Vampire stories? No, I don't write any non-fiction, so I don't write about my life. Seriously though, I just can't write during the day. So, I've inverted my schedule: sleep through the day, work/write at night.
Well, if I want to do writing, or anything that excites the mind, I do it well before bed, otherwise, I'm up all night. Early in the morning to about three in the afternoon seem to be ideal for me.
I used to suffer from insomnia and got really sick of it. Especially having kids, as they wake up so early. I can't go off four hours of sleep anymore like I did in my 20s. So I did what needed to be done and that included not doing any writing at night. Or reading in bed, took the TV out of our room and cut my coffee consumption to one mug a day (first thing in the morning). It's worth doing all of that to get a good night's sleep. To both fall asleep and stay asleep.
Yeah I find it hard to sleep afterwards, takes me about an hour of lying in bed before my mind shuts down. Reading the Bible is calming and interesting and helps unwind, or hugging and chatting with my hubby is also good Or drawing. But yeah, straight from writing to bed is often bad. Last night was fine though but probably because I only slept after the scene was finished.
No, in fact if my writing session has been a productive one, I find that sleep comes quite easily - the cool of the evening.
If I'm having a good writing run, then yes it's very hard for me to get to sleep. I keep a note pad by my bed and usually sit up to jot down snippets or sentences that just come to me. Sometimes I don't even bother turning on the lamp and have these weird slanted messages the next day to sort through. Like Mckk I read the Bible or even just a short story or poetry to take my mind off my own work and relax. Sometimes the work is so exciting, that I just ride it out and stay up late. I never really regret it in the morning because the high of having written something productive makes up for the lack of sleep.
I can never say for sure if I'll need to wind down after writing late. For me, sleep is a fickle beast.
Writing helps me wind down. The evening is the only time l get to write so l write after my kid is in bed or, if l work that evening, l write for a bit after getting home.
Maybe your problem is not just about your mind not calming down. Perhaps you drink too much coffee or something like that? Maybe you should get up earlier in the morning so that you feel sleepy at night? I have insomnia when I don't work, but when I have a full time job I can't keep my eyes open by night fall. Maybe your biorythm needs adjusting a bit?
Whats the shortest amount of time on deadline or not that you've pump out a full novel. List your time and the size of the book.
Short time does not necessarily equate to hardest work. It can also signify sloppy work, as research, composition, editing and polishing are all painstaking activities. My current project has been under development for several years, since I had a lot of background information to acquire, then specific research to do, and finally the writing. Since it is a historical, even now, the writing gets interrupted for fact checking and re-checking.
Yeah, time spent has nothing to do with work involved. Definitely has nothing to do with quality. Some writers will spend a few weeks writing and come out with a tremendous book; others will take years and have drivel. And vice versa.
The OP's question is flawed. Anybody can churn out 80,000 words of crap as fast as they can type, but that doesn't mean they're a hard worker. It took James Joyce seven years to write Ulysses, and seventeen to write Finnegans Wake. He wasn't slacking off; he was writing classics.
How can you measure the amount of work that goes into a novel? Serious writers know their novels better than they know themselves. You cannot break it down into mere numbers. You have no scale, no time frame, just a vague ambiguity, having said this, how can you even attempt to grasp the amount of work other writers have done? I am a writer, not a yardstick. Excuse me if I find this an asinine question...I know what work is, by its very definition, and for me, that is not my writing.
No one has given a honest answer. I did not include a concrete scale to measure it by because obviously that would be futile its just an open discussion. Theres no need to become self conscience with the question. When you finish a project I should hope you put 100% into it else why would you bother writing in the first place. Remember its not a contest just a open conversation so give an honest relaxed answer (if you want). For instance Ed said his historical piece is always constant research which takes longer of course because of the nature of the project. Thats what i am interested in the diverseness in answers , His progress from start to finished because of the genre he picked and other things. I'm sorry I should not have made my post so robotic. This is going to be a boring thread if everyone just says time spent does not equate hard work or quality. For me unfortunately I have not completed a piece of work yet that I've been satisfied enough with to say "its finished". I can estimate how long it would take me though. Loooooong
I've written a novel draft in about two weeks. However, it's not publication ready by any stretch. So is it finished? It all depends on how much you wanna factor into the time. You can inflate or deflate your time by what you factor (or rather don't factor) into it.
When it comes to my writing i pour a lot of blood sweat and tears into each project that i write and i give it 100%
When I work more than one hour on that, I always have a suspicion I was crazy and putted in something stupid. Its like the stuff want to suck you in and then you start to feel you can do whatever you want. But I don't think so
time spent on any project has nothing whatsoever to do with being a 'hard worker'... your question assumes one relates to the other, when that is simply not the case... one can work hard for a month-10 years on a novel, or lazily dribble one out in a month-ten years...
I see nothing dishonest in any of the answers above. They all strike me as quite genuine. But then, my guess is that by "honest answer" you really mean "the answer I'm seeking". And I suspect that has to do with the manner in which you asked the question. I'm curious as to why you asked in the first place. What are you looking for? Remembering that writing is not appropriate to time-and-motion studies, it's not clear to me what insights you hope to gain. Even by genre, there are no hard-and-fast time expectations.
Every answer posted is honest. Respect the writers on these boards, don't imply that we lied simply because we didn't hand you a cut and dried answer. What was pointed out was the inherent flaw in the question, itself. Reword the question and you might get a different response.
That's a question with no good answer. I am bad at writing. It could take me a long time to write up a short story that was no better than average. That doesen't mean I didn't put any effort into it. Same goes for anything. I could see a heavy job going slowly and wonder why. Then see a big lazy man sleeping on the job or a pipsqueek doing his best and arrive at two very different answers.
Well, I have no idea what you're looking for then. You asked a question combining hard work and time spent and you got appropriate responses. If you're looking for some kind of 'standard' to determine whether or not you're taking too much time or not enough, you won't get one. I put the same amount of effort into each project I work on; some take a week or less, some take months and months.
