For a very long time, my mindset was, “Write a set amount, every single day, or you’re failing as a writer.”
‘1000 words or bust’ and, later, ‘2 hours minimum to be professional.’ Either way, it didn’t matter; I had a goal to hit, and if I didn’t, I was on the back foot.
And I’m here today to tell you that motivating myself like that led to ingrained habits that tanked my drive to write for for years.
If you’re anything like me (unable to reliably have time, every day, to sit down at your desk; lost without proper inspiration and self-direction before you start writing; supremely unmotivated to jump into tasks without adequate excitement for them; and a creature of rituals who likes to have quiet/coffee/whatever to write) then maybe the new habit I’ve picked up–which has, I shit you not, already yielded two novellas and a short story in just a few months–will help you too.
What is that new habit?
Accepting any work on my stories as good progress.
I’m not kidding. I mean any work.
A single sentence.
Notes about an upcoming scene.
Organizing worldbuilding files.
I count it all, even when it takes five seconds.
That sounds like extreme laziness–I know, so let me temper it by first saying “work” is the keyword here.
Just kinda thinking about the story in passing while you’re riding the bus? That does not count. Watching an entire season of TV on Netflix that counts as inspiration? Does not count. Imagining a scene and thinking, That would work really well! and then not at least making a note of said scene? Doesn’t count either. You need to be in the seat, at the desk, pen-to-paper, for at least however long it takes to contribute anything to your story.
To be super clear about my standards, here’s a quick list of everything I count as work:
- Any written addition to your WIP.
- Any editing of your WIP.
- Any worldbuilding.
- Significant reorganizing of WIP files, including your worldbuilding files (because I’m neurotic about organization). Just renaming a doc? Not enough; I’m talking making a significant, helpful change that will make a future writing session easier. For example, importing all your research pics into your story’s .scriv. Essentially, if you’ve been putting it off because it feels like work, it’s work.
- Thinking hard about how to tackle a difficult scene AND writing down the possible solutions you come up with.
- Employing any writing tool to help you through a difficult spot of prose or planning.
- Any significant work to help grow your platform (eg. writing a post like this or editing a site like this). For me, that does not include social media posts, however.
- The occasional break day. If you seriously just can’t write anything because of work, errands, or whatever else, it’s okay to give yourself a break every now and then. I allow myself one every week or so.
Your mileage may vary and you may want to remove or add your own items, but my point is that anything like this list is the least intrusive, most schedule-friendly approach I can imagine. To such a degree that it feels like no one has an excuse to not stick to it.
And with that extreme accessibility in mind, I want to remind you that these little contributions still kick started my drive.
Because, as you’ve probably noticed,
this approach doesn’t make you feel like a failure.
It sets you up for victory.
Only had enough time to contribute one sentence? That’s okay! You still contributed something and that’s literally better than the nothing you might have contributed if you thought you had to block out hours of writing time first. That 10,000 hours is made of seconds.
Don’t have the inspiration/direction for the next scene? Nope–that’s a thing of the past, because by virtue of working on your story every single day, you’re also thinking about it all the time now. Whether you want to or not, you will start figuring out your next scenes before sitting down. And then, because you’re getting more scenes on paper, you’ll start refining your approach to new ideas and prose, getting better scenes faster, and writing further when you do have time.
Not feeling motivated? Also a thing of the past for the same reason. If you truly don’t have the energy, it’s all good; like I said, some days are just a full break day. But most days, you’ll have thought about the next scene so much that you’ll be itching to get it down. Or you’ll at least be more comfortable taking a little, easy-to-delete, page-long swing just to feel things out.
And, finally, unwilling to work without satisfying your ritual? Well, maybe at first, but it might shock you to hear that when you have solid inspiration and you already want to get to the desk, that ritual is going to matter less and less every time. I used to be a coffee-and-total-silence guy. Now I’m an, “I don’t give a shit that there’s T-minus 10 seconds left or whatever; I need to write this paragraph now,” type of guy.
On top of all of that though, it’s going to jump start your acquisition of new ideas too. What would have been a passing, “Oh, maybe that would make an interesting story. Maybe I should write that down?” becomes, “I have been writing so much that I know that would make a good story and I know exactly how to start it.”
Sure, it’s going to take a little bit for this approach to get started; you probably will feel like you’re just being lazy at first. But the most important thing is to remember that you’re a writer. Absolutely everyone else is going to tell you you’re not doing enough. You’ve probably already experienced it, but if you haven’t, get ready to encounter the world’s shiftiest goalpost:
“You’re a writer? Have you gotten published? No? Hmm.”
“You’re a writer and you’ve been published? Oh, just a short story? Hmm.”
“Oh, you’ve only self-published? Hmm.”
“Oh, you’ve only indie published?”
“Oh, Simon & Schuster, you say? Well, was it a bestseller??”
“A bestseller? Really? Weird. I’ve never heard of it.”
I don’t know why it’s like this, but we writers are, by some cosmic error, the artists who don’t just get to be cool artists. Everyone is always going to assume that your dedication to the craft isn’t real and that your writing isn’t enough.
Don’t do that to yourself too.
WIP Update:
‣ “Hyperacusis” (the “Psychological Horror short” I last mentioned on June 22nd) – I just finished it Tuesday morning, at 12am. I still have to reread it and make a handful of changes so it’s ready for my beta reader.
‣ “Dysmorphia” (the “Body Horror short” I also mentioned on the 22nd) In the interim between finishing “Hyper” and giving it a full edit (I need a break away so I can review it like an objective editor), I’ve already started rewriting parts of this story. It’s already about 40% done, so it should just take a week or two.
I’ve been Louis Santiago and, as always, please feel free to use any of my tools on the Resources Page for your own writing. They’re all free and they always will be. If you want to talk about any of my tools on your own platform, cool, but please provide props and links back to this site; I’m still not asking for money on here, but I am trying to build my platform as best I can while helping other writers.
If you’d like to learn about any of my published work, check out my Publication Timeline.
You can also check me out on Bluesky and Reddit.
That’s all for now. As always, thanks for reading.
And, until next time, don’t be a loud asshole to your neighbors.
Inktrap 
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