Write everyday, even if you don’t want to!

If you’re like me, you are probably sitting in front of a blank document wondering how you’re ever going to complete that writing project you’ve been putting off. You might have stared endlessly as the cursor flashes on and off, waiting for the words to start flowing. You probably even googled many articles about writing, looking for inspiration just to get started. 

Thankfully, you’ve come to the right place!

I’m here to let you in on a little writers’ secret…

Don’t break the chain!

Don’t break the chain is a principle developed by the comedian Jerry Seinfield, which basically states that if you want to be a great comedian you have to tell better jokes, and in order to tell better jokes you need to write everyday. 

I first learned of this concept while I was in the throes of completing my PhD dissertation. Like many researchers, I had a lot of thoughts about the material I was researching, but when it came to actually writing, perfectionism kept me from putting the proverbial pen to paper. I would write, delete, rewrite, stare at my screen, get discouraged, and then busy myself with anything other than writing. 

What I did not understand at the time was that writing is not a product you turn in, rather writing is a process that helps you figure out what it is you want to say. Just as the great joke, in Seinfeld’s example, is the ultimate goal, writing is the process you need to take to get there.

There were many students in my grad program that got stuck in the dissertation writing phase. They assumed that in order to write the perfect dissertation they needed to have all of their ideas fully fleshed out before they could start writing. Those individuals spent years struggling to write, and some never finished.

What the Don’t Break the Chain method taught me, was that I did not need to know what I wanted to say in order to write…I just needed to write my ideas and keep writing, everyday, until writing became second nature. Yes, even if the ideas I wrote would never see the light of day, it was the skill of just writing that I was developing, not the perfect paper. 

Essentially writing, like exercise, needs to be a habit that you start and sustain in order to see the types of results you’re looking for. Run everyday so you can complete that sprint or marathon. Write everyday, so you can complete that blog post or multivolume work.

Write, and the ideas will come (AKA Pre-Write or Free Write)

Pre-writing or free writing is the process of writing with no strings attached. You don’t have to worry about correct grammar, punctuation, or even coherency in your thoughts. You can say it is the brain-dumping stage of the writing process where all of your ideas related to a particular topic, or your thoughts on what you researched are written down on paper. 

Free writing, in my opinion, is the fun part of writing. It is how you can actually unlock progress and fill up those blank pages that are staring back at you almost tauntingly. For example, you might be asked to write a 5 page book review on a novel for class or an after action report following an event at work. What is the opening line of this important piece going to be?...It doesn’t actually matter at this stage. What matters is simply putting words on paper and trusting that the so what of what you are writing will come to light.  

There is a bit of an intangible art of discovery, if you will, to the process of writing. Writing forces you to put what is in your head onto paper. For many, that might be scary. There are constantly a number of ideas swirling in our minds these days (think of all of those open mental tabs) that putting those scattered thoughts onto paper might seem disjointed and incoherent. But it is only through reflection and writing whatever comes to mind that you will discover how those disjointed ideas might actually be connected.

This concept is one that seemed to go against everything I was taught about writing when I was younger. In school we were regularly tested on the five paragraph essay. This meant we had 45 minutes in class to quickly come up with an argument and justification in response to an essay prompt, and whatever we could write in that time was essentially how writing worked. In my estimation, this is why many undergraduate, graduate, and even professionals view writing as simply that: sit down and whatever comes to mind in a crunch time moment is the best writing you are ever going to do. 

Again, writing is not your end product, writing is a means to get to your final written product.

Set a Daily Writing Word Count Goal

Finally, no matter how large or small your writing project is, to set yourself up for success, come up with a daily writing word count goal and complete your goal within a certain time frame. 

Breaking your project up into achievable word count goals is the mental equivalent of looking at your feet when walking up a mountain. Instead of dreading how far you have to go to reach the top, focus on taking one step at a time and eventually you will get there. Also, by limiting yourself to a set time frame, you know that you just need to focus for a finite period of time and you can walk away knowing that you achieved your goal and still had time to work on life’s many other priorities.

To make this more practical, let's say you have one week to complete a 500 word essay. You could write it an hour before the deadline at 11:00 PM, be filled with anxiety the whole week, and get a gut wrenching feeling when your internet decides to cut a minute before midnight as you try to hit submit. Or you could lighten the pressure on yourself, actually enjoy the process, and turn in something that you feel proud to share.

In this example, one potential schedule you could set for yourself might look the following:

• Monday: Free-write 250 words of all your thoughts on the topic in one hour (as you do this more and more you might find this goes much faster). 

Note*: If you need to research a topic first, you could spend 30 minutes researching and highlighting important facts and then sit for an hour of free-writing all of your thoughts. 

• Tuesday: Free-write 250 words of thoughts (again, don’t worry about how it reads at this point.
• Wednesday: Spend an hour reviewing what you wrote, group your scattered ideas into themed paragraphs, and write a brief sentence or two about how your themed ideas are connected.
• Thursday: Spend an hour editing 250 words
• Friday: Spend an hour editing 250 words, review and submit!

Ultimately, writing is a muscle, and like any muscle, the best approach is to make consistent incremental progress towards building it up. If you don’t exercise regularly and force yourself to undergo a strenuous activity, you can injure yourself and walk away feeling like you will never willingly put yourself through that activity again. Writing doesn’t have to be painful, it can be enjoyable, and like exercise, it can unlock many other mental and emotional benefits that you can enjoy and be excited to share with others!