A lot of writers ask this question: Do I Have to Write Every Day? Some writers say that you must because if you start to miss days, you lose your novel focus. Other writers say you don’t have to write every day but you have to write consistently.

The thing about being a writer is that everything is subjective. You have to find what works for you. Writing in the morning? Are you kidding me? I’m a night owl and get my best ideas around 2 a.m. So sometimes you have to try several things or a combination of things to figure out what works for you.

As for writing every day, I have to monitor myself. If I don’t work on my novel on a consistent basis—I will let the days slip by. This happened to me last year. A few days turned into a few months. Believe me, life will take your writing from you if you let it. You have to be on point.

Writing every day is relative. You don’t have to write ALL day. You can set aside a batch of time or break it up in sessions during the day. The key is getting words down on a consistent basis. Personally, after about two hours, I’m working on fumes. But you have to experiment to see how you work best. For me, if I can get a draft scene down in a session, I’m a happy writer. You don’t have to the write the whole book in a day. If you do, your characters are going to be pissed since they always have something else in mind.

To help me with my own lazy issues, I’ll be doing a writing challenge this summer. The goal is to write 500 words a day. Or 3500 words a week—I already know that something will happen as it always does. That’s okay.

I’ll be posting my progress all this summer. Up to the challenge? Feel free to join me! I’ll kick it off with a blog post on June 1st.