You don't have to write every day

On consistency over time, and lessons from running

I wrote at the fantastic Fifth Vessel Co. coffee shop in downtown Houston last week.

Not too long ago, I wrote the following post about my three-hundred-words-a-day practice that helped me finish my manuscript and that I still follow to this day. It’s turned out to be one of my most popular posts so far:

Although I stand by it, I think I missed an important caveat. Some background: Upon writing it, the one-thousand-words-a-day prolific writer friend called me and apologized for intimidating me. She reminded me that although she often his a thousand words a day, her approach is far more feast-or-famine. She’ll do three months drafting intensely and then go three months without writing at all. She was like, “There is no way I could do three hundred words a day.”

I am not a feast-or-famine person, of course. But I’ve taken days off from writing. Last week, I wrote five out of seven days and I didn’t hit my weekly word count goal because I was at a work conference. On the other hand, this week I wrote over four thousand words on my work-in-progress—because I wanted to take advantage of my last opportunity to work on my manuscript before my editor sent me the first round of notes on my debut. Sometimes, life happens, and I’m sicker than a dog, or I’m busy with family, or I’m in the middle of seeking a temporary restraining order against a certain federal administration in D.C. and I have to draft a reply brief overnight. Sometimes life gets in the way.

In the beginning, those days off scared me. I was early in the process of becoming the writer I am now, and I didn’t trust myself to return to the page. I’m a runner, and I run more days than not. In the same way that I used to beat myself up for taking days off from running when I was sick and burnt out, I think I harbored a fear that if I slipped, as a baby writer I wouldn’t be able to get back, that I’d let my words wither on the vine.

I’ve since come to see that what matters, more than whether I write every day or in intense bursts, is an idea that I’ve learned from running: consistency over time.

Or to quote professional running coach, Coach Bennett: “Consistency in your training is what allows for flexibility with your training.” Swap training for writing and that’s my approach (to both running and writing)! If I can, even on the busiest days, I squeeze out a hundred words. But if I can’t, I’m not afraid to take a step back, to take a few days off, because I know that I will come back to the page. I know that eventually, I will finish the manuscript. I know that even if this week is a dud, the next one may offer flow.

It’s helped to think long term about who I want to be. In my running life, I always think of those really old runners. You know the ones. The grandparents wearing the shirts in the NY marathon that proclaim they’ve done the race thirty, forty, fifty times. The geezers doggedly going around your local track with their vintage running gear. I suspect most of them didn’t get there by never taking a day off, but by falling in love with the practice, by finding a way to do it sustainably. That’s what I want for my running, and what I want for my writing.

Which is to say: I’m getting better at trusting myself. I’m getting better at not beating myself up. I’m not afraid when I step away from the page. I mostly write every day, or at least five-to-six days a week, but even when I don’t, I always come back. I wish the same for you.

Sincerely,

Nina

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You can read about my book deal here!

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What I’m Enjoying

Andrew Boryga

’s great post today about his writing process.

This weird and wonderful newly-discovered century-old Bavarian fairytale.

The Times on twenty-five years of dining in NYC.

Reading Never Let Me Go on its twentieth anniversary with you all:

Week One of Never Let Me Go: "My name is Kathy H."

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