Dispelling writer myths: "Real writers write every day."

Pulling another newsletter from the archives (i.e. 2024) because we need to hear these messages over and over again for them to actually stick.

Here’s how this harmful belief will keep you from finishing your novel:

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

As an indie author and book coach, I’m in a lot of writer spaces, and I hear a lot of things about what a “real” writer looks like. What they do, how they live. Such as:

Real writers write every day.

Real writers always outline their story ahead of time.

Real writers don’t make any money because there isn’t money in publishing anymore (or ever).

Real writers only write what’s in their heart, OR real writers only write what the market wants.

The list can go on and on. In fact, I’ve started an Instagram Live series this summer, dispelling some of these writer myths. You can check out my IG here and watch the replay for the first myth.

Today, I want to talk about this idea that real writers write every day. I think it stems from the belief that if you love your story enough, you’ll want to work on it every day. Or if it’s your job (or you want it to be your job), then you should work on it every day.

But I have an actual day job, and I don’t work every day. In fact, there are laws in the U.S. about not working every day! So I have no idea where we got this belief that “real” or professional writers write (meaning, work) every day.

Actually, I can think of one place where this belief came about. Stephen King’s On Writing, while an amazing book on craft and living the writer life, has a few nuggets that have contributed to this belief. He shares that he writes every day and aims for 2000 words a day.

2000 words! I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I wrote that many words in one day. It was definitely before I had my son…

And that’s the root of the issue for me. People are out there, shouting about how “real” writers write every day, and yet there isn’t enough attention paid to the fact that not every writer has the space in their life to work on their novel every day.

Mothers, employees, and carers of the elderly can’t write every day because they have other responsibilities. I’ve got a son and a day job, and I’m tired of beating myself up about not writing every day. When I accept that my writing process has breaks, and that I can still make progress on my novel even without writing every day, I’m so much more productive.

This (untrue) belief also plays into the idea that there’s a “right” way to write, and that if we can just find that “right” way, we’ll unlock all of our writer dreams. But, in fact, there are a million different ways to write—you can outline, you can write with no plan in mind, you can write all the way to the end without stopping, you can cycle through and edit as you go, you can build out detailed character sheets before you start writing, you can write on a table, you can handwrite the first draft… The list goes on and on. And so to assume that there’s a “right” way to do any part of the process is just wrong, and dangerous, because these beliefs keep people from actually trying to write.

The only “right” way to write is to finish. To get The End of your novel or poem or non-fiction book, in whatever way makes the most sense for you.

If you have been trying to write every day because that’s what you think you have to do to be considered a “real” writer, I encourage you to think about the fact that you are a real writer simply because you write. You have your own unique process, and believing that there’s something wrong with you because a popular maxim doesn’t work for you is just going to keep you from actually making progress on your novel.

I hope I’ve given you something to think about when it comes to this particular myth. I’d love to know: what other popular writing beliefs have you found to be true? And what “beliefs” just aren’t true at all for you?

I’m an indie author and book coach with a passion for helping people craft unique and sustainable writing routines so they can finally finish the novel of their dreams. Subscribe for more writing tips and reframes to help you reach The End.