Having a daily writing practice is one of the best ways to improve your writing. The saying practice makes perfect applies to writing just as it applies to sports, crafts, and other activities. The more you write, the more you’re able to learn about your style and voice. It’s also completely up to you how you want to spend your dedicated writing time. You can tease out different scene elements – whether you’re struggling with them or just want to have fun, document new ideas instead of letting them slip away, and even write about how you saw your coworker take the last of the coffee without starting a new pot!

The key is to enjoy it and hold yourself to a daily routine because consistency is what will help you grow. So, here are five tips to make this dream a reality.

Want even more Good Story Company content? Become a member! Get access to tips, workshops, handouts, resources and videos for writers of all levels—all for less than your Netflix subscription.

1.Make sure your Daily Writing PRactice is in fact Daily

The first tip for writing more is fairly obvious. It’s easy to get sidetracked and lose writing as a priority. This especially applies to writers with day jobs. You might go to work and have every intention of getting home and sitting down at your desk to write before the night is over, but then you eat dinner, shower, talk with your partner or take your dog out for that last walk, and find yourself waking up the next day having not written a single word. Sometimes, this cycle repeats itself and by the end of the week, instead of having the first act of your novel finished, you’re still mulling over your opening sentence.

If your full-time job is writing, maybe a daily writing practice will help you diversify your content. I myself have sunken into spots where I become so focused on a single project that I don’t write anything else. I don’t write down my book ideas, I don’t jot down little scenes that pop into my head, or I don’t word vomit the thoughts that are making it hard to focus on the very project that I’m obsessed with. So, whether you’re a full-time writer or a writer with a day job, consider how you can write creatively and freely Every. Single. Day. And on top of that, consider the fact that by writing every day you’re already writing more than you were when you missed days!

2. Schedule and Defend Your Writing Time

It might sound daunting to think about implementing a task into your already busy everyday life, but it doesn’t have to be. Your creative writing is within your control. It’s as long, hard, short, or easy as YOU make it. If you don’t have an hour, don’t set the unrealistic goal of writing for an hour every day. If you only have the fifteen minutes it takes your kids to finish combing their hair and packing their homework before you drive them to school, then buckle up with your notebook and make it work.

Pick a time of day, gauge the minimum amount of time that you can fully and productively dedicate yourself to writing, and then honor it. I recommend maintaining a consistent schedule because it’ll be easier for you to keep up with, and it’ll also be easier for the people in your life to respect. If you write every day between 4:00 and 4:30 after you’ve gotten home from work, chances are as you adjust to writing during that half hour, so will the people around you. They’ll respect your time and you’ll have less distractions.

3. Set Goals & Rewards

Sometimes, a little incentive is just the trick to get us up and running. As I mentioned above, you don’t want to set unrealistic goals for yourself. If you are honest about your limitations, chances are you’ll create a routine that you’re more likely to stick to. You could set a time goal, a page/word count goal, or even pick specific writing exercises and write to completion. When you complete your daily writing practice you can reward yourself with something as simple as candy, you could pay yourself a dollar for every day you write and save up for something, or for every week that you write consistently you can go out to dinner. Since the ultimate reward of having your writing published is a long-term pursuit, it helps to give yourself smaller rewards to look forward to, to help inspire you.

4. Use Pen & Paper

First, keep your notebook and pen on you at all times. The more you write, the more you might find inspiration. Even though you have a set time to write, I always recommend that you look at that as your minimum writing time. If you find spare moments to jot down ideas or flesh out scenes, don’t hesitate to take them. The reason a notebook can be useful here is because sometimes we might find ourselves in places either without our laptops, or where we need something more discrete. On top of that, using pen and paper forces you to stay unplugged and focused purely on your writing. When I’m writing on my laptop, it’s easy to open a new tab and get distracted. When I’m writing in a notebook, there’s nothing else going on except for the lines on the paper and the pen in my hand.

5. Have Fun!

The last and most important tip is to have fun. As expressed above, your daily writing practice is fully in your control. If you want to only work on your novel and nothing else, then do that. If you want your daily practice to be different from the writing you do for work, then commit to that. Write your book ideas, flesh out your story premise, create a plot diagram for a story you’re not ready to write, write your thoughts and feelings. Write one page in your notebook or write five; write for five minutes or write for sixty! Never force yourself to write something you’re not in the mood for because that’ll make it harder to commit. The more you enjoy your writing, the more productive you’ll be, and the easier it’ll be to stay consistent. Make it easy, don’t burn yourself out, and watch your writing improve over time.

Remember, practice makes perfect!

Ready for a deep dive into your writing? Check out Story Mastermind, our five-month writing workshop intensive.