Writing Habits

Don’t be ‘a writer. Be writing. – William Faulkner

There are days that one does not feel like writing.

I feel like that right now. However here I am. Hopefully I’ll be able to get something written.

A little while ago I wrote a post on excuses for writing. And you can see how well that is working for me…

Really though I wrote that because writing is something that has to be done often if you want to get better at it.

It’s not easy to write consistently.

It is not easy to write.

Writing is hard.

In a way it is like working out. Working out tends to be hard. It’s not something that you often want to do. But you do it.

Because you believe that in the long run working out is good for you.

One thing that helps you to work out often is making it into a habit. Whether that is going on a run three times a week or working out for just ten minutes daily.

Making a habit helps you to remember to work out and do it consistently.

It is the same way with writing.

If you make it a habit to write for a certain amount of time each day or devote a morning to it once a week.

Habits help us. Humans don’t like to change, so once we can make something into a habit we will continue to do something until we make a conscious effort to stop doing that thing.

I’ve made it a habit to write daily. I don’t care how much I write, and the time that I can devote to it depends on the day and what is happening, but writing is something that has become something that I do daily.

I believe that writing daily has helped me to improve my writing in more ways than I can name.

And I am so thankful that I have gotten into this habit.

Writing is a muscle and when it is not used it will become weak. In order to strengthen those muscles they must be used often.