Writer John Erickson’s writing routine is as all professional writing routines should be:

Four to five hours per day spent writing.

Of course, if this does not sound appealing to you – well – then you are simply not a writer.

Crazy to me to have been writing daily for 53 years.

“May I be counted among you one day.”

Understand: There is just something about reading and writing with coffee and a good dog underfoot.

When I’m asked how long I’ve been writing, I say that I began in 1967, the year Kris and I joined our lives together in marriage. Before Kris, I wrote when I had an idea or felt inspired. After Kris, I wrote every day—same time, same place, a pattern I still follow forty-two years later. This morning, I rose at five o’clock, joined my dog Tango at the front door, and walked 400 yards to my little writing office. It was black dark, so I had to use a flashlight. On reaching the office, I turned on the lights, started coffee brewing, and turned on my laptop computer. When the coffee was ready, I poured myself a cup, and started working on this project, while Tango chased moths out on the screened porch.

-John Erickson, Story Craft (Amazon)

[This is part of the series: 20 Writing Tips From John Erickson]

Writers are disciplined, plain and simple.

Actually: Professional writers and disciplined.

In fact, I think that the main difference between an amateur writer and a professional writer is that a professional is both disciplined about their work and refuses to give up.

An amateur writer writes when inspiration shows up and then quits in the face of adversity.

You can be the most talented writer in the world – but if you quit writing two or three years into it – you are never going to be anything.

If you want to be a writer – cultivate a literary life.

It takes a desire to improve, the discipline to do the work, and the fortitude to not give up.

Understand: Your writing discipline matters.

15. Good writers are disciplined: Perspiration vs. Inspiration.

-John Erickson, Story Craft (Amazon)