Becoming a writer is simple: Start writing. There is nothing more elaborate to it than that. So, it's not surprising how events like NaNoWriMo attract so many participants. It's all about getting your butt in the chair—and writing.

I'm a fan of NaNoWriMo myself, taking part every year since 2014, becoming a municipal liaison (NaNoWriMo's representative for my region) in 2015. In that time, I've noticed a few habits that writers have during this season.

It's common for writers to decide that the best approach to getting more writing done is by ignoring everything else that might be going on in their lives—including the family. I've been there. I've done it. And let me tell you that it's not sustainable.

Whatever schedule writers come up for the NaNoWriMo season works in the beginning, but as life carries on—interrupting us—things start to fall apart, and we start to fall behind in our daily goals.

"I'll just make it up tomorrow."

Yeah, I've said this to myself too, countless times. But again, I've noticed that when we struggle to meet our daily goals as it is, adding yesterday's goal to today's goal only makes things worse, adding unnecessary pressure—and making us cranky and a nightmare to live with.

So much for working our writing life into our family life.

Every year during NaNoWriMo, without fail, I get word of at least one writer who has fallen so far behind during Week Two that they've given up come Week Three. I do the best I can to encourage them to keep going, to just keep writing and forget about the goals, but they are so disheartened by the whole experience that they throw in the metaphorical towel.

The real issue has nothing to do with whether a writer is capable of producing the word counts or not. If life wasn't constantly getting in the way and we could spend 100% of our time writing, then writing those 50,000 words in one month would be easy.

The real problem is centered around the goals that we have set for ourselves that are in conflict with our writing personalities and established daily habits and commitments.

Before you throw in the towel, sit down and examine your writing personality and those daily routines. Even if you felt like your last week of writing went well, take the time to this.

If you want to establish sustainable writing habits that work for you, this is a vital step.

Writing practices are personal.

Tell me if you've heard any of these before:

• You need to make time for writing.
• You should write every day.
• Write what you know.
• Never use passive voice.
• Delete all adverbs.
• Write like you talk.
• Hook them with the first line.
• The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three month to write.

I've heard every single one of these lines of advice and more! It's not to say that any of these comments are not valid—except perhaps that last one.

That last one is complete hogwash, in my opinion. They're words that come from Stephen King's On Writing—words that many writers take as gospel. Yet, it's the advice that means the death of so many stories before a writer has even begun to find their stride.

It doesn't matter what the source of the writing advice is. ALL writing advice should be looked at with caution, especially if words like need and should are used or implied. Any advice that is so rigid with no room to modify things to suit personalities is likely to be the advice that will set a writer up to fail.

What works for one writer will not necessarily work for another. And even worse, what works during the writing of one manuscript won't necessarily work for another manuscript.

By understanding the little quirks that make up your writing personality, you will be able to identify the writing advice that might be beneficial to you—and what advice should be ignored.

Examining Writing Personality and Daily/Weekly Routines

In preparation for the recent NaNoWriMo season, I developed some worksheets that focus on examining one's writing personality and their daily/weekly routines. These worksheets are part of The Writer in You project—an ongoing project designed to encourage writers to understand more about themselves and their writing process.

You will find the links to the worksheets at the bottom of the page about The Writer in You project. The questions presented here are only some of the questions listed on the Writing Personality and the Daily/Weekly Routines worksheets.

There are no right or wrong answers to any of the questions listed here and in the worksheets.

I recommend that you keep a record of your answers. Our writing personalities do change over time as life moves around us. Identifying how we've changed can help to develop new routines when the old ones no longer serve us.

1) What time of the day do you feel the most creative? Do you write at this time of the day? If not, why not?

Our society is structured around working during daylight hours. For some people, early morning starts are a drag, requiring insane quantities of caffeine just to get started.

The Night Owls in the world don't really get going until the late afternoon. They're happy to keep working until the wee hours of the morning, dragging themselves out of bed the next day for that early morning start.

However, the Early Birds of the world are fueled by the sunrise. Come the late afternoon, their brains start to shut down. You get them late at night and they're no longer functional.

I'm an Early Bird myself, and when I say no longer functional in the evenings, I mean it! Word salad, anyone?

The first step to building a routine that works for you is understanding when you're the most productive and what is standing in your way of working on your writing during those productive hours.

2) When you sit down to write, are you able to start writing straight away, or do you need some warm-up time to get into the writing zone?

Some people are so focused that when they sit down to write, their fingers are tapping away at the keyboard from the moment they sit down. (Lucky buggers!) However, most people require some warm-up time to get those creative juices flowing. The question is, how long of a warm-up time do you need?

If it takes you at least 20 minutes to get into the zone, but you only allot yourself 30 minutes of writing time per writing session, then you will forever be warming up, rather than writing. But if you are able to get going within the first five minutes, then that 30-minute session can be quite productive.

3) Do you write in bursts, going until you can't write anymore? Or do you write a small amount every day—the slow-and-steady approach?

This argument is centered around the-tortoise-and-the-hare concept. As children, we are taught that being slow and steady will win the race every time, but that's not actually true.

For some personalities, it's more productive to be the hare.

Writing every day is a good practice in theory. But some personalities become so obsessed with a project that they just go for broke—until they can't keep going. After those massive creative sessions, they are zapped of energy and need to take a break for a few days before they can get going again.

If this is you, go for it! I hereby give you permission to not write every day.

4) Do you think about your stories while performing household chores? While driving? While exercising? While in the shower?

Let's be honest here. What writer isn't constantly thinking about their stories in some capacity? Most of the writers I know seem to dream, eat, and breathe their stories—myself included. And when it's not the specifics for the current project, it's the spark of an idea for some other story.

I drive by the water treatment ponds, and I'm thinking about where to hide all the bodies—grinning.

And shower writing is a thing! But remembering that perfect dialogue line long enough to rinse the shampoo out of your hair is a different matter.

5) Describe a typical day. Include mealtimes, fitness routines, personal hygiene, leisure times, pets, and sleep. Expand this to the average week, including any work schedule and standing appointments.

It might seem silly to write down the details of your life right down to when and if you take a shower, but in understanding how you might build a sustainable writing routine, you need to understand everything that you do.

Writing is a part of you, but so is everything else that is part of your life. Remember that the biggest reason why writers fail during NaNoWriMo and other such events is because they had set goals and routines that conflict with their personality and their established routines.

6) Compare your current daily and weekly schedule to your answers for question 1 through 4. Is there a disconnect? If so, why? What can you do to align your schedules with your writing personality?

This is the one that surprises writers the most. And this is where many writers taking part in NaNoWriMo burn themselves out.

We are always trying to force ourselves to follow a particular schedule, following the practices and ideas that were designed for someone else. If we took the time to understand our writing personalities, then we could take advantage of our little quirks to forge a pattern of productivity that is sustainable and actually works.

You don't need to write every day if you are the writing hare. If you need a long warm-up time, then trying to steal 10 minutes here and there isn't going to work either. And if you are a natural Early Bird, why are you trying to be a Night Owl?

If things aren't working for you, there will be a reason for it.

7) Do you incorporate regular writing sessions into your schedule? If so, how do you hold yourself accountable?

Many of us are happy to schedule appointments with other people, but we forget to schedule appointments with ourselves. We just slot it in when we have some free time—but we never seem to have free time.

If you want to carve out the perfect time slot for writing, add it to your appointment calendar. Add a few alarms into your phone to remind you that it's there.

I started doing this myself about a year ago, also adding alarms on my computer that say "You better be writing and not on social media!" It's amazing how guilty I feel if I don't keep these appointments with my writing self now.

8) Is your writing time sacred? Or do you allow other things (and other people) to encroach on your writing time?

There seems to be something ingrained in our culture that puts writing way down on the importance scale. It doesn't matter what it is, but something always comes up that demands our attention, taking us away from writing—and we let it. Before we know it, whatever time we had set aside for writing is gone.

Yeah, I'm guilty of this too. And it's hard to be protective of my writing time. But knowing that this issue exists has given me the ability to build tools and strategies that help me to control how and when I let these distractions happen.

9) Identify 1 or 2 things within your daily or weekly schedule that you would like to change. Put an action plan into place. Define the measurable statistics that you will use to track your progress.

So much of developing sustainable writing habits comes down to trial and error. Little tweaks along the way.

It's okay if one idea didn't fit into your schedules. Change it.

Nothing is cast in stone.

Record and reassess frequently

As we develop our skills as a writer, becoming more comfortable with our writing habits, our writing personalities will change. As such, what worked for us at one point in our lives might not work in the future.

Developing writing practices that work is a trial-and-error process, needing constant review. On a regular basis, revisit these questions.

How has your writing personality changed? Do your daily and weekly schedules still suit you? If not, it's time to change it up and find a new way forward.

I reassess my own answers to these questions every 6 months. If I notice a change to my answers, I ask myself how my writing routine needs to change to accommodate the changes in my personality.