a day at first. Writing every day has to become a habit and yes it does take some time to get into that habit of sitting down and writing.

So many people say that they are writer but there is one thing missing if what they really say. Being a writer means that you need to write and not just talk about writing. Real writers are those people that simply write every single day. Of course, some writers are lucky and are able to just sit down and the words just flow but others have had to practice their skills and get into the habit of writing every day.

For me to get into the habit of writing I needed to have a few steps to assist me in achieving the daily writing and these were:

• Pick a spot where I was going to try and write every day. I found that sitting at my desk in front of my computer was a good spot for me to start my writing.

• Set a time of the day when I would try and write. I found that being able to write first thing in the morning was when I could just sit and write. It was also the time of day when emails and phone calls were less likely to interrupt my writing.

• Set myself a writing goal. This was originally how many words a day that I was going to try and achieve.

When I couldn’t get the words to start to flow in the morning where are some things that I would write about:

• What was the weather like when I sat down to write.

• What was on the schedule for the day, working at home, at our office, going to a conference or any of those things.

• What did I do after I finished writing the day before.

• What was I feeling as I sat down to write.

• Use a writing prompt as there are a lot of websites that will email you one each day.

Of course these are just some of the ideas that I had when I started to write. I got into the habit of trying to write each day and it has got a little bit easier. There are days when I don’t seem to be able to find the words but I still sit down at the computer and try each morning. I may only have a few minutes at the beginning of my day to get something down but normally I will find time at some point during the day to add to the writing that I started.

Daily writing is just what it is. It is sitting down somewhere every day and writing even a little bit. Being afraid of what your writing looks like is something else that you need to overcome. Your daily writing is just that it is a draft and no one else is going to need to see it. If you are writing a story then yes you will edit it later to make it look professional. Your general daily writing is just for you and you have to remember that when you sit down to write. It doesn’t have to be formatted perfectly and you don’t need to ensure that every word is the exact word that you should have in that sentence.

To get into the habit of writing you just need to give yourself permission to write and let it happen. You may not achieve your writing goal every day and something your writing may not make a lot of sense when you read it over but at least you are writing. To become a writer and actually say that you write means one thing and that is you do write.

It’s one thing to call yourself a writer but it’s quite another to actually write.