Scratch Reader Mailbag: Do I Really Need a Writing Routine? (Really, Really?)

Welcome to the Scratch Reader Mailbag! Our literary advice column where we answer your questions about writing, publishing, media, and whatever else leads pen to paper. To submit a question of your own, click here, scroll down to “Mailbag,” and follow the instructions. We can’t promise to respond to every email, but we’re committed to giving our all to those we do!

Note: Mailbag questions may be lightly edited for clarity and to preserve anonymity as requested. 

Dear Scratch, 

I’m always reading writing advice like: Wake up and immediately put down your morning pages by candlelight; hit your daily quota of words or you’ll never write your novel; block out X number of hours every week, etc. But how do people do this? I have a job. I’m a parent. I could never write every day. I’ve only ever been able to get work done in little bursts here and there. How do you do it? Is a writing routine or schedule necessary? 

— Overscheduled Writer

Oh, Overscheduled Writer, wow do I feel you. My answer is: Yes and no. Let me explain. 

I work well with a schedule that includes deadlines. Sometimes I will break down my bigger projects like so: If a draft of a story is due on a Monday, for instance, then the reporting should be done by the previous Wednesday or Thursday. Sometimes I will even mark these deadlines up in my planner. Interviews scheduled. Interviews completed. Outline written. Draft completed, and so on. When I wrote my book draft after selling it, I had a strict schedule for when each chapter needed a first draft written and an edit done by. I had a hard deadline because I knew that my book needed to come out around the Summer Olympics, and that meant not procrastinating. I did not miss my deadlines.

I’ve long thought I would be a writer with a routine. After all, I’ve been freelance for more than a decade and rejected office culture because I could simply not abide all the wasted time seated at a desk from 9 to 5. I love the idea of morning pages while sipping coffee, while the sun rises (I used to do this in my 20s!), or ripping through a draft in a month, NaNoWriMo style. I love the idea of honing my craft through this kind of consistency. And I do think there is a necessity to it at certain times in life. 

But right now isn’t one of them, personally: I simply don’t have enough time to do all the things I’d like to be doing. It sounds like you might not either? And you know what? That’s OK. 

Some days I wonder if I will ever truly “write” again the way those blog posts you came across advise. I have books in my head that want to exist in real life. Research I desperately want to dive into. But there are weekly deadlines, and radio shows to produce, and freelance pitches to send, and all the inconsistent tasks of being a parent to try to work around. 

These days, I zoom out to find my writing routines — and I don’t regret it. A couple of Sundays ago, I packed three giant totes full of books, a duffel bag of my coziest clothes, and drove away from my two kids and partner to a small cabin on the Washington coast. I’d booked a mini writing retreat with a friend — just 4 nights in a tiny cabin on the Washington coast. Due to my friend having a last-minute family emergency, I ended up going alone. 

But, Maggie, you might ask, don’t you work as a freelance writer? And don’t your children go to school and have some type of childcare? Isn’t your whole life a “writing retreat”? Or at least that is what the little voice in my head asked when trying to figure out how to arrange for this time away. In a perfect world, I would be working on Scratch, writing my freelance assignments, teaching some classes from time to time, and spending an hour or two a day on my book project. We do not live in a perfect world. (That means you, too.) 

The truth is sometimes we need specific times for specific projects, and that doesn’t make them or us any less real or serious. I told you that I wrote my first book using hard deadlines, but that was after years and years of work that needed a very different kind of time: thinking, researching, compiling, drafting, editing, writing, and rewriting. Those elements don’t really work the same way as chipping away at little pieces day after day, but they’re needed if we ever want to get to that point. 

I scheduled time for a “writing” retreat, but it wasn’t really for writing. This time, my trip produced about 0 words that will appear in any future book. It was also absolutely invaluable. By carving out that time and space from all the little things that usually pull my attention away, I swear I could feel my brain exhale. And even though I hadn’t looked at the research, or outlines, or notes for many months, I was still able to get back into the project, which also meant a little bit back into myself. 

On the coast, I read a lot, and used so many sticky notes, and wrote down all my little “Aha!” moments that will someday go into a book proposal. I was reminded of a little print that’s framed on my wall by Sister Mary Corita Kent that reads “the ground work doesn’t show ‘till one day.” I purchased it years and years ago, when I wanted so badly to be a writer but felt like all the effort I was putting in was getting me nowhere. Ground work can look like morning pages for some people, but for others it happens in spurts. Just be sure to schedule that foundation building where you can. Nothing rises without it.

 — Maggie

This post was edited by Rahawa Haile.

Post-Credits Scene From the Garden

Scratch is a weekly newsletter about how your favorite writers are surviving (or not). We are a four-person collective publishing essays, interviews with other writers, and topical inquiries into the publishing and media industries today. If you like what we’re doing here and want to support us, a paid subscription is the best way to do so. You can also leave us a tip. Or submit a mailbag question of your own!