5 Daily Habits to Becoming a Consistent and Successful Writer

5 daily habits for young writers to thrive and succeed in the game of writing.

There are only a few secrets to becoming a successful writer among all, being consistent is the most important. Everyone starts as average and inconsistent. The few that become successful went beyond being average got consistent doing all they could until life rewarded their sincere effort with success beyond their wildest imagination.

There’s no shame being where you are now — young and new to the game of writing; it’s a blessing obvious to only a few.

First, because no one has an idea what you are going to be and secondly, you can grow as far as you put into growing and learning throughout your life.

The only way these little pieces of advice will work for you is when you make a habit of them. And making a habit of them is so important because, without habit, the results you desire can’t be guaranteed.

And habit works because of one thing: consistency — the secret behind results.

Habit #1: Publish One Story or Article Everyday

This is the most important step of this 5 daily habit. It’s the reason why the other steps will work.

Yes, you will write many ‘substandard’ articles. But don’t you mind; still, publish them. Writing is a journey, you will crawl before you have any chance to stand. And you have to stand before you can walk and run, eventually.

Everybody goes through that process — you are not the first. You’ll publish articles that will make you lose face. Take the courage and pain and publish the next one.

See, the common denominator of success is that success does what failures refuse to do. But most of them are not the hard stuff… most of what the successful do and failures unwilling to do consist of the stuff that makes them lose face.

As long as you’re permitted to fail, utilize that opportunity. There’s no better way to doing it right than first knowing how to do it the wrong way.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” — Thomas Edison.

Habit #2: Read Every day of Your Life

Nothing serves your mind like knowledge and ideas from books.

The richest place in the world isn’t the graveyard; the richest places are within the pages of books rich in information and knowledge for impactful living.

As a writer, you read not only for knowledge and information, you should also read to know how the great are doing it. You should read for content and structure.

Reading for what the writer has to say is reading for content; while reading for how he says it is reading for structure.

As a young writer, you need the two. One can’t compensate for the other. Give attention to the two if you want to succeed in doing what you love.

I once thought of reading and writing as separate activities; recently I discovered that they were the two ends of the same process. Reading is one way to get what to write.

The writer that must become better must dig deep for the lessons of those that’s gone ahead of him as well as the approaches they have given to the craft.

One is too small a number to know all there is about anything — no matter how small a field it seems. Writing is too vast a field for just one person to know all there is about — you have to stand on the shoulders of giants to see farther than others.

Not only does reading serve your writing, but books also make you a better person. The knowledge from books enriches the mind and makes you a better person.

“There’s only one corner of the Universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.” — Aldous Huxley.

Habit #3: Work your mind

Always put your mind to work. That’s the only way it can give you what you want.

Your mind can make you anything you want. But if you don’t work it, if you don’t demand what you want and work your mind to get it, you may never see its reality in your life.

Don’t spoon-feed your mind to grow fat; exercise it to grow strong. Attempt topics you know little about and challenge your mind to write something worth considering about it.

You don’t have to know everything about any topic to earn the right to say a thing or two about it. Only write as much as you know and nothing else. Attempting to write all there is about a topic — though not possible — is trying to impress or writing for egotism.

“Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood,…” — George Orwell, Why I Write.

In other words, sheer egotism is writing to impress rather than to express. Don’t fall victim to that unhealthy aspiration.

There’s an exercise that will help you develop ideas, train your concentration and mindfulness: Feed your mind with words that have the potential to inspire, teach, instruct and guide you.

Habit # 4: Create Time For Your Creativity.

Time is life to creativity. If you have no time for it, it gets withered and dies. You have to have time for it.

Time is more important than talent. If you have talent but have not time, you will fail. Even if you don’t have talent but you have time to practice, if you are consistent, you will succeed.

Time gives life. If you create time for anything, you have allowed it to live. If you don’t create time for your craft, it will die a natural death.

Your talent or passion is precious, but not as much as time. Even if you were born with the gift of words, if you don’t have time for it, it won’t do any good.

If you lead a busy life, it’s difficult to publish a story every day — I understand that. But here’s what else you should do, do your writing when you have absolute control of your time. This may be very early in the morning like 4 or 5 am. Write for about 30 mins each morning; go about your day; return in the evening edit and publish it.

That would help. Always remember: if you have a plan, you will have time enough to do the necessary.

Habit #5: Have some fun and take breaks

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Writing isn’t any different. Yes, you should publish a story every day but that doesn’t mean you won’t do anything else. Some of the best writers lead awesome lives from which they get what to write about.

Nothing animates your stories like the experiences outside words and paper. Your life outside your writing brings the human element into your writing.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin.

Writing offers you those two opportunities. If you lead a life rich in experience, you will write something worth reading, and rich life in itself is worth writing about. So make sure you have a life outside writing. Those who do have less difficulty getting what to share with others in their writings or articles.

Last, take some break. Watch funny videos sometimes to relieve you of the tension that comes with mental exertion like writing. It will free your mind up to allow ideas to flow and circulate.

If you can make a habit of these secrets, you will become one of the few consistent and successful writers on Medium and any other platforms that reward consistency and creativity.

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