The Necessity of the Daily

During the past nine months or so, I’ve struggled to make any visible progress on my novel on a consistent basis. I’ve worked, prayed, and brainstormed, but while I might take a couple steps forward, I would soon find myself in the same rut as before.

I think I may have found part of the reason at last: It is necessary that I work on my fiction nearly every day.

Why did it take me so long to figure this out? Isn’t this recommended constantly by other writers?

Well, yes and no. I’ve heard it was necessary to write every day. And I’ve done that. But my writing might have been this blog’s posts or workshops for a conference or lessons at church. In fact, I’ve been so busy with other that my fiction work fell to a couple times a week, instead of the daily I’ve done so long.

And my novels suffered for it. Simply writing everyday was not enough.

Now I’m back trying to write on one my novels every day. I’m not always successful, but it’s amazing how much even thirty minutes each day helps, and so far it doesn’t seem to matter whether that writing is brainstorming, first draft, or editing, or even if the work is on the same project. Just as long as I work on fiction, I’m currently making consistent progress.

And that is a wonderful feeling.