One reader asked, "How do I get into the habit of writing every day, if I don't know what I want to write about?"
I think it'd be a good idea to take a step back and think about why you want to create a daily writing
habit.
There are plenty of possible reasons, and all of these are good ones:
#1: You want to improve your writing (e.g. to help you get a particular job or take a class)
#2: You want to write novels or short stories, either just for fun or for money too
#3: You want to build a blog to support your business
#4: You want to write for personal fulfillment – perhaps a memoir or journal to pass on, one day,
to your descendants
#5: You want to write because you find it therapeutic and it helps you work through problems
Your reason for wanting to write daily makes a big difference in how you go about it – and in what topics you choose.
If your reason is #1, then it doesn't necessarily matter too much what you choose: you could just pick a list of essay/journal prompts and go for it! With all the others, though, it's
worth spending some time figuring out what you want to write about. There's not a lot of point (for me, at least) in writing just for the sake of writing.
For instance, if you want to write novels but you don't know what about, you could:
- Read a lot, and ask people for their recommendations: I'm not suggesting you write something really derivative, but what you're reading could spark an idea.
- Think about the sorts of characters
you're interested in writing about: some novelists start with characters and build a story around them.
- Stay alert for anything that pops into your head and makes you think "Ooh, that could be an interesting story..."
While it's pretty easy to just come up with ideas, coming up with an idea that you want to write about is a fair bit harder! It may take some time for the right idea to germinate, and if your ultimate writing goal is a big one (e.g. a whole
blog, a novel, a non-fiction book), you might want to work on some shorter projects in the meantime.
One important thing to say here: there's nothing magical about writing daily. For some writers, it's a good and helpful habit: others do perfectly well writing a couple of times a week, for longer sessions. Experiment, and stick with whatever works for you.
Best of luck!
