Successful Writers and Their Routines

Writing is one of the most undervalued skills and like a muscle, something you need to continually work on to improve. Here are some tips from great writers to help you write more better, collected by the Product Hunt team.

In the past nine months we’ve hosted over 400 LIVE Chats with entrepreneurs, investors, entertainers, athletes, and thought leaders from every industry imaginable. Many of our guests have written some of the most insightful, entertaining, and thought-provoking books in categories ranging from science fiction and history, to business non-fiction and memoirs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, our community wanted to know how. How do these writers write? What time of day do they write, and how frequently? How long does it take? And does it get any easier over time?

What our LIVE Chat guests shared about their writing processes was illuminating—there were some commonalities (like writing almost daily, and reading just as much—or more—than they write). But, there were also some major differences. Some swear by outlines; others just start writing and organize as they go. Some write in the morning religiously; others write in the evening.

Regardless of their differences, they all shared something that will inspire you as you build your own writing process. Here’s what 11 of our favorite writers had to say about what has worked best for them.

What three qualities make a good writer? — Emily Hodgins

What’s terrible and lovely about being a writer is simply that you have to spend more time reading than writing. This seems unproductive to outsiders. If you are a journalist, this is doubly hard. You have to read so that you can write, and you have to read all the damn news so that you have context for what’s going on. So you have a double workload. The upside is that you get to read lots and not feel too bad about the time you are investing. So that’s one.

Two would be spending as much time as you can with interesting people. In person, if you can manage it. They will teach you new words, phrases, jokes, references, and so forth that are ammunition for your writing. No one is interesting in a vacuum. And thirdly, the normal response: You have to write every day. No exceptions.

— Alex Wilhelm, Editor in Chief @Mattermark (Previously TechCrunch)

(1) Read. A lot. (2) Write every day. Hearing good writing in your head and working every day on your craft will help a lot.

— Daniel Pink, Author of To Sell Is Human, Drive, A Whole New Mind

What were the biggest challenges about writing your book? What advice can you offer new writers just starting out? — Emily Hodgins
 
I started out with a vision of a 150-page Twitter-like business book. It soon migrated through research into a 1,400 page document, which required editing down to the final 400+ pages. My advice is to frame your thoughts well ahead in terms of scale. Don’t just write to see what happens.

— Bob Wright, Former CEO of NBC, Vice Chairman of General Electric, and currently the Co-Founder and CEO of Autism Speaks

Did blogging come naturally to you, or was it a habit you had to force initially? — Ben Tossell
 
 It was a ton of work initially. But I built up the habit of writing 1,000 words a day. I eventually got that streak to over 600 days in a row. It just takes consistent work. Whenever I hear of someone who says their blog isn’t successful, I want to ask: “Have you written every day for at least a year?” If not, stop whining and get back to work. These things take time.

— Nathan Barry, Founder and Designer at ConvertKit

I read for 2 hours. 1 hour of fiction, 1 hour of good non-fiction. The fiction has to be HIGH quality. Then 2–5 hours of writing. EVERY day. Seven days a week.

— James Altucher, Entrepreneur and bestselling author

Do you have any advice for the process or researching, organizing, and writing non-fiction? — Melissa Joy Kong

I start with a proposal, which is usually about 20 pages long. Then I write an outline, very specific, chapter by chapter. Then I do the research, which takes three months or so. And when I start writing, I just try and write as much as I can every day.

— Ben Mezrich, Author of sixteen books, including Bringing Down The House and The Accidental Billionaires

How do you write? What’s your process? — Brad Feld
 
I do not get up at 5am every day to write, as so many other writers do. I do my best writing at night — night owls, unite! Another key difference for me is I tend not to place a lot of stock in outlines. I don’t thoroughly outline my thoughts before writing. Actual full prose writing is the process of figuring out what I want to say. Thus, there’s a lot of revising and editing and scrapping old stuff. Outlines are overrated — how do you know what you want to say before you say it?! I think Joan Didion or someone said something like that.

— Ben Casnocha, Co-author of The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age

 I write on planes. I use OmmWriter on my Mac, and when I really need to focus, I buy a plane ticket. Honestly. I wrote Zombie Loyalists on a round trip flight to Tokyo and back. I didn’t even go into Tokyo. I flew from EWR-NRT, wrote chapters 1–5. Landed. Got off the plane, went to the lounge, took a shower, ate some food, got back on the same plane, same seat, two hours later, flew from NRT to EWR, and wrote chapters 6–10. :) It works for me.

— Peter Shankman, Best-Selling Author and Founder of HARO

What are your tips for writing a book when you are not in the “writing” business? — Gabriel Reynard
 
 Don’t try to write a book. Just write, every day, for as much time as you can. 20 minutes a day. A blog post a day. 50 tweets a day. It doesn’t matter, just flex that writing muscle. Before long, you will be able to write a book.

— Dave Kerpen, Best-Selling Author and Founder of Likeable Local

Choose a subject that really, really excites you, that others are not covering, if that is possible. Give yourself a year to do solid research on the subject, if it’s nonfiction. You can also have a job, but not full-time or it will crush you. Learn to organize your information really well. I have a 4 x 6 card system for organizing book.

Think hard about the subject. Don’t settle for clichés or received wisdom. Surprise yourself. Keep working to the point where you can’t stand it any longer, and then write the book. Organization, an original idea, and a lot of thinking, and I say you can’t fail to hit the mark.

— Robert Greene, Bestselling Author of The 48 Laws of Power

What’s your advice for entrepreneurs who are writing — Aby Mathew
 
Just do it! Writing is kind of like running — anyone can do it, but your results will vary mostly based on practice. I’ve found the best writing I’ve done was always more for myself than for an audience. Given the easy availability of publishing platforms and distribution, there’s no reason that entrepreneurs (or anyone, really) can’t start writing.

Now, all that said… If you want to write WELL, read this post from Om Malik, who’s a boss: How to Write a Good Blog Post.

— Ryan Lawler, Venture Partner at 500 Startups (formerly TechCrunch)

Looking for more great advice from authors and other thought leaders? Join us for an upcoming LIVE Chat. You can find the full schedule on Product Hunt 🙂