At what times do I write, and how often I do it has varied over time, but after a neat blog post I saw on my feed, I decided to share
Making Writing a Natural Part of Our Day
Although I write every day and have a certain routine for
it, I don't think it's the most important thing (I'll come back to
that). As my life situation looks right now, with a full-time job, I
write after work. Usually after a yoga or strength training session.
On weekends, when I'm free, I prefer to sit down at a cafe and write...
I have done quite a lot of blog posts at this point, most of the time
I write them on my laptop, but honestly, it can be quite varied from
day to day.
I do not write on a daily basis, I believe I am perfectly capable of
doing it if I wanted to, but with so many hobbies I could do instead,
I would rather strike a balance between them all and laze around a
bit too.
Previously I’ve been able to write daily for a whole month with no issues,
even twice a day. Even now, despite having a job, I always have some
time to write short blog posts like this one.
Early in the year I tried to write more
consistently, which despite my best efforts, is
something I haven’t quite achieved, but at least I’ve written 4 or more blog
posts per month, which is a win in my book—compared to how it went last
year.
I could write in the morning, sometimes as soon as I wake up, I
have like 20 or so minutes to write something, and then get ready
to work. Most of the times, I prefer to stay in bed or do other things, but I’ve
done it before.
During my commute to work, I always have 20 or 30 minutes I can use to
listen to a podcast and even draft a blog post. It used to be a whole
hour before but even half is enough to make some progress. Again, I
prefer to just close my eyes for a bit or read some pages on my Kobo,
but I could write if I wanted.
Once I am at work, I usually get there early, and I have some dead
times where I can just open Notepad++ and write for a bit—like I’m
doing while writing this post. Then I email myself the text and do a
final edit at home.
On my way back home, the bus takes another hour which I could be using
to write, but I prefer to read on my Kobo some more, check my RSS
feeds or Mastodon, or game for a bit on my Anbernic handheld.
Once I am finally home, it’s a free for all, I can do whatever one
can do at home. Yeah, house chores, gaming, watching some movie or
anime, and of course, write. This is the time I dedicate the most to writing
something brand new, or complete a draft. Then I commit my work
to my repo and it gets published for the world wide web to see!
I think one of the things that has helped me remain consistent is not
to worry about being consistent. Maybe I can write daily,
but I don’t need to write daily, it isn’t really necessary for me.
Yeah brushing your teeth is something you do everyday—I hope you do
it everyday—but I think of writing more like shaving. Such a task
has many reasons to do it, sometimes daily, sometimes it can
wait, sometimes I want to do it, sometimes I have to do it. Some
people have to do it more or less than others, some make a ritual out
of it with three passes and shaving cream and traditional safety razors, while others try to just get it done with some soap, a disposable razor, and move on.
It’s not the best analogy ever but I think it gets the point across. I
personally enjoy the writing process, but I don’t feel the need to turn
it into a daily thing at least right now, but of course, some people like
to have a baby-smooth shave every day, and that’s totally awesome!
Just keep writing at your own pace, and while you’re at it, send me your RSS feed and I will do my best to read you!