If you want to become a prolific writer, you need to get into the habit of writing every day. But what does that look like?

How to build a writing habit. Building your writing habit is just like going to the gym and building small. You need to start small and gradually increase your workload. You should have a goal or strong reason why you want to do it, so you aren’t tempted to give up when things get tough. And you need a way to hold yourself accountable.

In this article, I’ll give you some methods and motivation for building your own personal writing habit.

Why Build A Writing Habit?

People underestimate the exponential results that you can get if you continually do something every day.

If you write 1,000 words once a week, you’ll have 52,000 words to show at the end of the year.

But if you write every day, that number jumps to 365,000 words!

You probably aren’t going to write on Christmas and other holidays, but you get the idea.

It’s the difference between putting out fifty blog posts over the course of a year or hundreds of them.

Or writing one novel every couple of years, instead of three or four each year!

If your goal is to produce a ton of writing in your lifetime, then it’s not something that you can just do a couple of times per week. It has to become a daily passion for you.

How Can You Build A Writing Habit?

My feelings are that writing is just like going to the gym or any other routine. When you go to the gym, you have to start off small.

You might only be able to lift the lightest weight they have available, or do a couple of minutes on the lowest treadmill setting.

But if you stick with it, you’ll gradually start to be able to do more and more.

Just like going to the gym, you’re probably not going to get the results that you want if you only write it once a week. Or if you commit to it and write for one or two weeks before giving up.

Have A Strong Reason Why

You might start a writing project off strong. But if you don’t have a strong reason why you’re doing it, then you’re at more risk of giving up when things start to get tough.

Are you doing it because you have a story that the world needs to read?

Is it a way for you to make money or get famous?

Think of why you want to take on a big writing project in the first place, and remember that reason once the work becomes a grind.

Write Something Every Day

If you’re consistent about writing something every day, you can get away with writing less in each sitting. If you only have one or two days each week that you write, there’s more of a burden to produce something meaningful in those limited time slots that you’ve assigned for yourself.

Writing every day also just helps to keep you in the flow of things.

Again it’s just like going to the gym. If you allow yourself to miss one day, it can turn into two days. And then a whole week. And before you know it, you’ve paid for a whole year’s gym membership (or Grammarly Premium membership) without actually making use of it.

Check out my article How Many Words Can You Write Per Day? (Freelance Writer Goals) to see what you should be aiming for!

Pick A Time

I find it can be helpful to pick one time that you write each day and be consistent with it.

Personally I like to write first thing after I wake up. If you have a full-time job, waking up an hour or two early is a great way to add in some extra writing time in the day without changing your existing schedule at all. If the writing is important enough to you, you’ll find a way to make it work.

Other people write better in the evening, so maybe you can give up an hour or two of television or Netflix to write instead.

Feel like you’re a slow writer? My article How To Write A Blog Post or Article FAST! will give you the boost that you need!

Start Small

Don’t start off trying to write 5,000 words in a day, or to publish an entire novel in a year. Maybe you’ve heard of some professional writers that do this, but you probably aren’t a professional yet yourself. Just like you wouldn’t go straight into the gym and go for the weightlifting record.

Start small so that you don’t burn out or give up right away. Pick something manageable that you think you can maintain in the long term.

Which brings me to my next point.

Set A Goal

Set a concrete goal for yourself, but make sure that you keep it realistic.

Your goal could be measured in word count, minutes you sit down and try to write, number of pages or scenes, or whatever goal you think is best.

You might want to start off making it super trivial. Set a number so embarrassingly low that you won’t allow yourself to fail and miss a day. Like 100 words each day.

That way even if you aren’t feeling it, you’re still probably capable of sitting down and meeting your 100 words per day goal. 100 is better than 0. And chances are that most days you’ll keep going once you get into the flow.

What amount of content should you be aiming for? My article How Many Blog Posts Should You Write Per Week or Month? provides some great guidance.

Picture The End Result

Think of what you’re going to have once your writing is done.

It might be a completed book.

Maybe it’s a blog that gets 1,000 unique visitors per day.

Whatever it is, figure out what end result you’re looking to get. Then you’ll be able to break it into smaller goals much more effectively.

Set Reminders

When you’re first starting off, you won’t be in the habit of writing every day. So you may “conveniently” end up forgetting that you’ve got writing to do.

A simple alarm on your phone each day is enough to prompt you that it’s time to sit down and write.

After a while you won’t need this because the writing will just become a habit. But for the first week or so, it’s probably a good idea.

Let People Know

Tell the people in your life about your writing habit. Especially the people that you live with.

Your family will need to know that you’ll be busy during specific hours of the day, so they can leave you alone to write undisturbed.

If any other activities like seeing friends on a weekly basis will interfere with your writing, you’ll need to either cancel those plans or reschedule them too.

Have An Accountability Partner

Have someone in your life to ask about your writing and make sure that you’re sticking to it.

This could be a family member or friend. But it’s even better if it’s another writer, so you can both keep each other accountable and on track.

There are lots of Facebook groups, forums, subreddits, and other places where you can find a writing accountability partner for yourself.

Join Writing Competitions or Local Groups

If you want feedback on your work, you may want to look for local groups of writers. This can also be online, but it’s even better to meet face-to-face in person. It’s much less likely to have toxic people that sometimes frequent online groups that way.

You can ask other writers to evaluate your writing and see where you can improve. Or you can enter your writing into smaller competitions, which will give you a lot of confidence in your writing if you win.

If writing is something you’re doing every day, it’s good to really incorporate it into your life as a hobby and passion that you can share with other people. Even though it’s a very solitary activity, that doesn’t mean that you can’t connect with other writers and learn from each other.

Conclusion

Building a writing habit is crucial if you want to succeed as a writer and produce a significant amount of work. Whether that’s a blog, a novel, or any other type of writing.

Make your writing habit consistent, and have multiple different systems in place to hold yourself accountable.

And when things get tough, don’t forget why you started your writing project in the first place!