Right now all of our lives have been turned upside down., but that doesn’t mean we need to give up the things we love. As someone who works from home, I wanted to share how I keep writing, build routines and set boundaries, so you can take my practices and apply them to your quarantine situation to keep writing too.
Make Your Writing Linger

# How to Build a Daily (or Consistent) Writing Routine

At some point in your writing journey, someone will insist you need a daily writing practice to become a successful author and get your story written in a timely manner. This is true. It’s also not easy and doesn’t necessarily have to be a literal daily event. To build your writing practice, you need to learn a few things about yourself: when are you most creative, what gets you in the writing mood, and how to evolve.

### Find Your Creative Time of Day

The first thing you’ll need to do to build a writing routine is find the time of day when you are most creative and can feasibly write on a regular basis. If you’re exhausted in the evenings, you might have the time but not the creativity or energy. If you’re super creative in the afternoon but have to play chauffeur for your kids, you have the mindset but not the time. We need to find your sweet spot.

Writing flows easier when you write consistently, but finding the time and energy to be creative on a daily basis can be challenging. You’ll need to know when you are able to write, how much time you need to get writing, and how to get yourself into…

For 2-3 weeks do your best to write something daily or twice daily, even if it’s only a quick diary-style report of what happened that day. You don’t have to dedicate more than 10 minutes. While you’re doing this, pay attention to how quickly you’re able to start writing and how often you’re interrupted. Try mornings, lunch breaks, evenings, different times you could commit to writing on a daily basis. At the end of these weeks, you should have a better idea of when you have both the time and creative energy to write.

Also note what days of the week work best and worst for writing. Doctors tell us to workout daily, but how many people actually achieve that? I try and only mange 5 days most weeks. Your “daily” writing practice is the same. You might not be able to write on the weekends when everyone in your household is home or Wednesdays because you have an early morning meeting. That’s okay. We’re going for consistency. You can consistently write every day except Wednesday. Professional authors write 5 days a week and are off for 2 because it’s their job and they need a break just like you.

Most prolific writers I know write first thing in the morning before the rest of their household has risen for the day. That means going to bed earlier and sacrificing a bit of their evening chill time. We can’t add more hours to our day, so by creating a daily writing practice, you will be taking a bit of time away from something else. That might not be easy, but it is necessary to a certain extent.

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### Know Your Writing Routine

There are two parts to this point: how do you actually get words on the page and what do you need to do to settle in to write.

Writing flows easier when you write consistently, but finding the time and energy to be creative on a daily basis can be challenging. You’ll need to know when you are able to write, how much time you need to get writing, and how to get yourself into…

## Getting Words on the Page

Some authors write in writing sprints. That means they will sit down for fifteen minutes and start typing/writing furiously until their timer goes off and they have the next scene or part of a chapter. These are people who work best with many small chunks of writing time over the course of their day instead of large blocks and can easily switch their focus from one task to the next.

Other people (like me), write more effectively in longer writing installments. I need 30-60 minutes because it takes me a bit longer to get the words flowing, but more importantly, I’m task oriented to a fault. If I don’t get to finish a scene or thought or bit of dialogue, it drives me crazy. Longer chunks of time allow me to feel “finished” at the end of a writing session, so I can shift my focus to something else.

Professional authors often write in 3-4 hour installments. However, writing is their job. They are putting in 8 hours on their pieces every working day. Most authors I work with have and want to keep their day job, so this isn’t feasible time-wise. Other people don’t have the creative energy reserves to sustain this without working up to it. These authors also revise, write blurbs, and do other author-related activities in their 8 hours.

Your daily writing practice of sprints or large chunks of time does not include revision. Revising, while necessary, is not writing. For many people, revising requires less energy and is used to procrastinate the actual writing. I recommend building in revising time as well to avoid this. If I have 60 minutes to write, I might revise what I wrote previously for at most 20 minutes to get me back into the mindset of the story, then start drafting a new scene. If you do writing sprints, try for 2-3 a day. Use one for revision and the rest for drafting.

Writing flows easier when you write consistently, but finding the time and energy to be creative on a daily basis can be challenging. You’ll need to know when you are able to write, how much time you need to get writing, and how to get yourself into…

## Settling in to Write

I wrote about this part of writing routines in the article How to Keep Writing During Quarantine, so I’ll keep this brief. Getting started writing is the hardest part for most people. Those first few words or sentences can be painful, then the rest flows. One way to make getting started easier is to create a routine you complete before you start writing. This will train your brain to switch into creative writing mode whenever you do this routine.

Your writing routine can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to an hour. It depends on your needs. For some people, pausing to make a cup of tea or coffee while starting to think about their writing project is enough. Other people find writing easiest after a long walk or a 5 minute meditation section. The point in these activities is to free and clear your mind for your writing, so find something that does that.

### An Editor and Writer’s Advice on Staying Flexible

Writing flows easier when you write consistently, but finding the time and energy to be creative on a daily basis can be challenging. You’ll need to know when you are able to write, how much time you need to get writing, and how to get yourself into…

Your writing routines will change overtime just like other aspects of your life. You could get married, have kids, live through a pandemic, change jobs, or experience any sort of life event that alters your daily routine. This will disrupt your writing practice. That’s normal and okay. Once you settle in, find the time of day you feel creative and can devote to your writing and establish a new routine.

When I worked as a clinical allergy specialist, I wrote on my lunch breaks and in the afternoons. That worked so well, I had a finished novel in two years. Then I went to graduate school. My life was turned upside down and it took me almost two semesters to find my writing groove. Because graduate school classes are often in the evening’s, my internal clock shifted. My new writing time was at night after my roommate went to bed. Now I’m too mentally drained to write before bed, so I have to get it done in the morning after my workouts or early afternoon. Your writing routine will change overtime too.

You might also find your daily writing difficult to maintain after you finish a major project like a series or your first novel. That’s okay too. Try journaling, writing prompts, or jotting down ideas just to keep the habit, but don’t pressure yourself to be “productive.” Your next project will come soon enough. It will come a lot faster if you write consistently. Now it’s time to find the best time of day and routine for your daily writing practice to Ignite Your Ink.

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What’s your writing routine? Share it in the comments below. And to get a monthly free writing prompt and notifications when the next article filled with writing advice is available, subscribe to Ignite Your Ink.

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Caitlin Berve is a multi-award-winning fantasy author, editor, and speaker. Through Ignited Ink Writing, she edits novels, creates video tutorials, and writes. She has an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics and teaches writing at colleges and writing organizations/ conferences. Her collection of modern fairy tales When Magic Calls won the CIPA EVVY Herb Tabak (best fiction) book award in 2021 and is available in paperback, audiobook, and ebook formats. When not writing or reading, Caitlin runs the Colorado trails or teaches Pop Pilates and makes color changing potions. She seeks to fill the world with the kind of writing that lingers with readers and find magic in modern times.

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Writing flows easier when you write consistently, but finding the time and energy to be creative on a daily basis can be challenging. You’ll need to know when you are able to write, how much time you need to get writing, and how to get yourself into a creative mindset. Discover how to build your daily writing practice.

Right now all of our lives have been turned upside down., but that doesn’t mean we need to give up the things we love. As someone who works from home, I wanted to share how I keep writing, build routines and set boundaries, so you can take my practices and apply them to your quarantine situation to keep writing too.

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