Myth Busting – You Must Write Every Day

I think one of the biggest myths in publishing is the one that says you have to write every single day to be a writer.

That is horse pucky, pure and simple. For some people, their process might demand that they write every day, but it is not a universal requirement.

I have never written every day. Ever. My book that was nominated to the Bluebonnet list was written in bits and snatches, many no more than 20 minutes long, with an occasional four hour writing binge on the weekend. With the kids being younger, and much more time consuming, not to mention I had a demanding day job, that’s all I could manage. Another book of mine was written two pages at a time, over the course of a year and a half. With Werewolf Rising I actually walked away from the manuscript for about five months during a crisis of confidence. Even now, I have long, fallow periods, where I can feel the story bubbling and fermenting and fomenting, and I know that if I try to put pen to paper too soon, it will come out green, unripe, only half-formed.

Some writers would have you believe it’s like bricklaying. If you consistently lay five bricks every day, eventually you will have a wall.

But if you don’t take the time to move rocks out of the way, or level the dirt, or make sure the bricks are all the same size, then you’re not going to have a particularly good wall. What if it rains one day and the cement won’t cure properly? What then? Sometimes, waiting and planning and clearing the path is the best course of action.

So if the words or ideas aren’t coming? Take a break. Lighten up. Fill the well. It takes a lot of eclectic input to fuel creativity. Maybe you just ran out of gas. Maybe the story hasn’t gelled yet, or the story egg isn’t ready to crack or you’re just too tired or distracted by other demanding facets of your life. Our emotional lives are the stuff from which writing springs, so how can we ignore them when they demand our attention?

The only thing I would suggest is to try to stay connected to your work somehow, even if you can’t actually do the writing. Some people (those with much better memories than mine!) can carry huge sections around in their head for long periods of time and work on it that way. Story journaling – writing about what you’re going to write about, once you start writing again, has been a lifesaver for me. Often, it ends up priming the pump and lo and behold, I’m writing again!

Other things I do when I just can’t bring myself to write, either from emotional overload or exhaustion, is to sketch out a floor plan or map of the book I’m working on, even though I can’t draw worth spit. It connects me to the physical reality of the world I’ve created in a very visceral way. I collect pictures of great visuals for a collage for the work in progress, again, nailing a visual connection that I refer to time and again as I write the book. Use other creative muscles for working on your writing. Pick out a sound track to your mss, or decorate your heroine’s house for her. You’ll still be keeping in touch with your vision, while not overtaxing the writing part of your brain. And when the story egg is finally ready to crack, you’ll be ready.