Can’t write every day? Use this writing habit instead.

Some writers struggle to maintain a regular writing habit. This doesn’t make you any less of a writer. You are not less for not writing every day, you’re simply busy. You wouldn’t tell a banker they weren’t one just because it was a Sunday, or a doctor they weren’t one because they didn’t have a shift that day. But like other skills that require regular practice, writing is something that should have a regular habit in your life.

I don’t know if there is an actual, proper name for the habit of a monthly writing notebook, but that’s what I call it. And it’s just that—a writing notebook that gets filled monthly. Sound like an expensive habit? Well, it doesn’t have to be. The goal is to fill a notebook every month with whatever stories come to mind. You don’t have to write every day, just enough to fill the book.

The best tools I would suggest for this are the cheapest notebooks money can buy and your favorite kind of pen—no matter the cost. It’s a stereotype told time and time again that the nicer a notebook, the less a writer wants to ruin it by writing in it. Therefore, I stay far away from the nicer notebooks in the store, opting instead for the cheap, 70-page spiral notebooks that cost $1.39 on a regular day and less than a dollar when it’s back-to-school (this is when you stock up, of course).

You can fill your notebook with all the stories that come to your mind. Fill it with one-shots of characters from your stories, or create new ones. Look up prompts on the internet and write whatever comes to mind. Who knows—you could even come up with a full-fledged novel idea.

A regular writing habit is an essential tool for a successful writing career. For some writers, it’s difficult to maintain writing daily, which is why a monthly goal might be easier to maintain those habits.

I discuss other helpful tools on my blog such as the morning pages habit and post a new blog every week. Sign up with your email today to get notifications when I make a new post.