Writing Habits

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

  1. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Nowadays I usually write between about noon and five pm - that's when I try to find time. (I work at home and pick my own hours, so I have a lot of flexibility when it comes to scheduling writing time.)

    But I was most productive as a writer about twenty years ago when I used to get up at about 4:30 am and write for about three hours before I got to work. Early morning is a great time to write - it's quiet, nobody else has invaded your day yet with annoying crap, and you can feel for a little while like the world is still new and perfect. All that is shattered the first time the phone rings or someone on the TV news talks about murder or war or my roommate complains about his back pain ...
     
  2. nastyjman

    nastyjman Senior Member

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    Everyday, any time -- so long as you have a daily word-count goal. Mine is 600 minimum. Maximum? There is none.
     
  3. SeverinR

    SeverinR New Member

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    I try to write at least three days a week, almost never on weekends.

    I don't really set a time limit, usually I stick to it enough not to need a minimum. Maximum is set by something interrupting me.
     
  4. Lord Malum

    Lord Malum New Member

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    It's all about personal preference. Personally, I write everyday except Tuesdays and most Wednesdays as those are my fiance's days off. I usually write for an hour at a time unless I've got a real good fire burning which can get me going for several hours nonstop. You've just got to find your own schedule.
     
  5. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    whatever works for each individual... there's no 'good' or 'bad' or 'best/worst'... what works well for one won't necessarily work for others...
     
  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    deleted double post
     
  7. superman

    superman New Member

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    Just out of interest, how long do u spend writing per week/how many words. I know it can vary.

    The first week i started mine i wrote 11,500 words.
     
  8. Tesoro

    Tesoro Contributor Contributor

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    I don't count word/week or even -/day. I just spend as much time as I can with my novel because I just love writing it. I don't set word-goals, but I do write every day with few exceptions. There can be days when I write 3000 words or more, other days I just write a few hundred, it depends on many things such as where I am in the story, how tired /inspired I am, how much free time I have after work and so on.
     
  9. DeviouSquirrel

    DeviouSquirrel Member

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    I try to hit about 2500 words a day. Some days I do, some days I can write more, up to like 10,000 words. Of course, sometimes I don't manage. But that's my goal, at least.
     
  10. MJLowson

    MJLowson New Member

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    I try and get 3000 done a week at the very least, usually I handwrite the chapter, and then transfer it to the computer screen. Depends on how many projects I've got on the go
     
  11. Raging_Ty

    Raging_Ty New Member

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    I just write when I can and for as long as I can stand or until something comes up that causes me to start but I try to write everyday and when I sit and write for long periods of time I keep writing until I can tell that the quality of my work is starting to drop.
     
  12. Yoshiko

    Yoshiko Contributor Contributor

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    For my current novel it has worked like so:

    • By the end of week one I had 50,000 words.
    • By the end of week four I had 75,000 words.
    • At the end of two months I had 125,000 words.
    • The next 57,000 words took me another six and a half months to write.

    It depends on my schedule and what projects I'm working on: some I place more priority on and some are more emotionally draining than others. For example, five months into this novel I put it on hold to work on a story for a charity anthology, with the profits going to help victims of the Tohoku earthquake. Exams at college started shortly after so it stayed on hold until they finished.
     
  13. Totzlol

    Totzlol New Member

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    Today I have done ~2,500. Yesterday I got done ~3,200, and I intend on continuing the pattern until my book is done.

    Of course, not forcing anything. Forcing something is always a bad thing as it will take away from the natural creativity. In my opinion, at least.
     
  14. spklvr

    spklvr Contributor Contributor

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    Sadly didn't get a single word written today. Very unusual. Worked late and then my friends dragged me out for ice cream and Harry Potter. Then I went to bed... where I am.

    Normally I write about an hour or two each day, and the result is usually between 2-5000 words. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but I'd say that's a very rough average.
     
  15. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    I wrote 30k words from Friday afternoon to Sunday evening when I started the story, then write a bit now and then as I have the time and inspiration. Aka whenever I bother. :p
     
  16. Blue_Lotus

    Blue_Lotus New Member

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    I try my best to bang out a 20+ page chapter a week, that gives my technical editor time to fix grammar and the like, which usualy takes 2 weeks as I am not her only client.
    Once she gets it back to me I can go through it again and try to cut out the trash lines, and add more details where needed, then it goes back to the first editor who starts all over again. It usualy takes me a good month and a half to get a finalized product, and sadly anything I send to the content editor usualy ends up getting re done again, just small tweeks that pull the whole section in tighter.

    I work 6 hrs a night on my book, 6 days a week. Sometimes in that 6 hrs I only write a few K words, other times it is in the tens of K.
    Just depends, last night I relized there were a few holes in my research and had to stop go back and try to find the information I was missing, other times it is all in my head laid out and waiting to be unleashed.
     
  17. guamyankee

    guamyankee Active Member

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    Wow, there are some very fast writers around here! I'm happy with 1,000 words a day. Some days they just drag out, other days I can keep going, but I tend to stop at 1,000 anyway. I have to keep some "fun" in it, and if I push too hard, well, there goes the fun, and probably the quality of writing too.
     
  18. Sundae

    Sundae New Member

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    Lols, for me, I've noticed my writing works like a learning curve.

    When I first start a new project, I write the bulk of it in the first couple days. About 45,000 to 50,000 in like the first four days. It's odd, but it's happened like this each time. Maybe because I'm so excited and inspired the the "newness" of the project. But once I reach my height, I start dropping drastically and hit my plateau which is about 750 - 2500 words per day of which I can keep momentum going in a steady stream.
     
  19. superman

    superman New Member

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    hahaha

    Some great responses, and i havent written anything in 4 days :O i will definitely get some done tomorrow.

    Sometimes i feel its great to just write as much as you can, then go back and delete most of the crap to reveal the beauty that lies beneath lol.
     
  20. Blue_Lotus

    Blue_Lotus New Member

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    :D too true!
     
  21. Nilfiry

    Nilfiry Senior Member

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    If I plot my writing habits on a scattergraph, there would be no patterns. I write whenever and for as long as I feel like writing, which can range from zero to thousands of words per day.
     
  22. CharlieUK

    CharlieUK New Member

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    You guys are animals! :p I only manage between 500-4000 a week.
     
  23. roseberryse

    roseberryse New Member

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    I find it's easiest to not plan by the day, but to set a date that I want to hit a certain word count by. For example, instead of saying I want to write 3,000 words today, I just tell myself that I want to hit the 75,000 word mark by the end of the month. That way I don't feel guilty if I don't reach my daily goal due to other circumstances...which I've found can be quite discouraging.
     
  24. ena18

    ena18 New Member

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    Depends, when I first start writing a story/screenplay, I churn out words quickly. I slow down substantially as I go through and start editing what I've already written. If i was to give an average, it would be anywhere between 1000 - 2000 words a week.
     
  25. TedR

    TedR New Member

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    I usually write longhand. I don't really measure in words, but in notebook pages. Some days I get one or two pages, and my record for one day is fifteen pages. That equals about ten or eleven typed pages for me.
     

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