Quiet, alone, no distractions. I can't have music playing or the TV on. I like the process of writing the first draft. Production is intermittent. Sometimes I know what I need to say or have mentally played a scene in my head so many times I know it by heart. Other times I struggle to produce a few paragraphs. Some nights I just don't feel it at all and will work on research, or look for cover art, or browse this forum. If I have to force it the quality won't be good. There is no one way or 'right' way to write. Everyone is different.
It's easier for me to write when I keep my hands on the keyboard. No, I'm not being a smartass. I have the tendency to play a scene out in my head before writing it down. Sometimes I'll sit and look at it, dumbfounded, for minutes before turning it into words. Seems like when I keep my fingers on the keys I have less dumbfounded time and more translation time.
Oh, that's fair enough. As I said, writing every day works for some—maybe quite a few writers. But for others, the often-repeated mandate "you must write every day" becomes a slog, and sometimes actually gets in the way of writing. It's the mandate that bothers me, not the fact that some writers work that way. (Not a mandate you're suggesting at all, btw, @ChickenFreak —you've made it very clear it's your method, not everybody's —but some folks can get very righteous about it.) As long as you know you DO write and do produce work, there is no problem taking some time away from it—unless you've got some publisher breathing a deadline at you. Personally, I would struggle to be very creative with that happening. Name me any job that doesn't allow time off. Most working people get weekends (or equivalent days) off, plus a vacation every so often. That doesn't mean they're no good at their jobs or won't learn their craft, or whatever. Of course there are the workaholics and the people who hate vacations and retirement, but that's no relation to the quality of the work they produce. I'm speaking as a person who hated being away from writing when I was working on my first draft (of a huge historically-set novel.) Hated it. I resented going to my paid work, resented social activities, phone calls, sometimes even skipped meals. I had a story to tell, and dammit, I wanted to get it told. I didn't want to write every day, I wanted to write ALL THE TIME. However, I have worked in a much more relaxed manner at my editing, and totally forgiven myself for my slackened pace. I began editing at the same pace I wrote, working every day at the editing, determined to get the mistakes corrected, the thing polished up, etc. Done. I wanted to be DONE. And you know what? I wasn't improving it at all. What I needed was distance from it (and not to work on another story and divide my attention, but to think about this one.) I needed to consider beta readers' points of view, needed some time to let ideas cook in my head until I could reach a solution to the story problems I'd uncovered. When I kept writing and re-writing every day I was simply creating more problems for myself that I had to undo later. That was a very discouraging time for me, and certainly didn't improve my writing. It only got better when I allowed myself to slack off and quit applying the 'daily' pressure. In some people, writing ebbs and flows. That feels natural to me. I have never been a creature of habit. Forcing yourself to write 'every day' when you're really not ready isn't always the best way forward. It certainly isn't for me.
Just curious. Your working environment and method sounds very much like 'me.' Except I've discovered I CAN write if background music is soft, classical, and not intrusive. Have you ever tried classical music? There are times when I need it to smooth over other distracting noises (lawn mowers, people talking, ice cream vans, etc), and I find it works for me. In fact, it can act as a soundtrack to a movie in my head and inspires me to envision scenes. * However, it does have to be instrumental only, and the kind of music that doesn't have catchy tunes, dramatic crescendoes or periods of silence. (No symphonies!) I like chamber music and/or classical guitar for these musical interludes. .............. * that's a great trick if you have to read a dry/boring book as well. Put on some classical music. With a non-distracting soundtrack, the book evolves into a movie, and easier to engage with. I learned that trick while I was in college, having to read history books and other dry volumes. I do love it when I can fool my brain. Probably too easy, some will say....
I think the same goes for anything. To get good, you have to be dedicated, through the ups and the downs.
This is sound advice....for people who've already spent years of daily writing, reading, and editing. For people who have not even finished one first draft novel in their life, this is terrible advice. I guarantee there is a number of people reading this post right now thinking to themselves, "yep, I've been trying to write for years, and haven't been able to finish one thing."
It's not terrible advice. I wrote my first novel in the way Jannert suggests, with no unfinished novels behind me, and I guarantee others are the same. There is no one successful writing process.
It doesn't matter what you did or didn't do. There are countless people on here who have said they've spent years on and off trying to write a novel, and haven't yet gotten to the first draft. So that means one, they've been taking breaks, and two, it hasn't been working. I'm just going with what I've observed.
It does, because you said that advice was only good for people who had spent years writing daily. Clearly, it's not. It's good advice for some, not for others - as Jannert stated.
It is only good advice for people who have spent years writing daily. You're just one person. For every beginning aspiring writer who takes this advice and find it works, there's going to many many more people who find it doesn't. If you're sitting in your chair, and you just started writing, you don't know whether this advice will work* for you or not. Since it's more likely that it won't, it's wiser to ignore the advice. Again, "some yes, some no," is misleading, because you're just one person, and if you browse the forums, countless people have complained that they've spent years on and off writing novels, and haven't gotten close to finishing anything. Therefore, it's terrible advice for people just starting out. *work in this case means getting a novel finished, not necessarily that it will be good
"Some yes, some no" is exactly right. It's not misleading. :S I hadn't spent years writing daily and it worked for me. So clearly it's not only good advice for people who've spent years writing daily.
"Most no, a few yes," is exactly right. Go browse the forums. Look at how many people have been stuck for years. Until you do that, there's nothing left to argue . This is an old problem on the forum. People want to point out the minority examples. To the majority, that's not interesting.
Personally I never get anything productive done unless I actually force myself to sit down and start writing. After a few words I'm normally completely captivated, however it's the sitting down and actually doing it that sort of brings me to a halt. I do get random puffs of inspiration, however they're mostly for short stories or poems rather than working on my current project.
For me, it doesn't really matter. I actually sometimes write during class sessions on my laptop, and sometimes I write on my phone on the bus.
I didn't say it in this post, but I certainly have in others ...and perhaps on this thread as well. You do have to finish what you write. If you do it by writing x number of words every day, fair enough. If you do it by writing only when you are ready, that's also fair enough. Writing every day is not the answer to everybody's writing problems. NOT writing every day is not always the cause of not finishing your work either. If you write a chapter one day and rewrite it the next and then rewrite it the next, ad infinitum, you are stalled. You are diligently writing, but you are stalled. You're no nearer 'finishing' your work than you would be if you wrote a chapter one day, took the next two days off, and then wrote the next chapter. Sometimes it pays to take a break. And maybe you've got research to do, or a problem to work on. You're not procrastinating. You're working. As long as you DO move forward and DO finish ...well, that's good enough. Writers all need to find their own method. It's only a bad method if it doesn't work.
I've been writing for three years and have finished a YA ms and Sci-Fi thriller. During the first year or so I forced myself to write even when I didn't feel like it. That was my habit-forming stage. It was like starting running or working out or any other discipline. You gotta deepen those grooves in your grey matter. Nowadays, writing is a large part of my life and comes more naturally. I don't have the fear that if I take a break one night because I had to work late that maybe I won't come back to my MS for weeks or months. Nowadays writing is a big enough part of my identity that I feel somewhat lost without spending some time with my stories. I also feel that personality plays a large part in whether or not someone finishes something. I loathe incomplete things. They grind my nerves like fingernails on the proverbial chalk board. The thought of leaving something undone is anathema to my core being, so I finish things. I have friends who can, quite happily, lark from one thing to the next, leaving a string of incomplete projects with no ill effects whatsoever. Such a lifestyle would leave me huddled under an overpass muttering obscenities at a discarded candy wrapper. My point? Finishing may be more a function of someone's internal wiring than any particular program or writing strategy.
