Why Write Daily

My past posts have been about marketing and distribution channels for authors. Today is about the craft of writing itself and the commitment it takes to produce a manuscript for your loyal readers to appreciate in the first place.

I've taken classes and attended workshops on crafting fiction. I've learned from some real business pros on how to develop and run my publishing company, Urban Lifestyle Press. I believe my commitment to my continuing education is absolutely essential to my long-term success. But my most important commitment is to writing every single, solitary day. It doesn't matter if I'm home in Charlotte, on a book tour, or spending a weekend away on vacation: if I'm not making time to be in front of my Mac, punching out pages daily, then I must be ill or tending to some Emergency. I keep this commitment for two reasons.

1.       Writing Consistently Over Time Allows Me To Keep My Pen Game Up:

Writing every day, is just like lifting weights. The more I've consistently written, the better of an author I've become. There are so many techniques and device you can only use effectively via practice. Do you want to improve as a story teller?  Do you want to be good at plot development, character development, conflict, climax, resolution, irony, etc. The only way to get better is through the practice of writing. How else will you try out and master the techniques? Just like anything else, you have to do more than just "get it." You have to put in time to actually do it!

2.       It's About Self-Respect

All most all self-respecting, successful writers go at it every single day. So for me to credibly tell myself, "I'm a writer," it can't simply be aspirational. There must be pages hammered out as a product of my daily commitment. I challenge you assess yourself and, if you're not writing daily, commit to being what you say you are. A lot of people worry about being perfect at their work and let that hold them up. But don't make this mistake. In the Linchpin, Seth Godin writes that you get good at creating good art through the constant practice of creating bad art. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell demonstrated that expert knowledge at anything came after approximately 10,000 hours of practice. Relevantly combined for aspiring authors, these two are simply saying that a constant routine of putting out any kind of writing will create good writing.

It's easy to say, I'll get to it tomorrow. But the most prolific authors are able to publish so often because they've committed to writing daily. I know many of you reading this have 9-5 jobs, so you may have a limited amount of time you can give. The point is that you schedule at least 1 hour per day to doing what authors do: creating that next great piece of literature or non-fiction. That's what I do and I look forward to publishing my fourth novel very soon.