Cal Newport on “Write Every Day”. If it’s not your main job, you’re going to end up having no write days, and if you’re committed to a hard schedule a missed day is going to translate into “welp, couldn’t make the cut then, better quit for good”.
In my experience as a writer with a day job, I’ve found it’s crucial to avoid rigid writing schedules.
Which is fine. That’s his experience. You can listen to him and his experience or you can not. Anecdata is anecdata. There’s a reason why every list of writing advice and every famous writer says to write every day.
The point is that I commit to plans that I know can succeed
If you only ever do that; you will be doing yourself a disservice. You don’t need to know the full plan before setting off. And it’s often a waste of time to not start and pivot. Imagine having to know every word of a book before you start writing it down on paper. That’s a ridiculous concept.
in counter point—if you set out to write every day—yes you will fail. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to do it, and do really really well in the process. If you fail you don’t have to quit for good. If you iterate and try again you can diagnose that failure mode and try again. Try harder. Try smarter.
Cal Newport on “Write Every Day”. If it’s not your main job, you’re going to end up having no write days, and if you’re committed to a hard schedule a missed day is going to translate into “welp, couldn’t make the cut then, better quit for good”.
Disagree with his opinion.
He suggests the biggest problem with write every day is:
Yea, and? That doesn’t have to cause failure. We know things like You don’t have to fail with abandon.. Also iteration cycles
He also says:
Which is fine. That’s his experience. You can listen to him and his experience or you can not. Anecdata is anecdata. There’s a reason why every list of writing advice and every famous writer says to write every day.
If you only ever do that; you will be doing yourself a disservice. You don’t need to know the full plan before setting off. And it’s often a waste of time to not start and pivot. Imagine having to know every word of a book before you start writing it down on paper. That’s a ridiculous concept.
in counter point—if you set out to write every day—yes you will fail. That doesn’t mean you can’t try to do it, and do really really well in the process. If you fail you don’t have to quit for good. If you iterate and try again you can diagnose that failure mode and try again. Try harder. Try smarter.