Being a full-time student, part-time worker, and full time mother/wife; I usually just write whenever I actually can. Most of the time its in the morning/night. I'm a morning person so I wake up a few hours before everyone else in the house and I'll write in those few hours (which is when my best work is done); and I'll write in the few hours I have after my kids go to bed while sitting on the couch with my wife (usually when I do more editing, research, etc because I'm tired, the TV's on...). I also have lunch breaks on campus and I'll usually pack a snack and write during lunch instead because it's a really great environment to hammer out a few thousand words. I typically do whatever I feel like doing, which as mentioned previously is mostly based on my energy levels. If I'm awake and full of energy I do really good writing, if I'm tired or wearing down, I tend towards research and revision.
I usually write in the mornings or early afternoons. Otherwise, I just sleep until the urge to write hits. I don't revise my work until it's completely finished. I can't, or I'll be distracted by editing instead of writing.
As I am employed full-time and have two small children, my writing 'habit' is to write whenever I can. These past few months, I have gotten obsessed with the book I'm writing. It means I am spending almost every lunch break and every moment the kids are in bed to write / work on my plot / reread passages to get myself fully immersed in the story to continue my writing. I've started thinking about the story and where it will go while I'm driving or sitting at the table waiting for my kids to finish their meals. Have I mentioned that I'm utterly obsessed? Regarding editing, I tend to reread the last chapter before getting into a new one. As I read, I do some light editing. I once made the mistake of asking for feedback on the first 10 chapters to one of my readers. She had amazing feedback - incorporating it would make the story so much better. Problem was I couldn't continue writing, I lost every bit of inspiration to continue until I had incorporated these changes I envisioned. It took me a month of rewriting, but the story has only gotten better. Lesson learned: if I want to get to a first draft any time soon, I will focus on getting to the end before trying to revise / do major editing. It seems to use different parts of my brain. Note: thank heavens for my husband who understands that I live and breathe this story for the moment.
I try to write (or edit) for a couple of hours every morning. I am an earlier riser than my wife, so that's when it's most quiet. I'll often find time at other times of the day, but morning works best for me.
I read on another forum about writing groups which sponsor DEW sessions (Drop Everything and Write) for members who have trouble 'finding time' to write. I thought that might be a more useful group function than group critique, at least some of the time.
Mornings: I do 15 minutes of copywork. Currently working on King's IT, Sanderson's Way of Kings, and Clavell's Shogun. After work (M, T, W, Sat): an hour or an hour and a half of writing on my manuscript. More details on my main writing routine: I do four minutes of freewriting. I basically I just type out whatever comes to mind, and I never hit backspace or correct any typos. After the freewriting session is done, I do 26 minute chunks of writing. In between these chunks, I give myself a 4 minute break. Once I'm done with my writing chunks, I summarize what I wrote on a spreadsheet so I can keep track of the story's skeleton.
I write in the evenings during the week, and any odd hour during weekends. When I'm on vacation, like now, I love to sit up at night and write. I must have coffee, though when the sessions run long I like to wind down with a frosty beer. There is always music playing, when I write. I prefer to work from my lounge chair, on a wireless keyboard, with my television for a monitor. I have tried to set page or word count quotas, but that doesn't really do it for me. I write most days, but not every last one.
I write every day, and seem to be most productive in mornings and afternoons. I'll revise a newly written scene a bit if I feel like it, but I try not to spend too much time on the small stuff it until I'm pretty sure that the scene will stay in the book. My writing process is very simple, with a minimum of side-notes, to keep the momentum I need to write a cohesive novel.
I wake up before anyone else so that there are no demands on me that I might have to sacrifice to satisfy my habit. Then I do my best to write two pages per day if it is a first draft and four per day if it is a re-write. Before I know it I have a full story and then it is shipped off to my editor so she that she can help me keep it between the ditches. Happy writing! Mark Lemohr
I am most productive at my desktop. I have tried laptops in different settings, but I find something shiny always goes by and distracts me. Happy writing! Mark Lemohr
So, it's time for a change. I've been writing kind of whenever I feel like it which is a lot and usually every day, but I feel like more of a schedule might help me out a little with both writing and life. I think I'm going to try mornings. Writing seems like a good way to start the day. I'm going to give myself four to six hours each day. This isn't going to happen unless I make it happen, and there are a lot of things I would like to make happen. I've never been so great at keeping a schedule of any kind, but I also want this more than I've wanted other things. Do you or did you have a writing schedule? Did it help you out and how? Looking for any tips that might help me maintain this practice. Thanks.
I slip in and out of a schedule. My life gets really off track if I don't stay disciplined and regimented. My best routine is a morning routine: coffee and read / watch the news for an hour, then write my 1500-2000 words. I have some dumbbells, a kettle bell, and some yoga equipment next to the computer I write on. I'll write for 25 minutes, then exercise for five, back and forth, until done. When I'm drafting a novel, I need that kind of setup.
I have to do it first thing before my mind is cluttered by everything else. Editing I can do any time of day, but writing's not the same.
I tried for a long time to do a certain number of words a day, or a schedule, and all variants failed. Now the "one polished scene every two days" rule is working for me. Of course, eventually all the scenes that this novel plausibly needs will be written and I'll need to keep myself editing and rewriting. I'm not quite sure what I'll do then, but the "lessons learned" are: - Counting words is counterproductive for me (this is all "for me"--you can't get much more individual than tricks for motivation) because words are just not a logical unit of work for me. If I "have to" write a certain number of words, that can discourage editing and make me hesitate too much about false starts and restarts. That would be great if my problem were over-editing and never producing anything, but that's not my problem at the moment. (Producing more would be nice, but not my current priority.) - I don't get satisfaction from progress, I get satisfaction from finishing. Polishing each scene gets me a shot of that "finishing" feeling even if I know perfectly well that that scene may get rewritten, torn apart, or totally cut later. - While I can "just sit down and write" there are times when I'm better at it than others. In two days, there's a decent chance that one of the moments that I sit down to write will be one of those times. But demanding that I finish a scene in that two days keeps me from waiting forever for inspiration. - If I don't create something new extremely frequently, there's a big sticky barrier to creating something new the next time I try.
I've found that a daily word quota works for me, but only once I've built up momentum. I have to consciously decide, "Okay, I'm going to start writing my new thing now, so I need to write every day." Once I'm writing daily, any amount, I can start trying to hit targets of 500 words/day, then 800 words/day, then 1000. That's worked pretty well for me in the past. I can probably miss a day here and there, but if I go too long without writing it becomes that much harder to start again. Momentum is key for me. As far as "forcing myself" to write, I don't typically have a problem with that, again, due to momentum. When I'm writing daily it's easy for me to keep writing daily. When I take a day or two off, then I have to start consciously deciding to sit down and write again, and the likelihood of that working decreases the more time I spend not-writing. I don't think I have to be "feeling it" to write. I think I just have to not be lazy. Even when I'm not writing I'm usually thinking about my project (whether the current one or my next one), so I have something to work with when I finally sit down to actually do the thing. It's the getting myself to sit down and do the thing part that is more easy or difficult depending on my momentum.
I tend to work nights so I've always been a morning, early afternoon writer. My routine when things are going well is to wake up, coffee, do my back exercises (yoga, pilates, core combo) for 15 minutes while I listen to a writing podcast, and then sit down. I'd like to do 1500-2000 words a day but that isn't always realistic, so I don't sweat the word count too much. What's important to me is that I get something productive done. That might be a long string of words or 500-800 "good" words that get a difficult scene started or fix a problem that had been hampering me previously. I try to get something done everyday but if life interferes I don't let it bother me like it might have 10 years ago. What I've discovered (the hard way) is that life is more important than writing so it's foolhardy to compromise the former for the latter. I have a wife, interests and hobbies, and a full time job that occasionally occupies my brain outside of work, so if I need to attend to one of those I can put the writing on hold. I've found that taking care of all the other shit makes the writing time better.
Nope -- No schedule really. But I tend to write during my free time and I'm usually more productive at night. I find that so long as I'm writing daily that's a win.
You know it. Perfect amount of time for my workout. It also dovetails nicely with the time it takes to hardboil a couple of eggs. ETA: the funny part is, I'm only on about Season 3, so they're still taking about ebooks as if they're unsure whether they'll catch on. Makes me smile.
Found this; didn't know where to post it so thought the Article section was the best place. I thought it was interesting. http://blog.bookbaby.com/2016/07/eccentric-writing-habits-of-famous-writers/
Kind of interesting. I wonder if some of these rituals spring from the fact they wrote in pencil on paper. Perhaps we're spoiled with our computers; software that checks our spelling, experimenting and reworking long paragraphs with an 'Undo' at our back. I think we have it much easier these days.
I used to write using my parent's old typewriter when I was a kid. To me, it was a magical device, even though it hurt my tender fingers and mistakes would cost me an entire page. Nevertheless, I loved it. Even with all the benefits of word-processors and professional office software, I still think we've lost something with the passing of those analog days.
A couple mentioning apples, and a few specifying some kind of movement. Interesting. I write when I walk sometimes too. Should try writing whilst eating an apple.
Agreed. I still write with a pen and paper. I find a blank white screen with a flashing cursor intimidating and challenging. I do type up what I write at a later date...sometimes. I'm sure I wasn't meant to live now. I find it mad, scary, and very depressing. Maybe I should start a thread of things we hate about the modern world...!
