How to Make Your Writing Habit Stick

Writing’s a tough business to be in, but then anything’s possible if you’re consistent

Writing’s a lot like the Chinese bamboo tree.

After you’ve planted a “Chinese bamboo tree” seed, nurture it as you would for any other tree. Unlike other trees, it wouldn’t show any visible growth above the ground anytime soon. But you have to keep nurturing — water it, give fertilizer, eliminate weeds, etc.

One year goes by and yet you don’t see any visible sign of sprouting. There goes the second year, but still no progress. Likewise, you don’t notice any visible growth in the third and fourth years.

So the effort you put in, did they all go in vain? You've wasted 4 years of your life for nothing?

Behold! In the fifth year, though, you suddenly see the sprout. And it’s just the beginning. In the next five weeks, it grows into an 80-feet tall tree.

Did it grow 80-feet in just five weeks? What about the prior 4 years that showed no result for the works put into it?

For some successful writers I know, they didn’t have any writing success until after their 4th or 5th year. But they didn’t stop writing either.

5 years a long time. Not everyone can work patiently for 5 years seeing no visible results.

It takes determination, patience, and diligence to work on something knowing you won’t see any result in the first five years.

Successful writers couldn’t be there where they are now if they stopped writing when success seemed impossible. They knew success is inevitable if you make writing your habit and put in the effort. It’ll show — not just yet, but eventually.

Consistency builds a habit

The most effective technique to make writing into a habit is to write regularly. It’s true for building any habit.

Consistency makes your habit permanent. But it doesn’t come easily in the beginning.

Daily writing sucks hard for the beginners — you have to put in lots of effort, and yet you don’t see any sign of your writing going anywhere. No one reads your article. It seems like you’re publishing your writing into the void.

Reading motivational articles on writing seems rather easy. Articles like “how to become a successful writer”, “how to make money writing”, “how to make a writing career”, etc. give you the motivation to write. But that’s all you will get.

The motivation you get from reading articles won’t be of any use if you don’t put in the effort.

You want to leave your mark as a writer, not leave writing itself

It’s a struggle between your desire to make a successful writing career and your rational mind telling you it will not materialize.

In this turmoil, your writing becomes inconsistent. You lose the momentum. You lose the inspiration to write, for evidently, your writing career is going nowhere. You can’t tell others you’re a writer when no one bothers to read your articles.

Most of the aspiring writers leave their dreams of making a successful writing career behind and goes back to their normal life.

But you can’t afford the normal life if you want to be successful. You want to leave your mark as a writer, not leave writing itself.

Not everyone likes to think of their future stuck in the 9–5 cubicle. They want to go outside of the box (read, cubicle). They want to do something they love.

Building a writing career takes a ton of effort, especially in the beginning. Eventually, when you develop momentum, it becomes rather easy.

You need consistency to build a habit. But then again, habit is all about consistency.

Your persistence won’t show any visible result anytime soon. But it’ll pay off in the long run.

So take a pledge to write every day. Pick the same time every day to sit down to write. It can be any time of the day you want, but you have to be consistent in your effort to make it work.

The lower the barrier, the easier it’ll be to form your habit

Habit building is tough. The beginning of building any habit is crucial. It can make or break your habit.

The tougher it is to build your habit, the more difficult it will be to maintain it.

If you make your goal unnecessarily complex, the habit you’re trying to build around it won’t last.

The wise thing to do while building a new habit is to set lower goals in the beginning

Writing is a tough business to be in. When you want to make writing your habit, you need to lower the barrier to entry. Your writing goal has to be simple enough to accomplish. Don’t set unrealistic goals.

You need to keep your consistency intact. If you can make it into a habit, you can then take more pressure. But initially putting too much pressure under huge expectations will prove counterproductive.

Some writers set their writing goals by the hours they spend on their writing. Some by the words they write. The second group often cites the example of Stephen King, who swears by writing 2000 words a day.

Writing 2000 words a day is no easy feat. You might do it for some time. But for how long? Can you sustain it for a long time?

The wise thing to do while building a new habit is to set lower goals in the beginning.

The rule of building any habit is consistent effort. However small your regular approach maybe, it has to be regular.

Whatever your writing goal may be, to make it into a habit, do it every single day. And to make it work, set a small goal that’s easy to achieve.

Setting a small goal maintains the balance between achieving a goal and being consistent.

For making writing a habit, set a goal that suits you. Set a goal that you can easily achieve day in, day out without exception.

You can set “writing 2 minute a day” as your daily writing goal. It’s easy, yet gets the job done. This way, you won’t have any excuse for why you couldn’t write on any day.

Don’t compare yourself with the pros when you’re just starting

Some aspiring writers make the mistakes of comparing themselves with the pro writers. They compare the starting point of their careers with successful writers’ pick careers.

With so many successful writers abound, it’s easy to compare yourself with them. But that doesn’t make it any more rational.

It’s foolish to compare your writing when you’re just starting with that of the pros. It’s equally foolish to compare the views they get with that of yours.

You see writers getting thousands of views on their articles, while your article barely exists in the void. They’ve earned this through their hard works and patience.

Don’t push yourself too hard in this initial stage. The beginning of building your writing habit is all about being consistent.

When you’ve developed your habit, you can emphasize gaining momentum.

Some successful writers (Shannon Ashley comes to mind) are churning out 3 articles a day. It takes a lot of hard works and diligence to achieve this feat.

But you don’t have to do that. Not yet.

You’re just starting. Trying to match the writing output of the successful writers in your early days may backfire.

Instead, go with your flow. Build your momentum on your terms.

Follow the successful writers — observe what they write about and how they write — but don't compare your output with theirs.

For the moment, when you’re still struggling to build writing your habit, try to keep up with the consistency.

In conclusion

Writing is simple. I’ll give you that. But it’s not easy by any standard. If anyone tells you otherwise, he’s lying.

The most effective weapon towards a successful writing career is making writing your habit. Yet, it’s the toughest one to achieve.

With a dogged determination and consistency, you can make writing your habit.

Do not let a day get by without writing something. Anything.

In time, your writing habit will pay off with interest.