Talking about a daily writing process with a writer? Well, this is going to be an interesting read. I will answer all the good questions I have been asked about developing a writing habit to help you in the best way possible. Let’s go!
Have you ever felt your thoughts clustered in tight knots?
Do you ever feel burdened by all the chaos and negativity in your mind?
Have you ever felt that your head would burst because of these gazillion thoughts and ideas racing at high speed?
If this is you, you are in the right place.
Ever since I started writing, these questions have never left me – “Shweta, how do you build a daily writing habit for yourself? How do you stay consistent with writing every day?”
You know what I get it.
When you see someone being so consistent and diligent about their habits, it makes you wonder what they’re doing.
You question yourself how they stay at it so effortlessly.
I have the same feeling when I see people being consistent with their exercise routines, that is something I struggle with. But, that’s a story for another day.
Today, I want to talk about all the goodness around building a daily writing process for yourself and how it can take you from chaos to bliss.
Writing is not just a tool of the modern era. It has been around since ancient times and its benefits still apply to your well-being.
More than anything, writing is a life skill and if you can master it, you can solve a lot of your problems in the right way.
So, let’s get deeper into my favorite topic and see how a daily writing process can add to the quality of your life.
Daily Writing Process: 5 Stages + How it Improves Your Life?
Irrespective of the type of writing you prefer, any writing process consists of 3 basic steps: the pre-writing process, the writing process, and the post-writing process.
The best part about building a writing process is that it’s like DNA, it’s unique for every writer.
4 years ago, when I began my writing process was quite chaotic, or should I admit that it included a lot of copy-pasting. But, with time and experience of working with clients, I have not just improved but also refined my writing process.
Hence, to simplify the above 3 steps, I will be talking about my writing process in the 5 stages. These 5 stages ease the complexity of the 3 steps by elaborating on the 2nd and the 3rd step.
Let’s get into it:
What are the 5 Stages of Writing Process?
While most scholars and academics define writing as a linear process, it has been quite a zig-zag path for me.
You will especially relate to me if you are like me and you write on the internet for a living.
As digital writers, we cannot have a linear process. It always goes back and forth between “what it is” and “what it could be”.
Thus, in my 4 years of working as a writer and blogger, I can define my writing process in 5 simple stages.
1. Pre- Writing Process
As the term suggests, this is the stage where I first understand the topic I am supposed to write on.
The pre-writing process is all about brainstorming new ideas about the subject.
2. Research
The 2nd stage is where I get into my digging mode, which is basically to find the best possible information on the subject.
Here I only focus on collecting the most credible sources of information that will make my content piece more advanced and updated based on the recent industry events.
This includes gathering research, personal opinions, and other anecdotes on the topic and organizing all of them to proceed to the next stage.
3. Drafting
Drafting falls under the second of the 3 steps I mentioned above, i.e. the writing process.
This is when all the information collected till now comes to use. This is when I write in free flow without caring about spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or wrong sentence structure.
The goal with drafting is just to put your thoughts in the document. Drafting is all about letting your words flow from your mind to the screen without any filter, without expecting any perfection.
The key here is to embrace the imperfections in your writing.
4. Writing the Content
This is where all the information I have drafted takes the shape to become more meaningful.
This is where I connect all of the written word to the main title of my content.
I fix everything I ignored in the drafting step; the spelling errors, the grammatical mistakes, the sentence formation, the passive voice, all of it.
The goal here is to make my writing more clear and logical, before moving to the final stage in the writing process.
5. Editing & Proofreading
The final stage of my writing process is to proofread and edit everything I have written.
While editing my content, I make sure that every sentence and paragraph of my work solves or answers the problem that has been mentioned in the title.
A simple tactic I use to ensure this is to ask myself “So what” before I finalize any sentence or paragraph.
Along with this, the editing process also includes the finishing touches like formatting the content, use of capital letters, and taking care of minute punctuations throughout the content.
This is what my writing process looks like. Most importantly, this is what I follow for every content piece that goes on to my blog, including the one you are reading right now.
The truth is building a writing process and turning it into a daily habit can transform your life in a lot of good ways as we will discuss today.
How to Develop Daily Writing Habit?
Like every other habit, this one is also difficult to get into a flow, especially if you are not a lover of words. But, once you pick up the flow and incorporate it into your lifestyle, your daily writing habit becomes a part of your personality. It comes naturally to you.
Once it becomes a part of your daily routine, you don’t have to force it on yourself.
I have been writing as a hobby for eight years. And, it’s been 4 years of professional writing too. And both these different phases of my daily writing habit have only added to the quality of my life.
Baby steps over long jumps are a sane philosophy to follow, especially when you are in the process of habit-building.
So, here’s an easy framework that has worked for me. From being a scribbler and dairy entry writer to a professional, published writer, this is how I have developed my daily writing habit.
And of course, you can easily replicate this writing process in your life too. But, just to be honest, it wasn’t a “process” when I did it back then. It was more like a hit-and-trial run to find and settle for what works for me.
1. Don’t judge yourself
Ever heard the phrase “dance like no one’s watching”? Well, the same principle applies here too: “Write like no one’s reading”. Because well, no one IS coming to read it, unless you want people to read it.
In the end, it’s about building a daily writing habit. So, write your heart out. Don’t hold yourself back. These are your moments to let the guard down. Write a paragraph or a page and when you find your momentum, stick to showing up every day.
2. Write about your favorite things
My writing journey started with a college assignment for my Business Communication class in 2016. The professor asked us to write about our favorite topic and the rest is history.
I never went back to not writing a day. So, the secret key to building a daily writing habit is to write about things that make you happy.
Write about what you do every day in your normal life. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Always remember the key to forming any habit is to choose progress over perfection.
3. Choose a platform
If you are serious about building your daily writing habit, you have to become accountable for it. While there are so many downsides to social media, the biggest flex is you can build your skillset in public.
Yes, that does come with some disadvantages like people judging you. But, it makes you strong too.
I wrote for 4 years on a private account on Instagram before I started writing on LinkedIn 4 years ago. I was living under a rock to not know LinkedIn. But, seriously, consider LinkedIn as a boon for you.
Use it to the best of your potential and you will explore new things about your capabilities. Some alternate writing platforms are Quora, Medium, or Blogger. Or best, start a blog, just like I have done.
This is an easy and realistic framework that you can follow to build your daily writing process. Any new habit requires momentum and consistency. They may sound like buzzwords but it’s true.
Whether you love writing or not, take some time out to sit with yourself and clear your mind.
The daily writing habit is the age-old tradition of staying calm, arranging your scattered thoughts, and making them more digestible for yourself before you share them with anybody else.
Does Writing Every Day Make You Better?
If I could answer this question in one word, it would be a Yes. Writing, both as a hobby and as a profession has completely changed my life. So, in case you find a biased tone in this blog you already know the reason.
But, jokes apart, I’ll always recommend you to have a writing habit. You get to choose whether you want to do it as a hobby like I did for 4 long years or you want to build in public like I am doing now with my LinkedIn, Instagram, and this blog.
Irrespective of what way you choose here are 5 important reasons how a daily writing habit can improve the quality of your life.
1. Self Discipline
Let’s face it. Most of us have screwed it up. The lifestyle has simply made it terrible for us to have a disciplined life. Or maybe that’s how we have chosen to become as a generation.
If you plan to build better habits to improve your lifestyle, writing can be an easy, low-effort way to begin.
A daily writing habit will pave the way to stack other habits that improve your lifestyle. (I learned about the skill stacking method in James Clear’s Atomic Habits and it’s a brilliant book to begin your reading habit if you want to. Highly recommended!!!)
2. Better Vocabulary
Whether you are a professional writer or not, a good vocabulary will always help you to stand out in different situations.
We are in the digital age. People are thriving because they understand the power of words, both verbally and in writing.
Everyone wants to convey their thoughts and ideas in the easiest way possible. But, somehow this is costing you your communication skills. Because instead of making it easy you are complicating the process.
Have you ever been in a conversation where you couldn’t find an appropriate word to express your feelings or emotions?
If yes, it’s time to build your vocabulary. A daily writing habit combined with reading 2 to 3 pages a day can be a good first step to begin with.
3. Cultivates Self Awareness
Having a daily writing habit can be your greatest weapon to know yourself better every passing day.
When you translate your thoughts into words, you automatically give yourself a chance to seize better ideas. It helps you to control your negative self-talk. It improves your observation power because now you’re more aware of what is happening around you and inside you.
Writing every day opens a new world where your thoughts are not meaningless anymore. It gives you a chance to express yourself better.
4. Live the Power of Compounding
I heard one of my favorite self-help creators, Kahtrin Zenkina, say this on Instagram Live and it lives in my rent-free. She said, “The craving to go viral overnight is making you miss the power of compounding”. And I couldn’t agree more.
The power of compounding applies to every long-term result that you are trying to achieve.
Thus, it isn’t different for your daily writing habit either. In your initial days, your writing habit may feel like a chore. But, as you choose to stick to it, you will witness the power of compounding coming to life.
My daily writing habit has improved my writing skills to another level and I can only thank myself for sticking to it.
5. Build Your Community
Like I said before, this is a choice. But, it can change your life upside down in many positive ways.
Building a community and working on your personal brand while building your daily writing habit and talking about your writing process can open some surprising doors of opportunities for you.
I have been a professional writer for 4 years. So when anybody asks me how they can improve their writing skills, I just advise them to start writing.
Choose a platform that you find easy to use and just start writing. Also, be selfless when building your community. It will come back to you in so many ways.
These were some important answers that would have helped you understand how a daily writing habit can improve you little by little every day.
But, that’s not all. Let’s see what science has to say about the importance of writing in your daily life.
What are the Scientific Benefits of Writing?
1. A Daily Writing Process delays the beginning of cognitive declination
As you age, it is normal for your cognitive functions to decline. However, according to a recent study, developing a reading and writing habit (RWH) might delay the onset of this cognitive decline during the process of aging.
Thus social factors like better higher education and RWH lead to better performance at the macrostructure and microstructure levels of your cognitive functions.
2. A Daily Writing Process can make you a scientist
How is that even possible? You’re right! I had the same reaction when I first read it. But, surprisingly it’s true.
The HHMI Science Education Alliance (SEA) Faculty Group published this study where they tested reflective writing tools and their role in improving the student’s learning experiences. They concluded that reflective writing tool encourages students to engage better and become more persevering. These writing tools were able to develop scientific thinking by helping students to think critically while solving problems.
3. A Daily Writing Process improves your persuasion skills
There is a category of writing in which you can build an entire career if you have great writing and persuasion skills. It’s called Copywriting.
In the end, all writing on the web is copywriting because the goal of every written piece is to persuade the reader to take action. And you don’t need a lot of technical tools to learn this skill.
Having a writing process and building a daily writing habit when turned into a profession can make for a great career as well. Because the more you write the more you improve your persuasion skills.
These were some science-backed evidence on the benefits of having a writing process. Your daily writing habit has so much wisdom and power to help you take back control of your life. And the best part is you get to do this your way.
Conclusion
My daily writing process has changed with time. For four years I was writing only to braindump or lessen my burden. But, 4 years ago when I started on LinkedIn, it changed my life.
I was a nobody until a few years ago. But today, my community knows me for the writer I am. And I’ll always be grateful for the year 2020. It gave me the push I needed to start working on my dream.
Now, it’s your turn. I hope my story, experience, and all the insights about developing a daily writing process and building a writing habit were able to give you a direction to have a writing routine.
Remember as a beginner, the goal is not to write great things but just to write and keep trying until it becomes a lifestyle.
If you enjoyed learning about my writing process, here is a detailed guide for you to learn more about creative writing. I am sure you’ll enjoy it as much.
Have a good day!
