You’re a writer? they ask. How often do you write? 

For most of my career, I haven’t really had a good answer to the latter. I write when I write. But as I meet other writers and read more of the literature on the craft, I’ve found that most ‘writers’ have a concrete response to this. Talking to my sister-in-law about the subject, she relayed that her recent read on writing basically said: if you’re a writer, you write every day.

Cue Allison Pearl sinking into the bushes in shame. 

I do not write every day. Occasionally, I don’t even write every few days. Needing to know who else shared this stringent view though, I decided to turn to my bookshelves and Google. I was in bed staring at my phone at the time, so I forwent the trip to the den and opted for the search bar on my screen.

Sure enough, the results page filled with links to articles about minimum daily word counts and how much the most famous writers write in a day. Apparently, Ernest Hemingway wrote 500 words per day, which is nothing compared to Anne Rice’s 3,000 and Michael Crichton’s 10,000. Obviously, I have no idea if those numbers are true. It’s the internet, after all. We take everything we read on our screens with an enormous grain of salt. At least, I hope we do. 

Nevertheless, all these proclamations made me wonder: Am I doing something wrong?

Sinking into a scrolling spiral, I spent way too long down that particular digital rabbit hole, and to be fair, I did find a lot of articles that didn’t claim that a real writer writes every day. But it made me wonder. Not whether I should start writing every day. At that, I’d fail. No, it made me wonder about my own skill. It made me ask the question everyone who writes asks once or twice or a hundred times: If I’m not doing this whole writing thing right, should I be doing it at all? 

So what if Hemingway, Rice, and Crichton wrote every day. I’m not them I told myself. And then immediately the shadow doubter always lurking in the back of my mind responded with an annoyingly on-the-nose, You know that’s right. 

And that slow-boiling cauldron of self-doubt and comparison is a dangerous place for a writer to stew. Comparing other writers’ work to yourself breeds judgment, and the last thing I want to be is a judgy writer. I don’t even want to be a judgy reviewer.

A scan of my online reviews for other books may give the impression that I’m a guaranteed 3-5 star reviewer. And it gives that impression because it’s true. But my favorable ratings are definitely not because I’m just trying to be nice. Ask anyone who knows me personally. I’m a walking snark factory with a set-in-stone resting bitch face. But I do try and find something good in every novel. And opening a book with that mindset makes the good things stand out.

And so, if I start looking at other writers with a mindset of Are they better than me? I’m going to turn judgmental and—worst of all—my writing will suffer. Think about it. If I were to write everything like I’m in competition with other writers, my work will stop being me, will stop being honest.  

So, should a writer write every day? I don’t really know. But if you do write every day, it should be because you think it will improve your work, and not because you think you should keep up with someone else. I think most of us probably write as much as our lives allow, and that’s fine. I think the only wrong choice is to not write at all. If you want to be a writer but are scared to try, write scared. If you’re waiting to be inspired, eff that. Sit down with a pen or a laptop and make inspiration come to you; be your own inspiration if you have to. 

Write every day? Sure, if you want. Just write.

What do you think? How often do you write and why? Comment below to join the discussion. While you’re here, be sure to stop on my CONTACT page and sign up to get the newsletter! And if you want to put off writing with some reading, check out FRITTERED MOMENTS!