I’ve been writing my whole life. I started writing stories and essays as a child. I even got a degree in English literature and took a bunch of writing and journalism courses. I started my first blog in 2004, and my first regular magazine column in 2016. Don’t let that long history fool you, however. Like many writers, I’ve long had trouble with consistency. I’ll go through a period where I’ll write an essay or story here and there, and then I’ll go through a period where I don’t write much at all.
I’ve often wanted to write more. Thus, I came up with ten writing rules that have helped immensely. These rules have helped me be more consistent and more prolific, even when I don’t feel like writing.
In the off chance that you would like to write more too, maybe adopting one or more of these rules will help you as well.
My Writing Rules
- I write every day for at least two hours, first thing in the morning. My only exceptions are my days off. I’m a professional (meaning I get paid to write), so I write every work day. If I want to write longer, that’s fine, but that two-hour window is blocked off from everything else. This daily writing appointment as or more important than any other meeting or task I have in any given day. I created this rule after reading Cal Newport’s Deep Work.
- If I don’t want to write during that period, that’s fine, but I’m not allowed to do anything else during that window. I write, or I sit and do nothing. By writing, I mean I’m typing words, rewriting words, editing words, or doing a few minutes of light research for my piece (deep research can become a distraction and should be done later). I borrowed this rule from Neil Gaiman.
- I won’t allow myself to be distracted during that period. If I do, my two hours of writing/sitting gets extended accordingly. I know when I’m letting the Resistance win (a la Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art), and when it does, I add the exact number of minutes lost to my earliest finish time.
- I write two pages no matter what. I don’t have to write anything great. I can write drivel, as long as I’m writing. Worst case I can just journal. I can make it better later, or not. But I have to write at least two pages of new words each day. I stole this rule from Tim Ferriss.
- If I’m having trouble getting started, all I have to do is write one sentence. After that, I can rewrite, edit, do light research, or just sit and do nothing. But I have to write one sentence. One sentence is a tiny habit that anyone can do. I’ve yet to write one sentence and stop. Inevitably, the floodgates open immediately. I created this rule based on BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits.
- I write about what seems most exciting to me in any given day. That means I may have several projects going at once. That’s OK, because I’ll always be writing about what excites me most, which will come through in my writing.
- Deadlines help. I follow an editorial calendar to create deadlines for myself when I have no outside deadlines. I aim to finish and publish at least 3 shorter pieces per week. These can be blog posts, essays, short stories, book chapters, video essay scripts, presentation scripts, or something of equivalent length and effort. If they are blog posts, essays, short stories, or videos I post them online or submit them to outside publications. Book chapters don’t need to be published or submitted immediately, though they can be.
- Promotion is important, but it’s not writing. I often tweet about what I write, post to Facebook about what I write, and perhaps post to other social media too. Sometimes I even post the content itself to social media instead of simply posting about and linking to the content. However, this tweeting and posting is promotion time, not creation time. This promotion must be done outside of my two hours of writing each morning. In fact, promotion should only be a small percentage of my time, perhaps no more than 20%. I learned this from Ryan Holiday’s Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts.
- I do not talk about what I’m going to write. That is getting credit on credit, which dispels my energy to actually write it. In other words, part of the drive to create something is to share it with others, and then to get credit, as in gain credibility, for having created something valuable or cool. But when I talk about a project before having created it, I psychologically get the cool-points credit, without having actually created something. It becomes a debt or liability I have to pay back rather than an asset to create and give away. Thus, getting credit on credit. This doesn’t feel good, the energy leaks away, and I inevitably shelve that project to work on something else. Thus, I only talk about what I’ve already written. The exception is discussing a specific piece for editorial purposes, such as discussing an article I’m working on with an editor.
- I create more than I consume. Consuming is a necessary part of the creation process, but it’s easy to let it expand to fill my time. The exact amount of time I create and consume isn’t important, as long as I create at least a couple hours a day. It’s the amount of energy I put into creating vs. consuming that matters.
Those are my writing rules. I hope they’re helpful.
Please let me know your own rules for writing. Perhaps I’ll add them to my list.