Why I Write Everyday

I question I’m often asked is why do I write everyday?

When I first started writing, my plan was to write weekly. I thought that any more than that would be unsustainable. Writing daily didn’t even cross my mind.

But then I chanced on Jordan Gonen’s daily blog. Jordan started writing every day back in his freshmen year and kept it up for years saying it was one of the best decisions he made.

If he can do it, why can’t I?

Then I found Seth Godin’s blog, he’s been writing everyday for nearly two decades. Then I read his piece, Talker’s Block:

Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.

I believe that everyone should write in public. Get a blog. Or use Squidoo or Tumblr or a microblogging site. Use an alias if you like. Turn off comments, certainly–you don’t need more criticism, you need more writing.

Do it every day. Every single day. Not a diary, not fiction, but analysis. Clear, crisp, honest writing about what you see in the world. Or want to see. Or teach (in writing). Tell us how to do something.

If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing. If you’re concerned with quality, of course, then not writing is not a problem, because zero is perfect and without defects. Shipping nothing is safe.

The second best thing to zero is something better than bad. So if you know you have write tomorrow, your brain will start working on something better than bad. And then you’ll inevitably redefine bad and tomorrow will be better than that. And on and on.

Write like you talk. Often.

This was the nail in the coffin. That’s when I decided to write everyday. And I’m sure glad I did.