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What Can Writing Daily Do For You?

What are the benefits of writing daily, come rain or shine? Sheery Hall, my guest today, shares exactly what she’s gained from over 100 days of writing. Take it away, Sheery.

I am endlessly fascinated with the habits of people I consider successful. As someone who is working toward a book deal, I pay particular attention to the habits of authors.

Nora Roberts writes (and I’m assuming that includes editing) for forty hours per week. She gets up, gets dressed, has coffee and goes to her office to put in a full day just like any of us working any other sort of job. Ms. Roberts releases five or six new books every single year. She spoke at the Romance Writers of America (which is actually international) conference over the summer and stated what she thinks writers must do: “Put your butt in the chair, your mind in your story and words on your page.” She practices this for (at least) forty hours per week.

Stephen King writes two thousand words every single day of the year. He writes on birthdays, holidays, weekends and snow days. It doesn’t matter what the day is—the words get written. That’s discipline, dedication and in my opinion, one heck of a work ethic. You have seen the tomes he writes, right? Now I know how he pulls it off on a regular and consistent basis. Two thousand words, 365/6 days per year.

There’s a theme to the success of these writers and that is discipline about their writing. It sounds simple and sometimes it is, but often it is not. And yet I know for a fact that having discipline about your writing works! I read the information about Stephen King roughly three weeks before I learned of the Write Chain Challenge. Writing a daily number of words struck a chord with me. I felt like it was something I could definitely commit to and enjoy tracking. So I started doing just that on September 12, 2013 and my goal was 500 words per day. I quickly realized I could handle more than that and upped my goal to 1,000 words per day.

When I did learn about the Write Chain Challenge, I loved the idea of doing this with others pursuing similar goals. Plus, I know myself well enough to know (and admit) that the accountability would be a very good thing. That accountability has saved my personal write chain on more than one occasion.

There have been days when I just haven’t felt like writing because I was too busy, didn’t feel good, didn’t like my story that day or simply didn’t want to do it. You know what? I wrote at least my 1,000 words on every single one of those bad days because of the Write Chain Challenge. I wrote because I didn’t want to go from link number 27 (or whichever number it was) back to number 1. I didn’t want to start over.

I’ll tell you this as well: every single day that I wrote when I was making excuses not to turned out to be a great writing day for me. I love what I wrote on every one of those days and whatever was wrong felt infinitely better.

For me, deciding to take on the Write Chain Challenge has changed me for the better as an author. Of course I am more productive as a result of daily writing. My writing has become sharper and I feel more focused in general. And, as corny as this may sound, I am happier now that I write every day. I wasn’t exactly unhappy before but there was definitely a lack of fulfillment because I wasn’t doing what I love on a regular basis. Now that I write daily, I feel like I’m closer than ever to my personal writing goals.

Another benefit is now that I approach my writing more seriously (and I’m fairly vocal about it), most people around me show more respect for what I’m trying to accomplish. This is something I’ve struggled with over the years so the improvement is most welcome.

If you’re thinking about taking on—or continuing with—the Write Chain Challenge, I say do it or keep going! I am so humbled to be a part of this amazing experience and will be sticking with it.

I know people always say, “Just write.”

I say, “Take on the Write Chain Challenge and write daily.”

It’s so worth it!