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Write Every Day; The Worst Advice

You’re allowed to not write if you want to be a writer.

By Conor MatthewsPublished 2 years ago 6 min read
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Write Every Day; The Worst Advice
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Often I’m torn between two beliefs; determinism and defeatism. I love self-help talks but I hate those who blindly declare you deserve every negative aspect of your life. A middle ground I found can be summed up in the Serenity Prayer;

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Writing, like many suits, has fallen prey to the same well-meaning motivation porn that grows from survivor’s bias. One of the worst “rules” repeated ad nauseam, proclaimed the secret to the would be James Joyce’s of the world, is;

Write. Every. Day.

So! What’s the issue? Isn’t this what writers do? If you want to write, write, right?

Content Creation

The history of work has been determined to dehumanise workers. Every concession made to alleviate labour suffering has been fought against with the cry “X will destroy Y industry”. Child labour, working hours, sick pay.

In the digital age, with global connectivity and a possible audience spanning continents, there would be no excuse not to benefit from your writing, whatever your style, right?

…Right?

As with any other forms of work, continuous production, regardless of consumption, is the focus, prioritizing the viral and novel over value and interest. While quantity can uncover quality, intentionality is key. Like studying, you must execute, review, correct, and repeat what you learn. Constant writing may improve your speed, it does little to internalise your understanding of the craft, turning your skill into not human expression but rather a soulless chore.

Burn Out

When I finish big projects I got through a period of depression that takes weeks to get over before starting a new project. This is mental recovery, exhaustion from a job well done, the same you’d feel in your muscles after an intense work-out.

WED doesn’t care about your recovery. It’s not impressive to go hard, acting like an unstoppable machine. In reality you look like an immature child showing off in front of grown-ups who know their limits.

You need rest. You need to regain focus and distance. I’m not saying rely solely on inspiration, but having something to say depends letting your mind soak up experiences and thoughts like a sponge. You can only wring out so much.

Mythology

We think the greats were gods. Hamilton has songs and plot points dedicated to how much it’s protagonist wrote. Stephen King once remarked he could finish a manuscript in three months (every three months are his peak).

We are oversimplifying these artists (especially once they’re commercially successful). We romanticise and focus on them hunch over paper, writing and muttering to themselves. We’re not seeing the lives they lived outside of their writing.

George Orwell fought fascists in Spain. Junji Ito was a dental technician. Roddy Doyle was a school teacher. Shonda Rhimes was a job counsellor. Rarely are the 24/7 writers anything other than boring wrecks who made terrible parents and partners.

History only remembers the masterpieces. It doesn’t care for the mornings spent organising a closet or entertaining the kids stuck inside hiding from the rain. We in the present are forced to live through every second, trying to justify why were aren’t writing every waking moment. How dare we be human!

So what actually matters if you want to write?

Consistency

Writers write, but WED takes a good idea, habit, and perverts it into a take to be done to avoid self-hatred; a stick with no carrot.

The trick is to think it percentages, not streaks.

While streaks can be great motivators for some, it creates an all-or-nothing mentality. When a streak is broken, it leads to a total collapse of the habit. “I’m back at square one, so I might as well go all in and waste days”. This is why addicts experience relapse; one drink breaks your streak so you might as well get drunk.

Percentages, however, are more positive. Say you wrote 9 out of 10 days. That’s 90 of the time! So if you just forgive yourself and write on the 11th day, you’re now up to 91% It encourages you to make up for that lost day, as well as reminding yourself you’re succeeding more than you’re failing.

Writing Isn’t Just Writing

Writing is rewriting. When I finish a piece, I open up a new page and retype everything, word for word (I’m literally doing it right now). I can cut out hundreds if not thousands of words, simplify sentences, and turn paragraphs into mere lines by doing this.

Writing is often romanticised as a madness, possessed by the muses, practically vomiting words. While this can be true, this is the part your not supposed to be proud of, the part where you dig through rubbish for those few gems.

I just finished sample scenes for a producer. He’s a breakdown of how it went.

  • 5 days spent struggling to develop the entire thing. I initially didn’t even like the idea. It incubated in the back of my mind, growing out of sight until it had enough life to arouse my interest.
  • 2 days were spent on developing the idea though a mind-map This involved think. Just think, no writing. How were elements connected? What comes to mind? What would be interesting to see? Imagine the Pepe Silvia meme; that was me.
  • It took another 2 days to outline; the first bit of writing. This was to act as both a summary for the producer and as an outline for the sample scenes.
  • The sample scenes took another 2 days.
  • Another day was spent on revisions, rewrites, and proofreading before finally being sent.

In 11 days I went from no idea, to development, to outline, to writing, to editing, to submission. Only two of those days were spent to actual writing.

Just because you aren’t writing doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress. Leaving an idea to permeate, thinking, riving, spell checking; it’s all writing. Give yourself credit.

Round Yourself

You know what I do when I’m not writing. I cook. I 3D print toys I design. I take the dogs for a walk. I listen to podcasts. I babysit out niece. I have a secret Youtube channel (you’ll never find me, mwahahaha).

If you want to write, you have to have something to write about. Masterpieces weren’t solely thrashed out day after day in vacuums. “Frankenstein” came from scientific discoveries. “The Hate U Give” came from a fantasy writer encouraged to write about police shootings. Hank Green wrote YA novels from dealing with young adults through Youtube.

To be interesting, be interested.

Right now I’m reading “The End of Everything” by Katie Mack. It’s about the theories of how the universe may end. Am I a scientist? No. An astronaut? No. Someone with panic attacks about death? Absolutely! So what would I read such a book when I could read another how-to on writing.

BECAUSE it’s something other than writing. It’s so far removed from writing that it makes my writing less one note, giving it a little extra spice, and allows me, when I do write, to add something to the conversation.

...

If you can WED, do it. It’s up to each individual to find what works for them. Some start at 5am. Some go to cafes or hotels. Some write all day. Some write only once every few years.

WED is bad advice because your aim shouldn’t be to be like everyone else’s idea of a writer. It sounds sappy, but the truth is you have to figure out what works best for you.

What really matters is getting into the habit of writing, honing the whole craft of it (even the unsexy parts), and being the type of person with something worth writing about.

Don’t write every day. Just write. Write some days, write all day, write at night, write for hours, write for yourself, write for no one, but please just write!

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About the Creator

Conor Matthews

Writer. Opinions are my own. https://ko-fi.com/conormatthews

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