Unfortunately, no one has invented a way to write a novel without actually sitting down to write it. So it remains true that the only way to finish whatever project you’re working on is to keep filling that page with words.
Trust me, I know it’s not as easy as it sounds. There’s nothing more daunting than a blank page, and there’s never enough time, and there are so many other things you need to be doing, and your family needs to eat, and, and, and, and! I could come up with a million reasons why it’s hard to write every d*mn day, but that won’t help get your story written.
So instead, here are five tips that helped me get into the habit of writing Every D*mn Day. For me, it was the difference between taking 15 years to finish a first draft, and finishing one in two months.
1) Set a Goal You Can’t Fail
I’m a big believer in setting yourself up for success—and the best way to do that is by setting micro goals. Whether you measure your writing by minutes or words, choose something that feels like it would be easy to accomplish. Start with ten minutes or 200 words. You can even start smaller than that. I have a good friend who set a goal to open her manuscript every day. That’s it. She didn’t have to write or edit a single word to meet her goal, but most days, she did. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep going than it is to get started.
2) Trick Your Mind Into Writing
Find something about your writing routine to make a habit. Whether it’s the place, the time of day, or the drink you’ve got sitting by your laptop. All of those things can be little clues for your brain that it’s time to get to work.
I have a lot of friends who are proud members of the 5am writing club—and that’s amazing for them. But I never have been and will never be a morning person. With my schedule, it’s hard to find one specific time that I can write every day, so I use music to help create my writing habit. There’s one special playlist that I always listen to when I’m writing. It’s the only time I listen to it, and as soon as I hear the first song, it’s like a switch turns on and my brain knows that it’s time to write.
3) Stop Before You Finish
Now this might be counter-intuitive for a lot of you. We’re taught from a young age to finish what we started, whether that’s clearing our plates at dinner or not quitting piano lessons. But when it comes to writing, it helps if you stop a little short. As I’m sure you can imagine, it’s a lot easier to pick up writing in the middle of a scene than it is to start with a blank page and a brand new chapter. So resist the urge to finish—or if you just can’t help yourself, keep going and at least write the first few lines of the next chapter. It’s like leaving your future self a tiny gift of a head start.
4) Remember that Writing Isn’t Always Writing
I know I said the only way to finish writing a book was to sit down and write it—but there’s a lot more that goes into a story than words on a page. There’s research, there’s thinking, there’s reading other books in your genre. If you’re feeling stuck with your story, try and spend your writing time doing something writing-adjacent. If it’s helping you get closer to the goal of writing those two beautiful words, “the end,” then it can count toward your writing time that day.
5) Put Yourself Out There
If you ask me, the best part of writing is the other writers you meet along the way. While the act of writing itself can feel solitary, it’s so much easier if you share the journey with someone else. So find an accountability partner that you can check in with every day or every few days on your progress. It’s nice to have someone else cheering for you, and it’s human nature to be more accountable to someone else than we are to ourselves. That’s the reason I started Every D*mn Day Writers, an accountability group for women writers on Facebook. Because writing does not have to be a solo sport!
Before I sign off, I have one last thought to leave you with. The way I see it, writing every d*mn day is a philosophy, not a rule. The world won’t end if you miss a day or two. Forgive yourself—like we talked about earlier, you have a lot of “ands” that are vying for your attention. But keep in mind that it takes twenty-one days to make a habit and only three to break it. So skip a day or two, but on day three, get back on that writing horse. Even if that just means opening your manuscript.
Founder of Every Damn Day Writers, Alison Hammer has been spinning words to tell stories since she learned how to talk. A graduate of the University of Florida and the Creative Circus in Atlanta, she lived in 9 cities before settling down in Chicago. During the day, Alison is a VP Creative Director at FCB Chicago, but on nights and weekends you can find her writing upmarket women’s fiction. Alison is represented by Joanna MacKenzie of Nelson Literary Agency. “You and Me and Us” (April 2020, William Morrow Harper Collins) is her debut novel.
