Writing and Publishing Every Day Are Two Different Things

Clearing doubts about the most confusing writing advice

The one writing tip that gets shared every day is to write every day.

Every writer hears it every time they seek advice from established and well-known writers. I took this advice personally and forced myself to write and publish every day for several weeks. Every time the clock hit 9 pm, I would rush to finish an article to complete my quota for the day.

It was challenging to keep pace with my 9–5. I was doing all the writing after hitting the sack and before sleeping, and the time was not enough to edit and publish the article.

But then I learned something that I was doing wrong.

Writing every day doesn’t mean publishing every day

Now, I followed the advice of writing every day, but I wasn’t publishing every day. Whenever I failed to publish a new story on Medium or a new post on LinkedIn, I felt like a failure.

I felt like I wasn’t making progress because I wasn’t publishing, but in reality, I was writing 600–1000 words every day.

The advice of writing every day creates a lot of ambiguity. People confuse the direction and assume that means they’ll have to register every day on the platform, which is publishing every day as I did.

Publishing every day will be great for your Medium stats and increase your income, but not posting daily doesn’t mean you’re not writing or honing your skills.

Most of the authors and novelists spend years mastering their work, and in between, they might not publish anything, but that doesn’t mean they are not working or making any progress.

The best work comes when no pressure and a deadline. I guess we all remember what happened with GOT — how the writers spoilt one of the greatest shows to get done with it?

Great things take time. If you’re putting in the work, you don’t have to worry about not churning out 30 articles in the month. You can do it to challenge yourself as David Majister did in March, but it shouldn’t be a compulsion, or it will affect the quality of your work.

If you are working on a top-notch article that will take a week for you to polish, then take that week and put your heart and soul into that article.

Don’t just publish for the sake of publishing.

I published some mediocre articles when I tried to post a story on Medium every day. But when I understood that I don’t have to do that, I spent more time on a novel and could see the difference.

Irrespective of your writing purpose — to make money or be a great writer, the journey for both is the same.

It all comes down to writing good stories that resonate with people.

And in between those pauses, make sure you come back with something compelling and unique, so when you’re gone the next time, your readers are eagerly waiting for your next story. A story that only you can write.

Conclusion

Write every day but don't force yourself to publish every day. Sometimes it takes a couple of days for an excellent story to form in your mind and build on your screen.

However, if you plan and work strategically, you can publish one story every day without compromising the quality. If you can do that’d be great for your writing skill and build an audience on a platform.

It all comes down to publishing the story when it is ready and not because you have to publish it.

Spend two days a week if the story requires that much time. Go all in, do all the research you need to, and publish something you’re proud of. Ending the article with a quote by Charles Bukowski.

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery — isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”

If you enjoyed this post, you’d definitely love these