Does Writing Every Day Help or Drain Creativity?

Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers. – Ray Bradbury

We have all come across it before, whether it be from our favorite writers, writing websites, or even here on Vocal: if you want to be a writer, you should write every day. But is that really the secret to becoming a writer? Is that really the best way to get better at our craft? Or could it, in fact, hinder our progress?

I know what you are thinking already: how can it hinder our progress? Practice makes perfect, after all, and if you practice every day, then you should get better every day! It’s like if you are to play a sport; the more you play basketball, the better you will get. So, the more that you write, the better you get. Therefore, naturally, if you want to be a better writer, you should write every day—right?

Of course, you should write as often as possible if you want to get better at it. I am not arguing against that. But there is a little-known secret to when you are practicing anything—whether it be sports or writing—that needs to be shared as well: you need to take breaks.

Scandalous, right? Downright controversial, I know, but it’s true.

We are not machines that can continue working 24/7, despite what society wants us to think, and we all have a lot on our plates: day jobs, family, friends, personal time, and then to throw writing on top of that, we’re going to wear ourselves out. Something has to give, or we are going to run out of energy. And trust me, a lack of energy means a lack of imagination and creativity.

Take, for instance, my recent excursion into the world of daily drabbles with the Elon the Alien stories. I was going pretty strong for a couple of weeks there, even with the demands of my day job and my home commitments. Then this week, suddenly, I hit a wall. I had an idea for a drabble, but I literally could not get myself to type it up. It was as though someone had put wrench in my mechanics that prevented my fingers and brain from working together. I tried to work on something else, and I still could not get my brain to work. I could not figure it out, but instead of fighting it, I decided to just let the matter go and take a break.

So, a few days went by without me writing anything. It hurt a bit, and certainly my stats on Vocal suffered, but it allowed me to focus on other aspects of my life and recharge my imagination a little. Then yesterday, I finally felt able to write my next drabble, and “Soylent Us” came to life. Now, here I am, writing again.

I needed a break from writing. It’s weird, I know, but it’s true. My imagination—my creativity—had run dry because I had asked too much of it the past few weeks by trying to write every day on top of everything else that I have to do. Like with everything else in life, I needed to give myself a break so that I could rest, recover, and enjoy what I was writing again.

Now, I can only speak for my own experiences. Some people really can write every day of their lives, get enjoyment out of it, and not stop a single day. It seemed to go fairly well when L.C. Schäfer did the year-long trek into publishing a story every day. Again, though, that’s not my place to say.

From my own experience, writing every day, no matter how small an amount it is, is draining to creativity. Just like with our day jobs and playing sports, everyone needs a break at least once in a while to recharge our batteries and get new inspiration. That does not mean that we are putting the pen down forever; it just means that we need to rest for a day, maybe a week at the most, and then we are right back at it.

What do you think? Should we write every day no matter what to get better at our craft? Or should we take breaks to avoid draining ourselves? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!