Writing Habits

Discussion in 'General Writing' started by BillyxRansom, Aug 9, 2008.

  1. xanadu

    xanadu Contributor Contributor

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    This is definitely different from person to person. And sometimes it's different from project to project. Often, when I have a story I've started, I can keep pretty consistent with it. Whether I'm "feeling it" or not, I can typically stick to a daily word quota and be good with it. It's often when I'm between projects that I need to "feel it" to get something going. I guess for me it's about momentum.

    Obviously forcing yourself to write might not be productive. But there's also a level of discipline involved--sometimes you do have to get words on the page. They don't always have to be good words--that's what editing is for--but if you constantly succumb to distractions and use "I'm not feeling it" as an excuse, you run the risk of never finishing anything.

    Sometimes you truly aren't feeling it. Sometimes you're just procrastinating. Sometimes you need a break, while sometimes you need a kick in the rear. It all depends on your process and your current project. But you can't finish a project if you don't have the discipline to put words on the page. How long you're willing to let the project take? That's up to you and what your goals are as a writer.
     
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  2. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    I'm one of those writers that doesn't feel like writing until I'm actually writing. Meaning I don't get into a groove and write ... I have to write to get into the groove. Usually it just takes a paragraph or so till I'm immersed in the scene and can keep writing. But for every writer it's different. I've ditched projects I wasn't feeling. I've even jumped from one project to another. Last September I had started a novel and in March I jumped ship to briefly jot down some notes on a project and now I'm wrapped up in that project and my half-a-novel is waiting my return.

    You could force yourself to write a couple of pages and see how it goes. You could even write out of sequence ... sometimes that helps - write an exciting scene to jump
    start your creative juices, or you could set this project aside and move onto something else. Your call. Remember when you set stuff aside it doesn't mean it's gone for
    good you can always go back to it.
     
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  3. Commandante Lemming

    Commandante Lemming Contributor Contributor

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    It's definitely different for everyone. I try to lash myself to some basic weekly writing requirements and focus on one thing at a time when possible. That said, it's almost impossible for me to write when I'm overly stressed - even if I've set aside time, calming down from stress enough to focus is hard - and on a few occasions the main project has stalled, and I've had to keep my creative momentum going by focussing temporarily on a side project.

    You should be having fun - but on the other hand I think there is some virtue in forcing yourself to write when it's not fun. Personally, my attitude is that what would be really fun is having a finished novel, and that means I have to finish it, which means that I sometimes have to write when I'm not feeling it. That's the thing about any craft - practice takes time, and you have to be committed to doing it when you don't want to so that you get better.

    But - if you're really not feeling it and not able to focus on it - maybe take some time to assess it or even take a break. In my case taking a month long break from my WIP at one point actually helped, because I started missing it and came back with a second wind, a better plan, and more commitment (I also didn't stop writing during that time, I wrote something else). But that's an individual decision - if you're worried that you might put it down and not come back to it, don't put it down.
     
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  4. TheWriteWitch

    TheWriteWitch Active Member

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    Nooooooooo! That is how it feels for me too and now all my usual excuses for procrastinating (including checking out the forums here) won't hold up. I may actually have to go and work on my deadline. . . argh.
     
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  5. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    I used to be that way. Of course, if you're serious about writing you have to treat it more like a job, which means you do it even when you're not in the mood. It's still difficult at times, but I've found that if I make myself write when I'm not in the mood, the mood comes on in about fifteen minutes or so and then the writing starts to flow as well.
     
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  6. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    It's easier for me to set time aside to write (or research or other writing-related activities) now that I'm retired. When my wife retires, that will require some realignments but still shouldn't be a problem. But back when I was working and my children were still young and I had to shoehorn writing into whatever time I could make for it, I wrote when I had the time. And the relief to be away from the other demands of life meant I was almost always in the mood for it.
     
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  7. cydney

    cydney Banned

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    Regarding your question: I do. I DO. But to be fair and honest, it depends on the person, don't you think?

    I wish I could say I'm a disciplined writer. No way that's happening. I've been waiting for that all my life.

    Here's something I wonder about. Is it up to the individual to provide her own 'mood'? Would it be right to blame someone else because you can't write? Don't think so.

    Just sayin'. :)
     
  8. cydney

    cydney Banned

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    Hey, and I'm not saying you said that! Not by any means. I've just recently heard different excuses why people can't write & another person or group of people should not be that excuse, imo. Reasons are good. Excuses, not so much.

    Please understand I'm not referring to you, @The Elder One . Just thinking out loud!
     
  9. cydney

    cydney Banned

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    This is exactly why I'm so nervous about interacting through replies & comments. Very worried I'll say the wrong thing!
     
  10. yellowducky

    yellowducky Banned

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    YES
     
  11. Albeit

    Albeit Active Member

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    Do you have to be in the mood to write properly?

    Don't know if I am writing "properly" until I edit. So I write quite a bit of gibberish in hopes that I will cough one up from time to time.

    So I write every night and hope for good stuff in the light of the morning edit.
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2016
  12. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I thinking of setting up some weekly writing goals for myself instead of trying to follow a writing schedule. Have you noticed a difference between having a writing schedule vs goals? What's a good word count goal? Maybe 5k a week? I want to make sure I have time to edit. Ideally, I would like to be able to write and revise what I am working on for that week. Or instead of a word count maybe I should be aiming to finish a short story or chapter every week. I need some self-imposed deadlines. The last several short stories I wrote never got cleaned up and therefore never were submitted. I'm just wondering what you guys do to make sure you're staying productive and on track.
     
  13. hawls

    hawls Active Member

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    I was going to try NaNoWriMo this year. There's a daily goal of about 1600 words.

    I've never actually written to schedule or worked towards goals. Well, that's not true. I have worked towards goals but they were very easy goals. Like "Write something. Anything."
     
  14. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I shoot for 365K a year - 1K a day, but I absolutely don't write it spaced out like that. I might do 10K one day and then nothing for a week - that's fine, as long as I make my 365K over the course of the year.

    It works for me. Keeps me honest.

    You're writing full-time, right? So I'd think 5K/week would be totally doable.
     
  15. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    Wait. What? You can write 10k words in a day? That's amazing. There is no way I could ever do that. Seriously, you must be a super fast writer. I wish I could bang out 10k words like that.

    How much time do you have to spend writing to be writing full time? I'm not doing anything else right now. I write most days. And I do put a lot of time in my submissions. I would say I read just as much as I write because I think it's an important part of the process for me. I tried kind of creating a schedule, but I hated it and it just wasn't working. But I can work with deadlines. I like to think I'm a fast writer, but you've got to tell me your secret to writing 10k in a day. I've spent whole days writing but never hit a number like that.
     
  16. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I guess it's the "not doing anything else right now" that would make me think you're a full-time writer. Like, there's nothing else getting in your way.

    In terms of speed? I type about 80 words a minute, so that's 4 800 words an hour, if the words flow as fast as I can type them, which they often do. Of course, they often don't...

    When I'm writing, I generally write about 1K an hour. So a ten hour day gives me 10K words. I'd run out of ideas/energy/enthusiasm if I did that day after day, but when I've got an idea I'm enthusiastic about, it's fun.
     
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  17. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    When I wrote my novel which is absolute garbage and I'm hoping a few rewrites will remedy that situation, I began by setting a 1k per day goal. I found myself struggling to hit it. Then I abandoned any notions I had about how many words per day I would write and just sat down every single day to do it. I ended up blowing the previous goal out of the water as soon as I let it go. Some days I wrote 6k, some 2 or 3k. It was encouraging to know I could produce that quickly. I completed the first draft in ~a month. Now I've realized I wasn't equipped to write that novel and I'm focusing on other things as it simmers. I have a feeling the rewrites will be much slower, but more effective.
     
  18. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I am quite impressed. There is just no way I could ever pull that off. I've done 3k to 5k in a day before. That's kind of my high average for a long full day's work. But when I pull those numbers a few days in a row, I get really drained. I'm trying to see what sort of balance I can strike where I am productive but not at risk for burnout. I'm probably writing 500 words an hour. It feels like I'm writing so fast when I am doing it. I'm not pausing or getting distracted. I was known for being a fast writer when I was a journalist. But I'm slower with fiction. Were you always such a fast writer? I think my fiction has improved, but the speed at which I write it hasn't really changed much. I might even be slower.

    I am writing full-time or trying to. And I do treat it like a job. I am very serious about this. I'm just not sure where it will lead me exactly. There is no backup plan right now. I left a long career in journalism and don't want to go back to it. I've got my MFA now so I should be writing better stuff than ever. I'm in the process of applying for some grants and fellowship opportunities. But I'm getting by okay. I know I should bang out or finish a book. It's just that I enjoy reading and writing short literary fiction so much that it's usually what I work on. I still do the occasional magazine piece here and there if I'm looking for some extra income, but I haven't done one in a while. I've still got journalism contacts who will toss me a story or hear me out with a pitch if need be. I'm okay not making a lot of money for now.

    Okay, I'm feeling like I need to step up my game. I would aim for 10k words a week. I know I can hit that, but it does take a lot out of me to write that much in a week. I just know everything backfires on me when I push myself too much. And I do need to include a good amount of time for revision in my week. This whole week I wrote 3k words, and I worked so hard on those 3k words. I'm still revising this story. But there is just no way I could have done another 3k this week. Well, I could have, but then probably only half of them would be usable. I don't know. Sometimes I can write a story and it comes out clean and pretty much done. Other stories require much more work. The one I'm woking on now is not an easy story, but I feel like it's getting there. Maybe. I feel like I'm doubting myself a lot lately. And that's sure not helping anything.
     
  19. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    I think it's harder to get a lot of words with literary, for sure - I think of writing as a sort of continuum of "how much do I need to worry about every single damn word" and literary fiction is down near the "poetry" end of the spectrum, a place I really don't like to visit. So I'm sure literary would take longer. And I think short stories likely take longer, too, because you're trying to boil so much down into such a tiny space.

    I'm building regular houses, you're building tiny, perfect miniatures of houses. I can slap up two sheets of wallboard and have added more volume to my project than your project will ever even have in total. I don't think it's a good idea to get too caught up in comparisons between the two.

    (Not to mention - when I'm able to write full time for a couple months, my production goes up, but it doesn't go up nearly as much as the extra time would suggest it should. I think there's a lot of thinking and ruminating in writing, and a lot of it is something that can be done while doing something else. So if I dropped my ten-hour-a-day job, I wouldn't suddenly start writing 11K a day (existing 1 hour plus 10 new hours). No way.)
     
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  20. deadrats

    deadrats Contributor Contributor

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    I don't know if writing literary fiction is any harder than writing any other kind of fiction. I've got mad respect for anyone giving this writing thing a go. But you bring up a good point about the extra hours one could put into writing without a day job vs what's realistic even for a full-time writer. Some days I write nothing. And then I get upset with myself since this is what I'm doing. I'm writing. Most days, I'm writing. I think I'm writing more than I would if I had a job on top of writing. But I also know that I'm not writing eight hours a day like a normal work day. It's just that sometimes I feel like I should be writing like that if I don't have a job, but what you say makes a lot of sense. Thanks to all of you for weighing in on this.
     
  21. Zombocalypse

    Zombocalypse Member

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    Personally, I aim for 1,000 words a day.

    It's been working well so far. I feel productive.
     
  22. NigeTheHat

    NigeTheHat Contributor Contributor

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    I'm largely hopeless with both, but of the two a schedule works better. Self-imposed goals just don't do much for me - with no external deadline, my brain refuses to recognise it as something I should care about.
     
  23. Siena

    Siena Senior Member

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    I have page count goals. Even a few pages a day quickly adds up.
     
  24. 8Bit Bob

    8Bit Bob Here ;) Contributor

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    I just thought this would be a fun little thread :p

    So where do you write? Inside, outside? Do you have a specific "writing room"?

    I usually end up writing at my desk, but since I write on a laptop I'll sometimes move to the sofa or my bed.
     
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  25. EdFromNY

    EdFromNY Hope to improve with age Supporter Contributor

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    Usually on my desktop, but occasionally I take my laptop out into our tiered garden, along with a hot cup of coffee.
     

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