You Don’t Have to Write Every Day to be Successful

There. I’ve said it. You don’t have to write every day!

I should know. I published my first articles and essays, and drafted dozens of pages of my memoirs while being employed in one of those jobs in which “full time” meant 60 hours a week.

How’d I do it? I certainly didn’t write every day. But whenever I could, I took advantage of all the little windows of time that came my way—the lunch hours, the stalled in traffic time, and more.

Here’s how another published writer, who runs an entirely different business as well, squeezes in time for her creative writing.

“I blog frequently, which I consider to be a wonderful creating writing exercise,” says Margy Rydzynski, owner of Brave New Web, which provides social media services for small businesses.

“Blogging is a public activity; you have to attract readers and keep their attention,” Margy continued. “It’s made me a better writer as a result.”

Margy, creator of the Maggie and Della mysteries, generally gets her ideas at night (the best ones arrive when she’s “off for the day”). But she does most of her writing during the daytime. “I carry a notebook around with me, and keep special blogs for story ideas,” she says.

Most importantly, she “keeps the pump primed” with lots of reading, blogging, and of course, writing.

The memoir writer featured in my upcoming post—or maybe two posts—shares her secrets on how she, a mother of five(!) young children, finds time to write.

More tips for finding time to get serious writing done—even if you can’t write every day—are in Polish and Publish: The Indispensable Toolkit for Creative Writers.