Why I Don't Write Every Day and That's Fine

There’s a piece of writing advice you hear all the time: Write every day.

And it’s good advice. For some people.

But I don’t follow it. I don’t even try to follow it. And honestly, I think more people should feel ok about that.

Here’s the truth: life isn’t neat. Some days are full of other responsibilities, distractions, or just sheer mental fog. Some days I’m bursting with ideas. Other days, I open a blank page and it stares back at me.

I’ve learned not to force it. Not every day is for writing. Some days are for refilling. For noticing things. For walking, observing, daydreaming, or just letting the ideas simmer instead of trying to serve them raw.

Some days are for life, doing all those things that need to get done.

Writing isn’t a factory line. It’s a weird combination of chaos and discipline. And for me, discipline doesn’t mean clocking in at 9am, it means coming back to the page, again and again, in my own rhythm.

I do write often. I write intentionally. But I don’t write every day. And I still manage to finish stories, poems, novels, because I keep going, not because I never stop.

If daily writing works for you, brilliant. If not, don’t beat yourself up. Your process doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. It just needs to work for you.

And if your brain writes best after three days of doing nothing but staring at trees...good. Those trees probably had something to say.