image0 (2)I know it is not considered fashionable to have a title with the words ‘don’t write everyday’ in it.

Many, many writing advice sites hold ‘write everyday’ and ‘make daily writing goals’ as sacrosanct.

If you don’t put your bum in the chair on a daily basis, you won’t get it done, they say.

If you are ‘serious’ about being a writer, you need to stop farting around, just writing ‘when you feel like it’. You need to put some structure on yourself: a daily writing practice, a daily writing ritual, a daily writing place, daily word counts.

MAKE A COMMITMENT AND SHOW UP EVERY DAY, for gods sake.

What I’ve come to realize, however, is that this advice is not for everyone.

This advice is there to support you, to guide you…but it is not meant to restrict you or make you panic.

If you don’t write everyday, its OK! Take a deep breath. You’ll be alright!

I think what I would say instead of ‘write everyday’ is: WRITE CONSISTENTLY WHEN YOU CAN.

I write regularly, just not every day. Writing has always been a constant in my life.

But if I don’t get to it that day (or even that week), well, there are other days (weeks)!

I’m in it for the long haul and I suspect, if you’re reading this: so are YOU.

If writing is important to you, it will stick around.

You’ll figure out a way. It will come to you or you to it. It will still happen. It can become a consistent presence without you needing to force it, if that’s what works for you.

That’s the key part: if it works for YOU!

If you need to set a timer every day for a while, then do so. If you don’t need to do that, then don’t!

I also gave up #writegoals a long time ago (ten years or so ago…the date of this linked posting is 2010!)).

Trying to hit a specified and high word count made me a sloppy writer, to be honest. I was just trying to fill the page. Quality over quantity. I didn’t like the feeling.

It took me some time (ahem…ten years) but I eventually realized it was okay to veer from ‘the rules’.

I don’t have to be a text book perfect writer. I have developed my own writing approach, evolved into my own writing life.

One that suits me.

Your writing life does not need to look like my writing life. And that’s okay.

Dear writers, what does your writing life look like? Do you like to follow ‘the rules’?