Do you write every day?

One of my missions in life as a creative writing instructor is to push back against the harmful and prescriptive writing advice I hear out there. And one of the biggest offenders is a phrase I hear quite often: “write every day.”

Please excuse me while I roll my eyes. Do I write every day? No. God no. Would I like to be writing more? Definitely. (Both of these things can be true.)

But I dislike this advice because I see it flatten so many writers who are trying to launch a regular writing practice. For me it looks like this: I try to write every day. I succeed three days in a row! Yes! I might be on to something. Then I miss a day because, in the daily rhythm of life, things change. Maybe my overuse injury is bothering me. Maybe I am just tired from the week and I know it would actually be counterproductive for me to try and sit down to write and that I should save my energy for when I can concentrate more fully. The next day I don't write either, because I am too busy feeling like a total failure for breaking my writing streak. And then the writing isn’t even fun anymore. 

I also dislike this rule because it assumes an awful lot of privilege and free time. Can you write every day with chronic pain? Probably not when you’re having a pain flare. Can you write every day when you are solo parenting? Maybe --but isn't flexibility a necessary part of parenting when you have no idea what the day will hold? 

We are human beings, not robots, and our writing practice should leave generous space for our own humanity because that's what we are ultimately writing about: what it means to be human in this world. 

I’ve been trying to find a way to redefine this “rule” for myself (you have to learn the rules first, and then learn how and most importantly when to break them) but then the poet and memoirist Maggie Smith did it so eloquently for me. In her latest Substack she said: 

"So if you still have that “you should be writing every day” voice in your ear, do it! Write every day if you can. But if you can’t ... I’m inviting you to try this instead: Commit to doing at least one thing in service of your writing every day."

Once more, because it's so wonderful: Commit to doing at least one thing in service of your writing every day.

Today, for me, that looked like researching a few places that I could submit an essay I am working on, learning a little more about the landscape of publishing.

Yesterday it looked like sitting at my desk for an hour and committing to sitting there for the entire hour just to see if anything ended up on the page. 

Tomorrow it might look like meeting up for coffee with a writing buddy and discussing our works in progress, which always gives me new ideas and perspectives.

The next day it might look like taking a walk because I know that I get some of my best ideas on walks (and if I don't, that's OK too, because I showed up for my writing.)

Next week it might look like stumbling upon an essay that just so happens to spark an idea.

When we take writing advice -- or any advice, really -- we should always ask ourselves who is giving the advice. Do they look like us? Is their life similar to ours? Are their values similar as well?

If the answers to all of these questions is no, then maybe it's time to rewrite the advice to serve your actual life a little bit better.