The struggle is real, I know—many new writers didn't make it to success in blogging because of inconsistency. I joined several writing communities and met new people in blogging, and after months of being active, they would disappear and never continue writing.
It is because they do not have a writing schedule, they are inconsistent in writing. They are missing one of the most important ingredients to be successful in writing; being consistent.
When you are just starting blogging, one of the most important things is to become consistent. You don't have to look at your stats, what you need to do is to look for the quantity of your work. The bitter truth in writing is that you won't get anything in the first months of writing. You have to work on your blog for a long time before you get the fruit of your hard work.
The problem with new writers is that they overthink everything, are overwhelmed with the information out there, fooling themselves by watching not-so-called "gurus" on the internet selling their expensive courses saying that you can easily drive more traffic to your blog – it could be, but not if you are not consistent.
This post will help you to start creating an effective writing schedule that sticks without overwhelming yourself and allows you to become consistent.
You started a blog, what's next?
The best thing to do is to write and publish more – you shouldn't stop. Consistent writing can help not only for your blog growth but also for yourself. It can improve your writing skills over time, write a better output, and grow your audience.
I never liked writing. It was not my passion.
But that was just before.
Over time, I learned how to embrace it and started writing more. Over the last 3 years of writing, what I learned is that when you write more, you improve your writing skills and adapt to other writer's writing styles, until you get your audience and your first dollar from it.
"Writing only when inspiration strikes" is just an old phrase. You don't have to believe in it.
As I mentioned in my previous post, you should start writing more when you feel unmotivated because sometimes, you are just thinking about it without even starting. So, get up and start writing.
To stay consistent in writing, you must identify your writing goals first. If you think of writing as your business, you must have a goal with your content.
Here are the questions that I never answered before – because like you, I was also inconsistent with my writing. But then, when I learned about these, it helped me to stay consistent and write more.
I usually target at least a 500-word count per day. It could be a blog post, an answer from Quora, or just combined words of threads and short-form content. This is my routine when it comes to writing. Before, I felt that 500 words were just a lot, but now, I feel that it is not enough so I write more.
I target 2-3 posts per week depending on my schedule. I usually have academics in the morning and then start writing after school. But this one varies on my heavy schedule.
When I say routine, it is how and when should you write and market your content. I usually write my content and then share it online right after writing. Some new writers do it differently. They mostly have a writing schedule where they write on Monday, edit and publish on Tuesday, and then market everything on Wednesday. They stick to these schedules so they won't miss any important parts.
Finding your "why" to stay motivated also helps to be consistent. It could be building your online presence, just a hobby, start a business, or earning money on the side.
I mostly write to earn money on the side while I am still studying, it helps me to pay my bills and other leisure. Sometimes, I also feel that it is starting to become a hobby after writing for a long time – it becomes a habit
You should start asking yourself "What are my productivity peak hours?". This will help you to identify which time should you start writing. I often write in the morning when I wake up, well, if I just have the time. But most of the time, writing is my last task before I sleep.
Are you a morning or a night person?
Go and ask yourself. It is the first step to building your writing routine and schedule to become consistent with your writing
Then after that, start small. If you are a new beginner and overthinking about writing long-form content, why not start by sharing micro-posts and short-form content?
I use InLeo and Snaps to share short-form posts. The best thing here is that you can also earn by doing it unlike X (formerly Twitter) which barely drives traffic and gains an audience.
After identifying your productivity peak hours, you must start creating your schedule. Start by having a calendar on your screen and look for the days when you can start writing.
You should not overwhelm yourself and never put your writing time on a date when you are busy. As I mentioned, some writers have different writing schedules where they start writing on Monday and start the editing phase on Tuesday.
You can copy them and try the best schedule for you. In my case, I do it differently. I write any other day in the week, then do the writing, editing, and marketing on the same day. I consider this as a business so I am strict with my schedule.
I wrote this blog post to help you have a smooth writing flow.
But as a new writer, you don't have to overthink everything. The most important thing is just to start and publish.
Everyone is having this and it is normal to experience it even if you are just in your first month. You will get to the point where you will just ask yourself why you are writing, lose your motivation, and feel burned out.
The good thing here is that you can easily overcome writer's block.
I have a separate post about it which you can read HERE.
Are you starting to see some progress?
Good for you.
After your first 3 months of your writing, you can start tracking your progress and start creating your strategy especially if you are seeing the outcome that you have been waiting for.
Adjusting your schedule also works, you don't have to stick to it every time. Try to experiment with your writing schedule. You might find something more effective for you and will help you grow as a writer.
It all starts small.
But once you take writing seriously, it will become your habit.
My secret is to have a dedicated room or workplace where you can start writing. Treat it as your office where creativity and ideas flow. Avoid using your bed as your workplace, it is chaos. It won't give you a good outcome in the long term. As James Clear said, "Motivation is overvalued, environment matters more”.
Also, having a support system will help you to turn writing into a habit. I still stay in the communities that I joined primarily on Hive and read.cash, not only because I earn, but because I already built friendships in the community and I always keep in touch with them.
They help me to become inspired in writing and share more of my work. It is hard to start writing without having support, so, never miss the fun of writing and build relationships with other writers.
I saw a lot of questions in Quora where they are afraid to start writing; they think of the platform to write on, the things that they should consider, and everything that is a common pitfall when you are just starting.
Don't overthink. Start NOW!
Open MS Word or Google Docs, then start writing. It is always best to start writing now, blogging is a long-term process, and you won't grow if you start next month. Imagine if you started now, you can already write 5-10 blog posts after 1 month VS starting next month where you have 0 blogs.
You can start using platforms like InLeo, Medium, Substack, WordPress, and Quora…there's a lot, really. When you choose your platform, you can start writing about your writing goals then try to mention me so I will be notified and I can read it immediately.
Remember, writing is not hard – what you need is to start now and stop overthinking. The best thing to become consistent is to build a writing schedule that suits your [personal] schedule.
