What I try to do is spend at least one hour to two hours daily on my projects - be it writing the outline, fashioning the dialogue, editing the word choice, or shaping up the pencils and nailing them with inks. That way, there's always progress, even when I run into a dead end or a difficult problem in one area of the project.
I'm guessing that the people on this forum have very different lives so I thought it would be interesting to see when people actually sit down to write and/or plan. Do you have a specific time each day for writing? Do you have a word goal each day that you want to reach? Do you have a certain time period that you want to be writing for and you just fit that into your day? I personally write when I have a solid idea of what I am going to write. It could be weeks between writing sessions or I could write several hours per day. When do you write?
I'm at my most productive early in the morning. That's my favorite time to write - about five or six am until the phone starts ringing. Right now I'm revising a sci-fi novelette that's very nearly finished. My schedule for that is whenever I can squeeze in some time to work. For the past few days it's been late at night - I hate working at night! I don't usually set a word goal for each session. I just work until either I'm satisfied with my progress or the real world interferes too much.
I write every weekend as my "second job". First thing in the morning, I roll out of bed, open the windows, make sure the coffee maker didn't let me down, take a shower, make breakfast and eat it and drink the nectar-of-the-writer (coffee) while at the computer. To make a long story short (too late), I write in the mornings. During the week, I'll write a bit if I left off at a particularly exciting point and the story is engaging me to the point of distraction. Typically I'll get one or two days of writings-worth done during the week. On weekends, the goal is 5,000 words a day. Once that goal is met, if I am really into it (which I freaking AM NOW!) I'll keep right on going if I feel up to it. Yesterday morning I had my 5,000 words by 8AM so I kept at it. By 5PM I was spent but still grinding it out. The last two weekends, I've done over 20K words over two days and felt great about the product. To get ten or twenty percent of a book done, in two days makes me very happy! To get a 120,000 word book fleshed out in ten days is a RUSH! Then comes the less exciting editing part, where you will often add even more body to flesh out the things you only sketched out in the rough draft. So your book gets fatter every morning I do the planning in my head, at night, a lot. Also on long drives. I set up a lattice-work of the rough story, by fantasizing about it. After I get to a computer, I just let each chunk of story line flow into the next one so I don't have to actually remember it or write it down. If it works, it stays in your head and won't fall out until you shake it out of there onto the computer.
i tend to write (when an idea comes to me, there is no point rushing them) later at night and on days off of work (every sunday and 1 day between mon and sat) the late nights i dont write much, but when i get a big block of time, say, if im on an early with my work, or have a day off, ill flesh a story out, ill get an idea, write it down on either my phone, comp or ipod, (normally phone or comp as i use google drive to share it between the two) and when i flesh out, i put pen to paper and write, its a slower process, but the idea gets formed. in saying that, ive taken to typing on my laptop more, im beginning to find it more comfortable than a notepad and pen.
Interesting question I write anywhere at anytime. However, I do write every day; whether lines of poetry, a short story, a blog post, an article or whatever. Sometimes I include research re. different aspects of SP&G. I don't set myself a goal unless I'm working to a deadline. LB
And keep a notepad with you, when you are not writing. Sometimes you will hear one line or think of something that would be great. Jot that thing down! You'll even add entire scenes just to incorporate a single joke.
I haven't noticed any particular time of the day to be more productive than others. I do have this rule about attempting to write everyday, which I have now kept for about a month and I highly recommend this. Once or twice there were days I simply didn't have the chance to write and that's something I forgave myself. I don't work with a word limit, on some days that would just lead to writing complete crap to meet the limit.
whenever something needs to be written down... could be in the middle of the night, so i keep a notepad and pen on the bed... could be while out shopping, so i keep a pad and pen in my tote bag... plus by the chair where i watch tv and do jigsaw puzzles... and on the kitchen counter... i can write 18-20 hours a day every day, if working on a major project... and have done so several times...
I work from home so I write every day. Usually start between 8:30 and 9 am and keep going until I have to cook lunch then depending on what I have on in the afternoon, I may or may not work then too. But generally, I stop writing before 6pm. Daily limit is 300 good words, although I sometimes end up with over 2000, edited and polished and making sense. I don't like to 'just write' only, I like to edit as I go so my words per hour aren't very high but the draft is of a reasonably good standard. I also have an iPad with me most of the time, and a file in it which is for writing-related ideas.
I have dreams where I recite the poem, discussing with my teeth to which cookery show I'll send the script. I tend to chuckle a lttle bit about how good the poem is, dwelling over couplets, and such - savouring my talent - call it genius. Second stage of the dream I tell myself there's surely no need to fetch the notebook, because I'l remember it all, any moment. Then I wake up. Athough, once wrote a terrible poem at midnight - fully awake - posted in froth, to some idiot website and still is the number one hit for my full name. So, write in the mornings.
I try to write at night, anywhere between 7 - 10 pm, usually for an hour or so if I can. Sometimes I write during the day if I feel like I can be productive. I usually keep a notebook with me for brainstorming ideas when I'm out and catching public transport.
I write between the hours of 8:30 and 4, five days a week. I take two short breaks and one long break that's supposed to be for lunch (but I usually end up napping). In this time I write 3000 to 5000 words. This is NOT negotiable. Writing books is my job, regardless of whether I'm in the mood or feeling creative. I wasn't in the mood yesterday. Too bad for me. I still got 4700 words written. I write just as well, regardless of my mood. Of course, this isn't a schedule that works for anyone who needs a day job. Writing is my job. When I first decided to make writing my job (back before I had 2 kids to support all on my own), I sat down for 6 hours when I got home from work. I wrote then, usually about 3000 words. Because I wanted to see my name (or my pseudonym) splashed across the cover of a book, this was also not negotiable. Didn't matter if I had a bad day at work. I still did it. This doesn't work for anyone who isn't willing to sacrifice everything to get that book finished and well polished. I guess it comes down to what you want and why you're writing.
On weekends, I sit down at the computer and start. I don't stop until I either get to 5,000 words or, having gone farther, am too exhausted to continue. I'm addicted to the writing process. Once I start it is more of a problem to STOP! I'll write from 7AM until 11PM and then collapse in a twitching pile, in bed and sleep like the dead until morning when I start all over. The weirdest thing is that I can't WAIT to write more, no matter how much I beat the crap out of myself the day before.
Hi everyone, my first post here! I use Scrivener which has a 'Project Target' feature. I've given myself a deadline (my birthday at the end of May next year) a number of words (80,000) and the days in the week I can realistically write (four). Scrivener then calculates how many words I need to write on each writing day and recalculates at the end of each writing session depending on how many words written. I currently need to write just 377 words on each of my writing days, which doesn't sound much but I hate going back and rewriting, so I try and make sure those 377 words really sing by the time I stand up at the end of a session. As a result I probably write fairly slowly compared to some. Using this feature really works for me, because if I miss a week or even a few days of writing, by the time I get back my word requirement to hit my target has gone up by a significant amount and I dread seeing that!! I tell you, I'd do anything to avoid having to write 400 words a day!! As much as anything because I have a very demanding job and I don't honestly know how I could fit in more time writing... It works too because it gives me a clear idea of what I need to do to get my book written and has it down into manageable chunks. Until I discovered this feature I found myself getting stressed about how big the task seemed. Now I know that, as long as I get those 377 words down each time, I'll get there
jetblack that's so cool. I have the same sensation of feeling of not being able to stop, from momentum. Geat post.
Bloody awesome comment, if I ever saw one. I'm exactly the opposite. In my spare time, I'm like, "Write something, you idiot," and then I'd mope around telling myself, "I'll do it when I feel like it," which never comes.
I don't keep a schedule I write because the need to do so is so fierce to not do it would cause physical pain - I think. At the moment my time is pretty open - being on extended sick leave does that - when I return to my fity-seventy hour a weekl job the need to write will still be there and I will still answer it. It's the only to see my pseudonym's name in print after all ;-)
No, no, and we don't. KaTrian and I are opportunists in this respect: whenever we can write, we write. If we happen to be out and about where we can't access a computer, or we're on a lecture, we plan our stories. I guess we'd write all the time if life didn't keep getting in the way.
How do you schedule your writing and discipline yourself to work? You can do that????? I'm more like mammamaia. When the mood strikes, I strike back! (Thankfully, I have a job that will allow me to do that at work from time to time!) Also, I do like to get up early on a Saturday morning, take my laptop and cup of coffee or tea and sit out on my front porch and write - at least when I'm not tearing down walls in my basement and re-building them!
What are your writing routines? I just started up writing and find it hard to dicipline myself... Sometimes I write heaps, but then it takes another 3 days before I write another word... Sometimes I simply don't have time to write which is fare enough, but sometimes I just derp on FB or internet... So what are your writing routines? How do you dicipline yourself? Have many words do you actually write when you're first starting up? Thanks!
