How much writing is enough?
One of the most irritating things I used to hear before I turned off the internet spigot was people complaining that they couldn’t write daily. “I don’t have time,” they’d whine, wondering why their writing was going nowhere. If you don’t have the discipline to write daily, you likely don’t have what it takes to make it.
Seem harsh? Maybe so, but for all the George RR Martin types in the world, countless others put in the work daily and enjoy the progress that comes with it. They’re invested in their craft, and they do what it takes.
As I write this, I’m on the tail end of a four-thousand-word sprint. I can do that because I have the necessary experience. The experience I got by writing all the time. Initially, I could barely muster a page’s worth of material every day. Today, I wrote roughly sixteen pages. This is a case where you can do the math and see what progress looks like.
Now, if you don’t have much time to write, you can’t be expected to turn out thousands of words. That’s fine. Write what you can. But if you have time to check Facebook, you have time to write. Whether you take advantage of that time is up to you.
Writing is either essential to you, or it’s not. Don’t pretend it is if you’re unwilling to do the work.