5 Major Benefits of Keeping a Daily Writing Routine
This post, edited from the Archive, is always worth resharing at the beginning of the year, right?
I have been maintaining a daily writing routine for years, which is what originally inspired me to start Daily Drafts & Dialogues.
Writing every day has offered me a variety of benefits, and I’ve listed five of the most important ones below.
1. Strong Writing Momentum
One of the only ways to maintain a strong and consistent writing momentum and avoid writer’s block whenever you sit down to write is to keep a daily writing routine. Even if you only have one hour to write each day, your brain will get used to writing for that one hour you do manage to allocate for writing each day— your brain will be ready to write each time you sit down to write, once it’s hardwired to write due to the writing habit and routine you create for it. Furthermore, a daily writing routine will ensure you know exactly where to pick up with your writing each time you sit down to write because there won’t be large gaps of time between your writing sessions, as long as you’re intentional with your writing sessions and always make it a point to know what you’re going to write during your next writing session before your current writing session is over.
"I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp." — W. Somerset Maugham
“The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day when you are writing a novel you will never be stuck. That is the most valuable thing I can tell you so try to remember it.” ― Ernest Hemingway
2. Achievable Writing Goals
When you write every day, there’s no need to feel like you should write thousands of words each and every time you sit down to write. Remembering this will alleviate any anxieties you have that are centered around producing and achieving writing goals and quotas, which are supposed to keep you on track and writing not stressed out or deter you from writing altogether when they’re too unrealistic. Especially if your schedule only allows you to allot an hour or so per daily writing session. Think of it this way: If you write an average of 250-300 words, or one page, per day, you will have written a novel within a year. And you’ll be a lot less stressed while doing it. Maybe some days you’ll write 500 words during your writing session, and other days you’ll write one thousand or more words. Regardless, you’ll be much more likely to keep reasonable and achievable writing goals on average, aided by a strong writing momentum, when you write every day.
“A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.” ― Anthony Trollope
3. Consistent Creativity
If you’re writing every day, you’ll have more time to work out potential plot holes and develop your characters (and more) when you aren’t writing, as well as when you are writing— especially if you read at least as much as you write. Instead of manic, unreliable spurts of creative output that come once in a while, you’ll have a steady stream of ideas you’ll be able to write about each day you sit down to write.
Think of creativity as a muscle and writing as exercise. To reiterate what I wrote in Writing as Exercise the other week:
“... If we start looking at writing itself as exercise for our minds, bodies, and souls, we will not make excuses or procrastinate when our creative muscles begin to atrophy, or when we encounter writer’s block. Instead, we will insist on continuing the practice of writing so that we can routinely enter [a] state of flow when writing, which will allow us to better and more authentically express ourselves via our writing.
You wouldn’t expect an Olympic athlete to compete without first conditioning their mind and body through routine practice and training. In the same sense, you cannot expect a writer to write anything authentic … if they don’t condition their minds and bodies to write authentically via routine practice and training, especially not on a regular basis.”
"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
4. Enjoyable Writing Sessions
If you’re consistently reaching your writing goals, entering a state of creative flow when you write, and can maintain a strong writing momentum overall, your writing sessions will be more enjoyable. And you just might begin to be thankful for the writing process again, and allow yourself to stop trying to speed up the writing process. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in word counts and page counts that we forget to get lost in what we’re actually writing and enjoy the process of writing itself. But keeping a daily writing routine will allow you to enjoy the actual process of writing more than anything else when you write, which is great for days when you may not like what you write and or words aren’t as plentiful.
"Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort." — Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Joy is always in [the] process. It's under construction. It is in constant approach, alive and well in the doing of what we're fashioned to do." — Matthew McConaughey
5. More Written Works
If you enjoy writing and are diligent with your daily writing habits, you will write more things over the course of a year, multiple years, and a lifetime. Over the years, thanks to my daily writing routine, I have been able to write hundreds of papers, articles, short stories, pieces of flash fiction, poems, etc.
I truly enjoy the writing process, and I believe this is primarily due to my daily writing routine. Not a day goes by that I don’t write something. Writing is so deeply ingrained in who I am as a person now that I truly can’t imagine a world without doing it every day. And my daily writing routine is precisely why I am such a prolific writer.
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." — Vincent Van Gogh
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle
Do you have a daily writing routine? If so, what are some benefits you’ve experienced from it? Is there anything you would add to what I’ve listed above?
Leave a comment to join this dialogue, and/or don’t forget to share this post with others who might be interested in starting their own daily writing routine in 2026! :)
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My writing and I are fueled by loyal readers, caffeine, and kind words, so I appreciate any support you can offer that keeps me writing. Thank you so much!
