Keep This in Mind If You Want to Develop a Daily Writing Habit Without Trying

Let the blank page be your best friend.

Are you a writer? Do you want to be one?

If the answer is yes, then I bet you’ve already thought about developing a daily writing habit.

You think about how to show up every day, roll your motivation up your sleeves, and gather all the resources to just hit that damn button. Yet we all have our ‘sick and tired of being sick and tired of writing’ days. So you cracked the 58-days writing streak and now you are back to square one.

Sounds familiar?

Many aspiring writers find the habit of daily writing very difficult to maintain. Sometimes it can even be a burden.

But say no more. Here, I’d like to share the technique I used to keep a daily writing habit without even trying. This has worked for me for over 5 years. So why not give it a go?

Make writing a part of who you are

If you want your writing to get rusty — don’t write every day. If you don’t want to get better at your craft — don’t write every day. If you fall into the habit of not writing and wonder why you’re not getting better—don’t ask me why.

You don’t have enough time to write daily? You know it’s an excuse. You know you can write wherever and whenever you want using only your smartphone. In fact, Fifty Shades of Grey was written that way.

Developing a writing habit means making writing a BIG part of your life. It means to make writing as important as sleeping, eating, or breathing. It means to make it a part of who you are.

Of course, you won’t die if you don’t write. But your soul dies a little when you put it aside.

I’ve been writing since I was 7 and I finished my first novel at 11. Now, at 23, I’ve written 52 short stories, 7 novels, 3 novellas, 500+ blog posts, and countless journal entries.

As a side note, I’m not (yet) a professional writer, but I’ve already made writing a part of who I am since many years ago.

At first, I started the habit of writing because eventually I wanted to write a book — but it became much more than that. I use daily writing to construct my thoughts, jot down ideas, troubleshoot problems, and relieve insecurities or anxieties that I have.

Whatever it is, you need to make writing a part of who you are. You have to write about anything.

Pour your thoughts into your journal, write poetry, take notes, outline ideas for your next story. Write a story about your life, about what keeps you up at night, about what makes you cry and smile.

Close your eyes and let the story that wants to come out become vividly clear in front of you — and you let the words flow before you.

“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” — Dan Poynter

Keep the writing process in sync with yourself

Everyone can write for a day — or two, or three. But there are very few people who write consistently over the years.

If you want to make a daily writing habit, getting started is not enough. You have to keep going.

Habit is all about consistency. It’s about doing it every single day no matter what happens even if the moon splits in two.

But the thing is, you don’t really create habits consciously.

A study says it can take between 18 and 254 days to form a new habit — depending on the behavior, the person, and the circumstances — and an average of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.

A developed habit is built to make things happen without you having to think much about it. When you’ve developed a writing habit, you don’t think too much to write. You just write.

No matter where you are, your mind will never stop creating and consuming endless writing ideas. Why? Because the whole process of writing has become in sync with yourself — inspirations, ideas, concepts, beliefs, aspirations.

“The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” — James Clear.

Yes, it’s hard to develop a new habit. But that’s the point. Accepting that it is hard in the first place will serve you the motivation to keep doing it.

It won’t get any easier unless you keep going.

Finally, let the blank page be your best friend

Eventually, if you really want to develop a daily writing habit, you shouldn’t enjoy writing, you need to love writing. What do we do when we love someone? We care about them. We give them our time. We share our ups and downs with them.

Sometimes there are days when I’m super tired and feel like I don’t have the energy to write a single word. When this happens, I just jot down whatever comes to my mind in a journal or note on my phone. They are mostly just perched as emotional ramblings, but who cares? The bottom line is: I write.

Don’t strive for writing 1000 words a day. Strive for writing one sentence. Then, keep going.

That’s how you write. That’s how you make writing your daily go-to. No matter how hard it is — let the blank page be your best friend. And let it bring out the writer in you. As Jodi Picoult put it:

“You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” — Jodi Picoult