Your Daily Writing Habit: Just One Hour a Day!

Here’s the good news. You already have the time you need to write your novel. 

No, we’re not joking. Sometimes it seems impossible to find, but there is time inside the pockets of your day in which to write. And there are ways you can be writing without actually writing, as we’ll explore in this blog post.

It’s one of our core beliefs at The Novelry that anyone can write a book in just one hour a day. And if you commit to that hour every day and form a sturdy daily writing habit for yourself, come rain or shine, you can have a book written in just ninety days (as our Ninety Day Novel Class proves).

Get cracking! Rise with a coffee at early light to create your world, at play before real life kicks in. You’re creating something that will last, and will speak for you and your lifetime—all in just one hour a day. 

Write daily, and in just ninety days...

Whatever stage you’re at—whether you’ve got no idea for your novel, a first draft sitting in a drawer, or you’re already a professional writer—you can have a first draft of your novel in your hands in ninety days’ time. True story. If you don’t believe us, ask Stephen King:

I believe the first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season. Any longer and—for me, at least—the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave during a period of severe sunspot activity.
—Stephen King, On Writing

Our one hour a day method for writing the first draft of your novel is not a gimmick or a sop to busy people with full jobs and family responsibilities. It’s our tried-and-tested model for getting it done.

Did you know you need to do 23 times more back-of-mind cogitation than you do writing when you embark upon the hard work of writing a first draft? If you fit your hour in early in the day, your mind will be working through the possibilities of the work you’ve already done.

You’ll hear pieces of dialogue, visualize scenes, think of a reason why that person shouldn’t pick up that phone, or why this person was acting so strangely in the last scene. Writing isn’t just the tapping of keys and the pen scratching on paper—it’s in the time you spend digesting your work, your inklings, your ideas. Just 1/24th of a day is all it takes to actually write.

This time between writing sessions is vital and will allow you to go to the page to write with refreshed and renewed purpose the next day.

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What if I want to write more?

For those who like to over-deliver, to do more than is expected, and eagerly dream of a gold star, we recommend patience. When we say one hour, we don’t mean one hour of writing time minimum. We also mean one hour maximum.

If you don’t fly off and write yourself out of ideas (and hope), but keep a low and steady word count in these demanding early days of writing a novel, your confidence and skills will build and you will pick up a nice steady pace and a great working habit.

Continuity: write every day

Here at The Novelry, we’ve seen many of our wonderful members write and complete their novels as a result of creating a daily writing habit, and we love to celebrate our writers as their success stories roll in.

We often find those who do best maintain continuity in their practice. Checking in with your novel daily means that even if your one hour is compromised or doesn’t go well, you’re still available for the mystery of the other 23 hours.

Consistency is important. Even if you’re on vacation, you can find one hour a day for a traveler’s writing routine. Get up and enjoy the different venue with a coffee or a fresh cold juice, and spend time in your fictional happy place.

No laptop? Can’t write with others around? Get out your notebook, muse and mull, list any problems you’re having with the novel and consider some solutions. You probably won’t crack it there and then, but you’ll have logged it and your subconscious will draw on all the inspiration of your changed surroundings to make new connections and come up with the goods.

The point is to get into the writing habit of watering the novel daily, wherever you are, to keep it alive in your mind. Doodle, lament, journal, conspire, on the beach, in the bathroom, while stirring soup—but keep that affair with your novel alive and kicking.

Check in daily

Visit your novel every day, even if it’s only to make notes. That still counts! You don’t need to physically write daily, in full scenes and chapters.

If you’re writing with us at The Novelry, develop the habit of checking into your writing group and breathe a sigh of relief. It’s not just you who suffers ups and downs, and you will have your eureka moment either in the shower or out walking the dog—possibly even at work.

Creativity is combining two things that don’t obviously go together to make something new, and when you’ve got a problem in the novel, you’ll solve it more likely in the 23 other hours of your day and night than in the one hour you spend actively writing. And you’ll bring 23 hours of thinking when you arrive at your moment to write, in every golden hour.

That hour is 24-carat gold.

Your own writing ritual: the Golden Hour method

At The Novelry, we’re lifelong fans of the Golden Hour method—writing for one hour a day, little and often. Our members can write together in good company every weekday for an hour on Zoom, with the option of two sessions per day, as if in the quiet hush of the library.

Here’s just a taste of what our daily Golden Hour sessions mean to our writers at The Novelry, in their own words:

Everyone in one place, to do the same thing: write. There’s no ego, no eye contact, no talking, just a silent settling in for uninterrupted creative time (apart from the occasional cat clambering across a keyboard). It’s often the quickest hour of the day.
—Sam Hudson (The Ultimate Manuscript Assessment)

There’s a certain energy to writing with others, even online. Golden Hours are an appointment I can block out. And where otherwise I may get distracted, seeing others doing what I am doing keeps me motivated.
—Gabriel Rumbaut (The Finished Novel Course)

The Golden Hour really helps with accountability, a non-negotiable writing time that can function almost like an appointment that one must not cancel... Even if I write for 15 minutes out of the one hour, it still helps getting quality writing done. It’s also lovely watching other writers writing – there’s something empowering about that.
—Lavanya Krishnan (The Novel Development Course)

The camaraderie that is built in Golden Hour inspires me. Seeing other writers writing along with me has given me support and improved my writing in ways I never expected. I have found I get a lot done in that hour, whether in my writing progress or in having some kind of peace so I can think about my work in progress. We don’t say anything to one another, but just knowing we are all there together across oceans and continents makes me feel less alone on my writing journey. It’s a silent form of support but it’s so immensely strong.
—Miranda Cameron (The Finished Novel Course)

I love that it has a time! So I can’t say I’ll do it later! And I love when Alice or Melanie send us off with happy words – sometimes what they’re working on, or something to think about. That little bit is enough motivation to make me want to join.
—Laura Callis (The Novel Development Course)

The routine. I know that every weekday morning at nine I am going to sit down at my computer and join the group. Same people doing the same thing for sixty minutes. Most days, I am back at three for another hour. Routine = completed work. If your goal is to write a novel, this is the best way to do it.
—Walter Smith (The Ultimate Manuscript Assessment)

I am often more easily accountable to others than I am to myself until the habit forms and I can feel the pull. I love that we’re all showing up and that we’re all making a dent in something. It’s a fantastic way to be present. And despite myself, the progress is made, just because I showed up. Golden Hour is why I’ve made this progress, outside my procrastination zone.
—Rosie Sennett (The Finished Novel Course)

It is frightening yet wonderful how consistent the process of writing a novel is for all writers. Once you’re past 10,000 words, the idea is safe. At 30,000 words, it’s likely you’ll experience a sag, but our online creative writing courses and the expert advice from our team of writing coaches and publishing editors are structured to push you through. Not to mention our supportive writing community, here for you 24/7, wherever you are in the world.

You’ll be nervous on day one, elated by day ten. You’ll no doubt experience a day of doubt, followed by a day of euphoria as judgment is superseded by appetite and ambition and so on.

But look: your writing habit is taking shape around you. How good does that feel?

Use your reading habit to break writer’s block

Reading books is still writerly work. Discovering the stories of others gives writers motivation—reading a great book makes us want to write.

A key element of our courses that helps build writing skills is the Hero Book. The Hero Books are a special selection of novels in different genres, chosen for their virtues as ways to learn story structure from the inside out.

We ask our writers to choose one for their writing journey and read it nightly, even just for a few minutes. Keeping faith with your Hero Book bolsters your daily writing habit and helps you keep your practice nice and steady. (While we ask writers to remain faithful to their Hero Book during their ninety days of writing, we do permit out-of-hours liaisons with other books.)

Remember, you have two pedals as a writer: writing and reading. When one runs out of juice, use the other.
—Louise Dean

Finding one hour in your day

When’s the best time to write: early morning or late at night? The choice is yours, though in our survey of published authors, 65.3% of writers said they wrote before noon.

The truth is, for those of us (most of us) with jobs, kids, cats, dogs, community and family commitments, or health issues that preclude us from having much in the way of free time, finding even 15 minutes to focus on ourselves and our writing can seem impossible. But the time is there.

Here are a few of our best ideas for tracking down 60 magic minutes for a writerly habit...

Cut the scrolling

It’s a regular habit for so many of us. Wouldn’t it be nice to replace the doomscroll with something creative, and to write every time we would’ve been staring into the online abyss? Wean yourself off slowly if you need to, but this, by far, is one of our biggest wastes of time.

Leave the house

Not always possible, but if you can get away from those home commitments and that laundry pile for an hour—perhaps to a nearby cafe or even just a quiet parking area where you can work in your notebook—then take the opportunity. Bonus points for a view that doesn’t include dirty dishes.

Get up earlier

This new idea fills some of us with horror, but it’s amazing what you can accomplish with an early extra hour—when the world is quiet, the coffee is hot, and your brain has yet to be distracted by All The Things. The big advantage of this one? Feeling very virtuous about getting your work done first thing. Then you can spend the rest of the day thinking about what might happen next! Read more from our writing coach, Gina Sorell, on how writing first thing in the morning can work magic.

Specific time pockets

These are places in your schedule where you’re technically occupied, but you can fit your writing habit in at the same time. Sitting on the train into work, marshaling the backpacks at the after-school swimming lesson—aka, times when we’re likely to pull out the phone for a scroll. Instead, write down one or two sentences, or a few scene ideas. More words will follow, and the habit will begin to build.

Regular writing eventually makes a book

At The Novelry, you’ll learn a happy lifelong writing practice with a writing coach at your side who believes in you and your writing—because all writers need someone who believes in them. You’ll enjoy one-on-one sessions with experienced publishing editors to get feedback and advice on your novel to avoid pitfalls.

In our classes and courses, you’ll get daily guidance based on the natural structure of a novel with lessons by video and text, timed to coincide with your writing. You’ll learn from great writers, getting insights into their techniques with our tools doing the heavy lifting so you can enjoy pain-free plotting.

You can write your novel in one hour a day. That’s all the commitment we ask of you. Just 60 minutes to make your writing dreams a reality.

A lot can happen in one hour... However you choose to use it, the power contained within that hour will be nothing less than transformative.

I get my admin done by noon if I can, and push it out of my mind so I can do some real work. I feel shy of saying this, because to non-writers it sounds so lazy—but if, seven days a week, you can cut out two hours for yourself, when you are undistracted and on-song, you will soon have a book. Unoriginally, I call these ‘the golden hours.’ It doesn’t much matter where I find them, as long as I do. I usually work many hours more. But sometimes I wonder why.
—Hilary Mantel

Wherever you are on your writing journey, we can offer the complete pathway from coming up with an idea through to ‘The End.’ With personal coaching, live classes, and step-by-step self-paced lessons to inspire you daily, we’ll help you complete your book with our unique one-hour-a-day method. Learn from bestselling authors and publishing editors to live—and love—the writing life. Sign up and start today. The Novelry is the famous fiction writing school that is open to all!