You’ve probably heard the advice to “write every day if you want to be a writer.” For some people that might work, but it’s not practical for most of us. And because we can’t write every day, we often think the writing we can do just isn’t “worth” it. I call bullshit on that.

A consistent writing schedule will do more for your writing than feeling guilty about not writing every day. Decide what consistent means to you and allow that definition to adapt to your life as it is today (not what you think it should be).

When you finally write consistently, you’ll start to see real benefits.

The More You Write, The Easier It Gets

If you struggle to take the thoughts in your head and put them on the screen (or on paper), you’re not alone. Some people slow down because they try to make every sentence perfect before they write the next one. Others are filled with so much self-doubt about their skills, their ideas, and whether anyone will read it, that they don’t get started at all.

But you have to start somewhere, and the only way to have written is to put the first word down and then the next. Do this often enough, and it stops feeling like a brand new thing. You lose that awkward, anxious feeling — at least a little bit. Do it long enough, and it almost feels easy. Easy-ish.

You Build Habits That Don’t Require Inspiration

This is going to sound weird, especially since you can buy obscene inspiration from us, but sometimes the habit of writing is all you really need. That habit is only built by writing consistently. Sitting down at (approximately) the same time, in the same way, on some kind of schedule isn’t magical. It’s a habit.

Essentially, you train yourself to write, even when you don’t think you have any writing ideas. You can also teach yourself to prepare to write. When I know I need to write something on a particular day, I start thinking of potential ideas before I sit down to the keyboard. As I’m going through my day, I’m either going through potential ideas or I’m primed and ready to be inspired by something in my day. Either way, a habit I formed because I know exactly when I plan to write in any given week.

It’s the Only Way to Have Content on Your Site

This one is for the bloggers out there. If you think your site looks kind of empty, there’s only one way to fix that. Write consistently. You won’t create a lot of content overnight, but you will take small, manageable steps to achieve that goal in the future. And that’s the only way any of us get close to the picture we have in our head of what we will (eventually) accomplish.

There’s a good chance you look at other sites and wonder when you’ll have as much content or as many views. It didn’t happen overnight for those bloggers, and it won’t happen overnight for you. You need to take small steps consistently, one step after another, over time to get wherever it is you want to get with your content. And the only way to do that is to write and publish consistently.

Writing consistently isn’t the same thing as writing every day. If you can do that, great, but if not, find a routine that works for your schedule and your life right now. You can always write more (or less) as your life shifts and changes. And once you get started, your writing may take on a life of its own, becoming a thing you can’t imagine not doing.

There are so many reasons we never get started, usually involving fear of judgment (from ourselves and others). But if you can’t stop thinking about what you want to write or where you want writing to take you, the best thing to do is figure out a consistent routine for yourself. Stick with it as long as it works, and then change it up when you need to. You’ll grow as a writer in big and small ways when you do.