Carla Doria – Fiction Author

I didn’t want to write about this until I knew what I was doing. I still don’t, but I’m improving. For years, I’ve tried to build a good daily writing habit. There had been periods of time, months, when I’ve written almost every single weekday, and then months when I have written nothing. How can I achieve a good writing habit that is sustainable?

I want to be able to write every single day or at least 85% (6 of 7 days) as a permanent habit. It doesn’t matter if I only spend 30 mins, 1 hour, or more, I just want this habit to be ingrained in me, in my daily tasks, like taking a shower. I could skip one day, like those rare circumstances when you skip a shower, but more than one day?

For the previous months, I’ve been doing a re-engineering of this process, wanting to make the most of my time: balance my work with writing, personal activities, hobbies, and getting a proper rest. I’ve been failing for years, but I feel that I’m taking a sustainable approach now. How? Simple: I schedule my life priorities first, and one of them is writing.

I’ve scheduled writing for the past months for the early mornings, as the first thing I need to do when I wake up. It hasn’t been easy and I’ve completely missed the process during my vacation. But the key is to understand that this is a life priority; it should be scheduled and not added for “when you have time”. Because let’s face it, if you leave writing for when you’ve manage to organize the rest of your day, your work, your personal life, and everything else, you won’t find time for writing or you will be too tired for it.

I’ve heard that in order to make a habit, you have to repeat it twenty-one times. I don’t know if that is the magical number, but from personal experience, at least you need a whole month. My “habit making process” has been taking me several months so far. I still struggle with it, but I’ve noticed one change and it’s beginning to be forged in my mind, like taking a shower. I wake up thinking about writing and that is good enough to care for it and schedule it. I know I’m going slow –  and sometimes I can only give it thirty minutes per day – but I feel that at least half-an-hour every single day will get me somewhere as opposed to no single writing for the whole week.

Any other tips I can give? To support this habit, I’ve started to meditate. I honestly suggest it. It recharges you, and it’s the only time that you actually have for yourself. If you’re not good at this or don’t know how to start, you can take a look at the Calm App.

Any other good tips for building a writing habit?