How to Become a More Productive Writer

You’ve probably heard stories of super-productive writers.

Writers like Brandon Sanderson, who wrote 5 books during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Writers like Agatha Christie, who regularly wrote 3–4 books every year, even at the height of a very busy career. 

Writers like Stephen King, who writes at least six pages every day and says that a book rarely takes him more than three months to write.

For a young writer, seeing authors as prolific as that can often be intimidating. It takes us way longer than three months to write a book—there’s no way we could ever be as productive as that! Authors like Christie and King must be superhuman.

Or… so we think.

While productivity as a writer can be intimidating, proven strategies do exist that can take you from unproductive and inconsistent in your writing to more productive and consistent than you’ve ever been in your life.

And while those strategies may not make you able to write five books every single year, they’ll make a huge difference as you try to become a more productive writer.

The Difficulty of Writing Productively

First of all, it’s important to mention that writing productively isn’t easy.

Productivity, like anything, is a skill that has to be learned. And, more importantly, it has to be practiced. Eventually, you’ll achieve mastery, but not without a lot of effort.

Think of any sport—basketball, for instance. Dribbling, shooting, and scoring may look easy, but once you get on the court, you realize it’s a lot more complicated.  

It takes years to master a sport like basketball, and nobody expects you to learn it in a day. Mastering productive writing won’t happen that quickly!

Becoming a more productive writer won’t be easy. But if you act strategically and work smarter, rather than harder, then you’ll be able to achieve far more than you think.

Track Your Habits To Become A More Productive Writer

When you first decide that you need to be more productive, it’s easy to want to start big.

You think, “I’ll get really good at this whole ‘productivity’ thing. I’ll work all the time. I’ll write thousands of words every day and three blog posts a week and read five writing craft books every month—I’ll get so much done, it’ll be incredible!”

That’s a great recipe for failure.

Being too ambitious right off the bat only gives you a goal you can’t meet. And failing over and over again won’t encourage you—it’ll do the opposite. You’ll be too discouraged to keep going, and you won’t get more done long-term.

Never fear! That doesn’t have to be your future.

Saying “I wrote 3000 words today” feels good, but it’s not a healthy place to start. A far better plan is to focus on adding small habits to your life that build up over time, not grand accomplishments that look and feel impressive.

And what’s the most effective first step to take? Start a writing habit.

Starting a writing habit is the most valuable thing you can do to become a more productive writer. Why? Because consistency builds on itself—and consistency is the key to growth.

If you wrote 250 words every day for a year—just 250 words—that’s 91,250 words in total. And while that isn’t a lot compared to Stephen King’s novel-draft-in-three-months, it is a lot better than nothing.

Imagine what those 91,250 words could be! Maybe you’d finally finish that first draft you’ve been working on for years. Maybe you’d write a hundred articles for your blog. The point here isn’t what you write—it’s that you’re writing consistently.

250 words isn’t a magic number. You should choose a goal that works for you—but keep it small.

According to James Clear, author of the bestselling book Atomic Habits, it takes at least 66 days to turn a new behavior into a habit. So when you start your writing habit, aim for something you can do every day for at least 66 days or longer.

Do you think you could reliably write 2000 words every single day? Maybe—but I doubt it.

250 words, though? That’s a lot easier to guarantee.

Once you have your writing habit in place, you’ve laid the foundation for productive writing. And that’s the most important part. After all, you can always build on the habit later—but you can’t build on a foundation that doesn’t even exist.

This leads us to our first strategy: habit tracking.

Find a place to record every day you write. One great option is to put a calendar up on your wall and cross out every day you meet your goal. That way, you have a visual reminder of your writing habit right in front of you whenever you’re tempted to waste time on something else!

Track your writing for at least two months. After that, you can raise your goal, but don’t go overboard. Again, the most important thing is consistency.

And after those two months, congratulations—writing is a habit for you. You’ve taken the first step to supercharge your writing productivity.

But that’s only the start.

Spend Your Time Where It Matters

“Sure,” you think, mentally rolling your eyes. “I’d love to start a writing habit, but I just don’t have time. I have school and chores and a part-time job, and soccer just started, plus I need to spend time with my friends and family. How am I supposed to spend time writing when I just don’t have any time to spare?”

It’s a real struggle. Teenagers often have extremely busy schedules, and it’s hard to fit writing in.

Plus, the other things we spend our time on are valuable. Writing isn’t the only priority in our lives.

While full-time authors can afford to spend 2–4 hours writing every single day, we can’t. But if we’re committed to becoming productive writers, we have to intentionally make time for it.

No matter how busy your life is, you make time to do the things you care about. Do you care about sports? You’ll fit homework in around basketball games. Do you love playing the piano? You’ll make time to practice.

It’s the same with writing. If you prioritize becoming a productive writer, you need to make time to hone your craft.

Even if your life is busy, you’re likely to have a few spare hours here and there. Being aware of those hours and taking advantage of them will allow you to accomplish far more with the limited time you have.

If you truly never have those few spare hours, ask yourself:

• What am I spending time on that is less important to me than my writing?
• Can I cut out unnecessary activities and spend time doing what truly matters to me?

Making time for writing doesn’t mean writing for hours and hours. If you managed to spend at least 15 minutes writing every day, that would have an amazing impact! But you do have to set those 15 minutes aside.

How? By using our second strategy: time blocking.

Take out your calendar—yes, you, right now—and see when you have a few hours of free, unscheduled time. That’s time you can use for your writing.

Schedule that time for your writing. Commit to using that time to write instead of browsing on social media. Also—and this is key—communicate with your family about your plan, and make sure they’re okay with you not being available during that time.

Then when the time comes, get out your story, get rid of all distractions, and write.

Keep this time free of distractions. I know how tempting it can be to scroll through Instagram or watch “just one more” Youtube video, but resist the temptation—if you don’t use your writing time, you may as well not have any.

Time blocking can be tricky when you’re a teenager, or when you just don’t have that much control over your schedule. That’s why you communicate with your parents and siblings!

It’s also important to give yourself grace. Sometimes, you won’t be able to write as much as you wish you could, and that’s fine—the most important thing is that you use the time you have well.

Time is precious. Spend it where it matters.

Understand Your Mental Energy

Okay. You’ve started a writing habit, and you’ve blocked out a few hours to use for your work in progress.

But when you sit down to write… nothing comes out. Your brain feels tired and unfocused, and you can’t seem to come up with any words at all.

This is the classic problem of mental energy.

Even if you have the time to write, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll automatically start cranking out the words. Sometimes, you’re distracted. Sometimes, you procrastinate. But sometimes, you’re just plain tired!

Writing takes a tremendous amount of creativity and mental energy, and everything from sleeping to eating to socializing can affect how much mental energy you have. When you’re exhausted, it can be very hard—almost impossible—to write.

Everyone struggles with this. What sets the productive writers out from the crowd is that productive writers know their strengths and weaknesses. They know when and how they write best, and they plan their writing sessions to use their mental energy efficiently.

And you can do the same.

If you plan a writing session for the time when you have the most mental energy, you’ll write a lot more. When you’re mentally alert, you could write the same amount in one hour as you would in four hours when you’re not. And the writing you do will be the same quality—or better.

But how do you find out how and when you write best?

The answer is our third strategy: experiment with and track your mental energy.

Using your mental energy efficiently depends on a lot of factors. Everyone’s different, so a strategy that works wonderfully for one person might be an absolute dead end for another.

Your task is to experiment—to try things, figure out whether or not they worked for you, and try, try again.

Ask yourself:

• What time of day do I feel most alert?
• What activities leave me feeling energized?
• What activities leave me feeling drained?

I’m an introvert. I feel most energized on a day where I don’t have meetings or in-person events to go to—if I’ve spent the whole day playing piano and reading, my mind is alert and ready to go.

My sister, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. She loves socializing and hanging out with friends, and she can be with people for hours without getting too tired. Socializing gives her mental energy. For me, it takes energy away.

That said, there are some things that help everybody have more mental energy. These things include:

• Eating a healthy diet
• Exercising
• Getting enough sleep

If you can figure out what drains you and what doesn’t, you’ll be on your way to using your mental energy most efficiently. And your first step is simple: focus on one thing at a time, then pay attention to the results.

Try writing first thing in the morning. Did it work? If not, try writing in the afternoon. How do your results compare? What if you took a walk before starting to write each day?

Use the information you come up with to plan your writing sessions. Eventually, you’ll learn how to make your writing time the most productive and efficient that it can be.

But every journey starts with just one step.

The Dangers of Productivity

Productivity can seem simple. Sure, it’s difficult, and it takes hard work, but it’s good. And it’s infinitely useful—the more you have, the better.

In some ways, that’s correct. But in another way… writer, beware.

Here’s the thing: productivity is good, but it’s also dangerous.

So if you want to begin this journey of becoming a more productive writer, you’ll need a map of the pitfalls along the way.

Ready?

Overemphasizing Productivity Can Lead To Burnout

The first trap you can fall into is the dreaded burnout.

If you prioritize productivity too highly—if you strive for productivity at all costs—then you might push yourself too hard, with disastrous consequences.

Burnout is when you’ve pushed yourself way too far and you have no more energy. You may try to work, but you can’t. You simply have nothing left to give.

A year ago, this was where I was. I’d recently started a blog, and I was so excited. I decided to post three times a week. That was doable—but I was also trying to finish my first novel at the same time. Plus, I attend an academically rigorous school and had a busy schedule already.

I was able to sustain this pace for a month or two. Then… I suddenly wasn’t.

My wrists started hurting too much to type. I realized I’d given myself tendonitis from all the time I spent on the computer. I was constantly stressed. I hardly had any social life—time with friends and family was sacrificed in favor of churning out an extra blog post.

I wanted to write. I wanted to be healthy. But I had nothing left to give.

Burnout has detrimental effects on your physical health, mental health, and just about everything else—especially your productivity.

Yes, you read that right. Emphasizing productivity too much leads to burnout, and burnout leads to less productivity. It’s counterintuitive, but it’s true!

To become a more productive writer, you need to pay attention to your health. Don’t push yourself to the brink of exhaustion—instead, take breaks. Give yourself time to rest.

Being a productive writer doesn’t mean working all the time. It also means stepping back and letting your mind breathe, refilling your creative well, and making sure you have the energy to keep going.

Striking that balance is essential to becoming a more healthy, happy, and productive writer.

Don’t Set Yourself a False Standard

If you master these three strategies, I guarantee that you’ll become a more productive writer—but you probably won’t become Stephen King.

Imagine you have a friend named Lisa. Lisa writes 2000 words every morning before breakfast. She’s homeschooled, and she’s one of the most hardworking people you know. Her novels are beautifully written and her characters are engaging, and she writes incredibly fast. She’s mastered habit tracking and time blocking, and she’s optimized her mental energy.

Maybe you’re tempted to look at Lisa and think, “Why can’t I do that? I must be a failure.”

Friend. No. You’re not.

So Lisa writes 2000 words a day? Good for her. You aren’t her, and you don’t need to be.

You don’t have to compare with Lisa to be a productive writer. You don’t have to follow Stephen King’s writing routine to be a productive writer. You don’t have to write 5 books when you’re stuck at home because of Covid to be a productive writer.

You are you. And your process won’t look like anyone else’s.

Even if you never write a book as fast as Brandon Sanderson or Agatha Christie or Stephen King, that’s fine! Other authors are not the standard for your writing process. In the end, the goal is to optimize your time and energy so you can write efficiently and well—it isn’t to reach some false standard that someone else sets for you. Every writer is different.

And you know what? That’s a good thing.

Because the stories that other writers have told aren’t your stories. Nobody else can tell your story better than you can.

So don’t set yourself a false standard. Compare yourself to who you were a year ago, not to who somebody else is now.

Remember, you’re fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

The Value of Becoming a More Productive Writer

If this seems intimidating, never fear—you’re just at the beginning of the journey.

Think of Frodo and Sam’s journey throughout Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Frodo didn’t actually start out trying to take the Ring to Mordor. He only planned to bring it to the elven city of Rivendell. Even going that far was a challenge for a hobbit who had never left the Shire.

But Frodo took the first step. And then he took the next one. With the help of his friends, he made it to Rivendell—and soon enough, he was climbing Mount Doom.

If you take these steps and implement them, you’ll reach incredible heights. You’ll write more than you ever thought you would, and you’ll maintain an effective and balanced life.

But you won’t get there if you don’t start.

To help you on your journey, I’ve included a printable calendar that you can use to track your new writing habit. Click below to download it and raise yourself to new heights of productivity!