E is for Every Day?

 When it comes to writing, there are few hard-and-fast rules. While some writers swear by carefully constructed plots, others (like me) are pantsers, writing by the seat of their pants, so to speak, and constructing a path that has room for detours. We focus more on characters than plot (or at least I do) -- so much so that our characters are often the ones "suggesting" the detours and/or demanding more time on the page.

These discrepancies are true for writing habits as well. Some writers swear that it's essential to write every day, even if only for a short time. Others prefer to binge write (a long weekend, for example) or have learned to write in chunks of found time as short as ten to fifteen minutes. 

I have been (almost) all of those writers. 

For a few years before my daughter was born, I had the luxury of having Fridays off. At the suggestion of my sister, who knew I wanted to write, I designated Friday mornings my writing time. That was my binge-writing phase.

Then, after my daughter was born, I entered my "no writing" phase. Too tired and too enamored of her to even have any interest in other things, I wrote only sporadically. 

Gradually, I moved into the "found time" phase, writing during nap time, or eking out some time when an idea seized me, and eventually being able to plan writing time around things like her gymnastics class, for which my husband was chauffeur, or her dance class, when I wrote in the car while I waited. Along the way, I learned to squeeze in some lunchtime sessions, actually coming close to a sort of predictable writing schedule.

After hearing about writing sprints at a conference I went to, I began aiming for one-hour writing sprints every day (including weekends), posting my successes and failures around this schedule on a Facebook page populated by other writers trying this same plan. By then, my daughter was older, more independent, and better able to entertain herself while I worked. Sprints worked pretty well in the summer and sort of well between semesters, but fell apart pretty quickly when it was time to incorporate my "real job" into the schedule.

What I have never been is an every day, 365-day-a-year writer. 

For a while, I saw that as a failure, or at least a lack of self-discipline, so I tried harder. Then, the pandemic hit, uprooting my motivation like a toxic tornado, leaving me wondering if my writing career was behind me.

Slowly, I began to realize a few things. First, the well of creativity I needed for writing was the same as the well of creativity I was draining to find new and different ways of reaching my students, who were now learning online. Second, stepping back (or even away from) creative pursuits sometimes gives us the think time and breathing time we need to make the progress that eludes us. 

Both of these made the case for something I'd suspected all along, but feared was a cop-out: not every writer needs to write every day.

tigerlily713 via Pixabay

It was a bumpy road back after the pandemic tornado, and I still haven't recaptured the passion I once felt, but I know I'm not alone in that regard. These days, I no longer pressure myself to write daily (though I miss posting good sprint news sometimes), and I recognize that, in this season of my writing, focusing on creativity is more important than focusing on productivity. In fact, after more than 25 years of writing, it may be the only sustainable way to do things.

At least until I retire.