By Ian Warner
There are some simple steps you can follow if you want to make writing a habit. It’s one of the best habits you can build if you’re going to Journal, write books, or build a blog. You don’t need to have any extraordinary talents. You have to want to write more.
I have published over 2000 blogs on sites like this one, Boast In Christ, Medium, and other websites. I have published two books by the names of Endure, and Allergic to Average. All of that writing did not stem from talent, but habits and consistency.
I never thought I had any writing skills when I was in high school. One teacher did encourage me to stick with and continue to develop my skills. This was right around when blogging was gaining popularity. It was less about formal essays and more about speaking directly to your audience in a more casual way.
I started off posting blogs whenever I thought I could because I had no consistency. That turned into posting blogs once a week, to do it every day. A few years later, I was running a blog that posted articles four times a day. It was amazing to see how far I had come. My daily writing habit had changed my life.
The Writing Habit is Attached to The Reading Habit
Writers are always readers. The result of writing is material for others to read. It would be like a musician that never takes the time to listen to other people’s music. If you want to write more but feel like you don’t know what to say, read more. Reading will spark many different ideas, and it will introduce you to many different literary styles.
If you already read daily, push yourself more in this area. You want to learn more every day, and you also want to read different genres and types of books. You don’t want just to read the same types of books. I know many people who only read self-help books, and they don’t even realize it. Get some history in there; learn about relationships and other topics.
Suppose reading is new to you. Start small and just read a page a day. Once you get that down consistently, you can go to reading two pages a day. Then move from there to reading for 10 minutes. Keep moving the time up until you can’t spend any more time reading.
If you want to write more but feel like you don’t know what to say, read more. Reading will spark many different ideas, and it will introduce you to many different literary styles.
Start With One Sentence to Make Writing a Habit
The same way reading gets started small; you want to attack writing the same way. Every person I see try to begin writing who tries to write massive articles or massive parts of a book every day. They are not able to keep up that pace, and they eventually give on it altogether.
Think about running for a second. With no training, imagine trying to run a marathon. You would be at severe risk of injury because you’re giving your body too much of something not used. The better strategy is to start running short distances and build up that volume slowly.
The same is true for writing. You want to build it up slowly so that you can sustain those efforts over the long run. Even if you know you can write more, that is ok. It’s better to write 100 words over seven days than to write 700 words one day and then not write again for a week. Consistency is your best friend when building a habit. When you get the consistency down, then you can go for volume later.
Think about running for a second. With no training, imagine trying to run a marathon. You would be at severe risk of injury because you’re giving your body too much of something not used. The better strategy is to start running short distances and build up that volume slowly.
The Writing Habit = Guranteed Progress
Here is what is sweet about writing; it’s guaranteed that you will make progress if you’re consistent. Let me explain this.
Suppose you write 100 words a day, which is not very many words. The last section of this article has just under 200 words. You can take 5 minutes and write 100 words quickly. Do that daily, and by the end of the year, you will have 36,500 words. That is enough to publish a book.
It does not matter what your end goal is. If you show up for it daily, you will make progress. When I am writing for this site, I get at least one article done every day. That is my standard, and it guarantees that I keep making progress.
Suppose you write 100 words a day, which is not very many words. The last section of this article has just under 200 words. You can take 5 minutes and write 100 words quickly. Do that daily, and by the end of the year, you will have 36,500 words. That is enough to publish a book.
Moving Towards Advanced Writing Habits
| Writing | For How Long |
|---|---|
| 1 Sentence | 1 week |
| 100 Words | 2 weeks |
| 300 Words | 2 weeks |
| 500 Words | 2 months |
| 1000 Words | 3 months |
| 2000 + Words | Lock it In |
The key is starting as simply as you can and building to being able to write over 2000 words in a day. It’s not a race to get to as many words as possible. Writing 500 words a day is still impactful, and it will result in over 180,000 words in a year with consistency.
You can easily see how you move from being an amateur to being a pro as you progress. The amateur write shows up and writes whenever, and it does not matter how much they write or for how long.
The pro shows up, and they attack their work every day no matter what. They don’t care how they feel in the moment. You begin to make that shift when you transition out of 500 words into 100 words a day. At that point, you’re a serious writer, and you mean business.
Tips for Your Writing Habits
The following tips will make your writing a bit easier to get done each day. The point is to get your 2000 words done in an efficient manner. You don’t want to have 2000 words taking you the entire day to write. These following tactics will help you to get this done.
Remove All Distractions
When it’s time to write, the pro is serious about moving distractions. Block social media sites on your browser, remove your phone, and make sure that you can give your writing all of your focus.
Edit Later
The goal is to write, not to edit. You can get someone else to edit later, and you can do it later as well. The point is to get the thoughts out of your head, and switching back and forth between edit mode and write mode will waste a lot of time.
Have a Goal
You want to have a reason for your writing. For example, I write on this site for SEO purposes, but I also write as a way of expressing ideas I want to put into future books. When you lose sight of why you write, it can be easy to feel like your writing is pointless.
The pro shows up and they attack their work everyday no matter what. They don’t care how they feel in the moment.
Conclusion for Building Your Writing Habit
Don’t overcomplicate this. It would help if you wrote something every day, and writing something is better than nothing. If you’re supposed to write 500 words in a day and only write 100, you are still 100 words closer to your goal. Don’t let not hit these made-up habit targets make you quit if you miss the mark and gear up to try harder next time.
As you get comfortable writing a small number of words, keep building up to a more significant amount until you’re writing your desired amount of words each day.
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