Do you force yourself to write a certain amount everyday or do you write only when you feel the inclination or the inspiration? Also if you force (for lack of a better word) yourself to write and you don't have a story or an idea in mind do you find prompts to help sharpen your pencil so to speak?
I don't believe in inspirational writing. Seriously, though, if you're writing just for your own enjoyment, waiting for inspiration if fine. If you want to get published, have a readership, even make money, then you set up a discipline to your writing. You accept that working toward those goals means doing things even when you don't feel like it.
I just write on my project. If it's near a chapter ending, then I'll finish it-if possible-that day. If it's a larger battle section running multiple chapters, then it's hard to walk away but I do. As for words..I tend to do 1-3k a day when on rough drafts. But i tend to be a quick writer and then fix all the mistakes on editing. I try to get two drafts a year, maybe three, done and then start editing. But that's just me.
I don't approve of waiting for inspiration. I think that writing on a regular schedule, inspired or not, is the best plan. But I don't do it. I recommend that you do as I say, not as I do.
I tend to write only when I’m inspired. Certainly I produce better work like that (in my opinion). But, having said that, there are times when I force myself to work, and I usually come up with some reasonable material to salvage later on. Of course, procrastination is easy too
Everything benefits from regular practice - writing is no exception. And you're likely to find that the more regular practice you do, the more often inspiration will strike. I try to do some writing every day - either work on a project if I've got one, or a 100-word story if I haven't. Pens don't stay sharp without regular honing.
I don't always have time to write, but I usually write every day. From ignoring my professor and free writing in History 101 to coming up with ridiculous scenes in my screenplay to writing a witty blog post. Sometimes I find it's best to put something down for a little while if you get stuck, then when you come back it's like you can't figure out why you ever had a problem in the first place.
Writing is still a hobby for me, so I write when I have time, not necessarily just when something is building in my head. If I don't know what to write I will just start a new page and write out lists or random words to spark an idea of a sentence, which builds from there. If writing was my work, I would force myself to write. I remember one course I was in highschool, the teacher had us write for a portion of every class. Even if we didn't have anything to write we had to have a pencil moving. We could just be writing "hi my name is" over and over, but we had to write something. More often than not, when I didn't have anything to write and just started to write nonsense an idea would pop into my head and I wouldn't have time to finish it. That exercise taught me that you can write when you don't have inspiration, just the act of writing can spark that idea or inspiration you would otherwise be waiting for.
I don't know about writing stories, but I do try to write at least a couple times a week. I keep a sort of pseudo-journal, just so whatever grammar skills I have stay strong, and to use new words that I may have learned to help me remember them.
I have a constant nagging voice in my head that says: "Write, write, write, write. You must write. Write now. Write." Sometimes taking a break is a good idea - for me though the break can never be long because I'm the sort who will never come back to it, I cannot do multiple projects because I am always focused and excited about the one I'm working on - multiple projects would be the death of me because nothing will ever get finished then! I think sometimes walking away and doing something entirely different can be helpful - but during this time you must never forget about that novel. For me, I was doing some beading for about 2 weeks before I got back to my novel. 1 month's break was the longest I ever took from writing for the past 2 years (I got REALLY discouraged) - otherwise I try to write everyday. It's not a "habit" per se - it's just that nagging voice: "Write dammit WRITE!" Even if I'm just writing and deleting and writing and deleting, I write - eventually something unclogs and a good idea comes, or you realise that what you're writing simply doesn't fit and you finally delete the whole idea from your head and find a different path. For me, the latter works wonders.
i tend to write most days. i write on different projects depending on what mood i feel or what's going through my head when i wake up. having different projects tends to keep the writers block at bay.
It's weird, a lot of the time the thought of writing doesn't make me feel "inspired". But then I open up whatever I'm working on, read back a bit, then write a couple of lines. At that point I often find I'm hooked once again and keep going for an hour. So basically what I'm saying is don't wait for inspiration to strike, as in, like "I know exactly what I would write if I sat down right now!". I found I really started making progress when I started forcing myself to write at least a little bit every day. Even if it's just 50 words or so. A lot of the time that little bit will "inspire" me and I end up doing a lot more.
